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C
ould the Psystar story nally be drawing to a close? If youve
missed it somehow Psystar, a US-based PC builder, found
a way to convince Mac OS X that its PCs were actually Macs.
It was a clever bit of ddling with the bootloader that upset Apple
and saw it haul the company to court.
Its defence was equally clever, with Psystar claiming that it
had every right to buy a product and sell it on, even if it had been
tweaked. Its logical: if you bought a car, sprayed it pink and then
re-sold it, youd be well within your rights, but thats because you dont
sign up to an End User License Agreement. The Agreement often
truncated to EULA restricts what you can and cant do with the
software, and in Mac OS Xs case one of those restrictions is running
it on non-Mac hardware.
Now depending on your point of view, this could be a good thing
or a serious restriction to fair and free use. On the pro side, it means
Apples hardware, which isnt exactly cheap, remains desirable and
thus protable as its the only platform on which you can legally run the
worlds best operating system. The case for the cons is that it helps
Apple retain those unrealistic prices by blocking competitors
like Dell and HP from building cheap Mac clones which, if
youre cash-strapped and dont care what your computer
looks like, is a bad thing indeed.
For my money though, Im glad that the courts
upheld the EULA and Psystar looks set for a resounding
defeat. Not because I dont want a cheap Mac (I do) and
not because I have anything against Psystar at all, which
Im actually glad had a go at bucking the trend if for
no other reason than to test the law.
No, the proceedings outcome was
important because it protected not just
Apple, but all hardware and software
producers from a very unwelcome
precedent. Had it gone the other way,
there would be fair argument that another
company should be allowed to strip out,
tweak and re-sell the software in Sky+ boxes,
making it available to anyone who refused to
pay Skys prices. Want another example? How
about mobile phones? A sector with such
intense hardware homogeneity that the
operating system is often the only clear
differentiator. Would you want to see iPhone
OS on a Motorola, Nokia or Sony Ericsson?
If the courts had ruled in Psystars
favour, countless companies could have
seen their prots diminished and, in the
process, we would have seen competition
falter and innovation stall.
Psystar may have lost this battle,
but we should applaud its plucky
approach for conrming, once and
for all, the validity of the EULA.
Nik Rawlinson is the editor. This
issue hes been pondering the annual
dilemma of what to buy his chickens
this Christmas. Turkey outts?
End of the line
for Psystar?
Mac cloners defeat is good news not
just for Apple, but for consumers, too.
004
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MACUSER, 4DECEMBER2009VOLUME25NUMBER25
contents
004
PAGE 48
REVIEW
OF THE DECADE
We step back in time to revisit the
key moments that shaped Apple
and the world over the past 10 years
P25
P38
P42
P64
P48
P24
P82
ag om
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EDITIO
N

PAGE 64
NNNNeeeewwwwssss 000000007777
Apple climbs to fth place in PC
sales chart + US judge rules Psystar
breached Apple copyright + Gates
praises Jobs for doing fantastic job.
www.macuser.co.uk/news
RRRReeeevvvviiiieeeewwwwssss 000022224444
The latest products reviewed and rated
by our team of experts, including: Mac
mini with Snow Leopard Server We
take a look at how Apples mini server
measures up + Samsung Flashcam
C10 Striking-looking and easy-to-use
camcorder + Canon PowerShot G11
Canons high-end compact that delivers
great picture quality.
www.macuser.co.uk/reviews
FFFFeeeeaaaattttuuuurrrreeeessss 000044442222
Get organised for 2010 Start the year
with a new attitude to managing your
Mac with our 20 top tips. Review of
the decade The past 10 years have
seen interesting times, not least for
Apple, so we look back at the seminal
moments that made the decade.
MMMMeeeetttthhhhoooodddd////CCCCrrrreeeeaaaatttteeee 000088880000
Method Exploiting the rule of thirds
for more powerful images Create
Develop photographic looks in Adobe
Lightroom + Luminous line effects in
Photoshop + Tethered shooting
HHHHHeeeeelllllppppp 000009999922222
Master of all things techie Howard
Oakley answers all your questions
in our Q&A section, and focuses on
understanding the Mac OS X Installer
in this issues Mac Business section.
MMMMaaaaccccsssshhhhooooppppppppppeeeerrrr 000066665555
Classied Looking for a specic
product or service? Try these.
Hot Kit The denitive guide to
the best Mac products.
PAGE 42
PREPARE
FOR2010
this
issue
PAGE 25
MAC MINI
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news
FORTHELATESTBREAKINGNEWSGOTOWWW.MACUSER.CO.UK
Apple climbs to fifth
place in PC sales chart
A
pple enjoyed soaring Mac sales
in the UK, even as the market as
a whole declined during the third
quarter of this year, according to gures
released by market researcher Gartner.
For the three months ended 30
September 2009, unit
sales of Macs in the
UK reached 165,000,
a year-on-year increase
of 26.6%. Unit sales
for the PC market as
a whole slumped by
2.4% to 3.29 million
for the quarter. Gartner
said the Mac had a
5% market share,
up from 3.8% a year previously. Apple was
the fth biggest PC vendor in the UK behind
Acer (24.5%), Dell (18.3%), HP (17.5%) and
Toshiba (6.5%).
A
pple won a major victory in one
of its court cases against Psystar,
the maverick Mac cloner based in
Florida. A Federal judge agreed with Apples
contention that Psystar violated Apples
copyright when it sold its range of Mac
clones with Mac OS X pre-installed.
Psystar has violated Apples exclusive
reproduction right, distribution right and right
to create derivative works, ruled US District
Judge William Alsop in a California court,
where one of the two companies legal battles
has played out.
Accordingly, Apples motion for summary
judgment on copyright infringement must be
granted, concluded Judge Alsop.
Alsops ruling backed Apples claim that
its end-user licence agreement (EULA) that
outlaws the installation of Mac OS X on
non-Apple hardware is legally enforceable.
Alsop also threw out Psystars contention
that someone who buys Mac OS X should be
permitted to do what they want with it.
In what was a grand slam for Apple,
Judge Alsop determined that Psystar had
illegally broken parts of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) that outlaw
actions to circumvent copyright
The decline in the PC market in the UK
has slowed down and the return to growth will
be slow and a difcult process, said Ranjit
Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner. While
the consumer market continued to defy the
economic environment, the business market
was still very weak.
PC unit sales fell by
0.3% across Europe.
Overall, the UKs
mobile PC market
saw growth and was
driven by a continued
increase in consumer
demand for mini-
notebooks. With
consumer spending
restricted, mini-notebooks are becoming more
appealing, as they provide better functionality
at the lower price points,
observed Atwal. Most of the PC
Page 009
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US Judge rules
Psystar breached
Apple copyright
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Apple has leveraged the [iPod/
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higher price brackets
Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst, Gartner
The strength of the Apple brand in the UK has led to a 26.6% year-on-year increase in Mac sales.
Mac cloner Psystar has illegally breached some
parts of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
according to Judge William Alsop.
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Apple wins first legal battle with Psystar
Gates praises
Jobs for doing
a fantastic job
Analyst reveals Apple is gaining market
share despite overall market slowdown
protections that prevent Mac OS X being
installed on non-Apple hardware. Alsop also
dismissed Psystars claims that Apple was
abusing its copyright.
Although Apples victory was more or less
complete, the company faces another legal
battle with Psystar in a Federal court, based
in its home state of
Florida. In August,
Psystar petitioned a
Federal judge in Florida
to rule that Apple
illegally limits Snow
Leopard to running
on Apple hardware.
By tying its
operating system
to Apple-branded
hardware, Apple restrains trade in personal
computers that run Mac OS X, collects
monopoly rents on its Macintoshes, and
monopolises the market for premium
A
pple CEO Steve Jobs was the
unexpected beneciary of some kind
words from Microsoft co-founder Bill
Gates, who credited Apples mercurial leader
with saving Apple and doing good things.
Gates was a panelist on Keeping
America Great, a 90-minute US TV special
aired by the CNBC cable TV station.
Gates shared the spotlight with veteran
investor Warren Buffet.
Gates initially looked bemused after a
member of the studio audience, business
undergraduate Damien Matthew, asked
Gates if he could just comment and tell us
what your thoughts are on the job Steve Jobs
has done as the CEO of Apple?
The audience laughed somewhat
nervously before Gates began a well-natured
tribute to his erstwhile rival and nemesis, and
the man who has commissioned numerous
TV commercials that disparage Microsofts
Windows operating system.
Hes done a fantastic job [as CEO
of Apple]. Apples in a bit of a different
business, where they make the hardware
and software together, but when Steve was
coming back to Apple, which was through
an acquisition of NeXT, which he ran, Apple
was in very tough shape, said Gates, who
modestly left out his own role in bailing
out Apple in 1997.
In fact, most likely [the company]
wasnt going to survive. And Jobs brought in
a team, and he brought in inspiration about
great products and design that has made
Apple back into being an incredible force
and doing good things.
And its great to have competitors like
that. [Microsoft writes] software for Apple
We compete with Apple. But of all the leaders
in the industry that I work with, [Jobs]
showed more inspiration, and he saved
the company, Gates concluded.
vendors now offer mini-notebooks as they
realise the importance of this category. Mini-
notebooks represented more than 40% of the
total consumer notebook market in the third
quarter of 2009, he said.
The only other top-ve company to grow
sales in the UK was Acer, which saw its unit
sales rise by 35.5%, compared to falls in
sales of 14.6%, 10.4% and 26.1% for Dell,
HP and Toshiba respectively. Acers rise
in sales might look impressive, but it was
chiey generated by the companys strong
representation in the netbook sector, which
is fast growing but very low margin.
By contrast, Apples rise in sales occurred
despite the companys refusal to compete in
the low-price sector of the PC market.
Most of the vendors are facing a
difcult time. Interestingly, the two vendors
at either end of the price spectrum are
winning the battle. At one end, Acer
continued to provide price-conscious products
through multiple channels to attract a wider
buying audience. At the other end, Apple
leveraged the halo effect of the Apple brand
created by the iPods and iPhones into the
PC arena, dominating the mid to higher price
brackets, noted Atwal.
Acer gained the number-one position,
while Samsung is closing the gap on Apple
in fth place, with 4.8% market share.
Samsung also saw the highest performance
of the quarter, with 206.6% growth year-on-
year, he added.
We are selling 400 times more
games on iPhone than on Android.
Gameloft nance director Alexandre
de Rochefort explains why the games
developer is focusing more of its
efforts on iPhone games than those
for Googles Android platform.
Quote, unquote
computers, asserted Psystar in its second
lawsuit. Apples share of revenue in the
market for premium computers computers
priced at over $1000 is currently 91%.
This case raises a wholly separate
set of issues from those in Apple Inc vs
Psystar Corp because that case is limited to
Psystar computers
running Mac OS X
Leopard, claimed
Psystars legal team.
Both the technical
mechanisms used
by Apple to tie Mac
OS X Snow Leopard
to Macintoshes and
the technology used
by Psystar to get
Mac OS X Snow Leopard to run on Psystar
computers are new and different and not
within the scope of the California litigation,
the company claimed.
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The only other top-ve PC vendor to show growth
was Acer, as it had a strong showing in the fast-
growing but low-margin netbook sector.
Judge Alsopalso threwout
Psystars contentionthat
someone who buys Mac OS X
should be permitted to do what
they want withit
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009
body is urging people to contact their MPs
and protest against the bill. This plan
wont stop copyright infringement and, with
a simple accusation, could see you and
your family disconnected from the Internet
unable to engage in everyday activities like
shopping and socialising, says a statement
on its website (openrightsgroup.org).
We have a few days to show this (and
any future) Government that it cant mess
with the Internet just ask the 600,000
people who recently had access to their
Xbox Live accounts blocked. Any of us
could easily be next.
Rogue ends iPhone app support
R
ogue Amoeba, the respected
developer of Mac applications
including Airfoil and Audio Hijack,
has abandoned plans to develop new iPhone
apps in despair at Apples review process.
Coming just a day after Facebook
developer Joe Hewitt said that hed given up
on the iPhone, Rogue Amoebas revelation
is a sure sign that developers patience
is being tested to breaking point. Many
are unhappy with the largely oblique and
inconsistent way in which Apple assesses
whether or not apps meet its criteria for
inclusion in the iTunes App Store, the only
legitimate way that apps can get onto the
iPhone and iPod touch.
Rogue Amoebas experience is recounted
at some length by its chief executive, Paul
Kafasis. The company submitted an update
to Airfoil Speakers Touch, an app that
lets you transmit audio from a Mac, using
the desktop Airfoil software, to an iPhone
or iPod touch. The update addressed a
signicant issue with audio syncing, but
was otherwise unchanged from the original
version which Apple had approved.
Suddenly Apple took issue with the
apps use of images of Macs to indicate
where audio was being transmitted from,
citing a section of the developers licence,
which prohibits the use of the Apple logo
or any other Apple-owned graphic symbol,
logo or icon.
That was back in July. With little or no
communication from Apple, Rogue Amoeba
resubmitted the app on three occasions,
seeing it rejected each time. Finally, with the
offending Mac images removed, the update
was approved, displaying instead a logo for
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which
is, according to Kafasis, the organisation
defending the rights of both consumers and
developers in the digital world.
This approval has, however, come too
late for Rogue Amoebas boss. He has had
enough. We wanted to ship a simple bug
x, and it took almost four months of slow
replies, delays and dithering by Apple. All the
while, our buggy, and supposedly infringing
version, was still available. Theres no other
word for that but broken.
There will be no more Rogue Amoeba
apps, and its expected that updates to
its existing software will be sporadic. The
iPhone platform had great promise, but that
promise is not enough, so were focusing
on the Mac, explained Kafasis.
NNNNNeeeeewwwwwsssss aaaaassssshhhhh
No iTunes fix in
Palm Pre update
Palm has released a software update
for its Pre handset, and for the rst
time has failed to restore syncing with
Apples iTunes. The two companies
have been engaged in a cat-and-mouse
game ever since Palm introduced the
Pre earlier this year and decided to use
iTunes to load music onto the device.
Apple almost immediately broke the
connection, only for Palm to restore it.
The breaking point may have been
the response of the USB Implementers
Forum (USB-IF) to Palms complaint
that Apple was breaching the terms
of its USB licence. It sided with Apple,
telling Palm that by tricking iTunes into
thinking that a Pre connected to a Mac
or PC via USB was an iPod, Palm was
the one at fault.
Palm made no mention of iTunes support in its release notes for the latest Pre software update, which focuses on email, instant messaging and SMS support.
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Queens speech cements three strikes
T
he Government has used the
Queens speech to conrm that
it will press ahead with plans to
disconnect illegal le-sharers, scotching
rumours that the proposals would not be
put before the next Parliament. The three
strikes proposals will be included in the
Digital Economy Bill, to force ISPs to penalise
persistent le-sharers.
As expected, the Government plans to
initially withhold the threat of disconnection,
while Ofcom is tasked with measuring the
effectiveness of warning letters a study
that will last a year. If illegal le-sharing
is not reduced by 70% by April 2011, the
Government will begin ordering that illegal
le-sharers be disconnected after receiving
two further warning letters.
The bill was welcomed by the BPI (British
Phonographic Industry). The creative sector
in the UK needs new measures implemented
urgently that address this problem for now
and the future if the UK is to lead Europe in
giving consumers innovative and high-quality
digital entertainment, said Geoff Taylor,
its chief executive.
The mood wasnt quite so celebratory
over at the Open Rights Group. The privacy
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iPhone assault
I
ts not often Apple gets out-muscled
when it comes to marketing, but the
company is under sustained attack in
a campaign by US network Verizon, which
has variously attacked the iPhone for being
dysfunctional and even unmanly.
While Apple uses a relentlessly upbeat
strategy with its Mac and iPhone commercials
that combine a sort of cheery Californian
feel-good outlook (Theres an app for that)
with an insider bitchiness (the Get a Mac
campaign, which
ridicules the PC
character), Verizon
has decided to go for
the jugular by focusing
on the iPhones weak
point. And thats
Apples choice of US
exclusive network
partner, AT&T.
AT&T has even
gone to court to try
to prevent Verizon from running one of its
adverts on US TV. In the advert in question,
the iPhone appears in a parody of a well-
loved US Christmas special telling the story
of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. In it,
an iPhone shufes dejectedly onto the
Island of Mist Toys, where awed toys are
banished because Santa cant ofoad them
to children at Christmas.
Hey, check out the new guy, exclaims a
Jack-in-a-box.
A spotty elephant toy asks: What are
you doing here? You can download apps
and browse the web.
Yeah, people will love you, adds a doll.
The iPhone stops in its tracks before a
map of AT&Ts 3G coverage in the US pops
up above it like a thought bubble.
Oh! exclaim the assembled toys, as the
map wilts Dali-style and the alleged inadequacy
of AT&Ts coverage becomes apparent.
Youll t right in here, chuckles a toy plane.
In another advert, Verizon takes aim at the
iPhone itself. In an advert that oozes thinly
disguised, testosterone-fueled homophobia,
the iPhone is dismissed as a Liberac-styled
jewelled accessory that embodies semi-
functional giggling brat vanity. Meanwhile,
the Motorola Droid, which is available from
Verizon, runs thousands of Android apps
with axle-greased ease and is a bare-
knuckle bucket of does!.
Perhaps Verizon protesteth too much.
Certainly, if industry rumours are correct,
the leading US network would actually love
to carry Apples iPhone. And according to
industry insiders,
Apple is busy
developing an iPhone
nano that will work on
Verizons US network
as well as AT&Ts.
In the UK, Apple
has seemingly realised
that exclusive network
tie-ups are clearly in
the past. Given O2s
rather mixed record
with UK 3G coverage, it was only a matter of
time before a rival UK network started running
adverts highlighting just how poor the iPhones
telephony was in this country.
With the iPhone now available from
Orange, and with Vodafone due to carry the
handset, Apple UK may just have escaped
from having its most important product
being attacked in TV commercials over here
for its distinctly patchy 3G coverage. Hey,
everyones a winner.
Ina Verizonadvert that oozes
thinly disguised, testosterone-
fueled homophobia, the iPhone is
dismissed as a Liberac-styled
jewelled accessory
Paul Nesbitt has never ceased to be amazed by the
sheer oddness of Apple over the decade that he
has spent writing about its alternating moments of
madness and genius for MacUser.
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Apple overtakes
Nokia on profits
from phones
J
ust two-and-a-half years after it
entered the handset market with the
iPhone, Apple has overtaken market
leader Nokia when it comes to making money
from the mobile market, according to a report
by market analyst Strategic Analytics.
Strategic Analytics analyst Alexander
Spektor claimed: Apple became the worlds
most protable handset vendor in Q3 2009.
Fueled by strong volumes, high wholesale
prices and tight cost controls, the PC vendor
has successfully broken into the mobile
phone market in just two years. What can
Nokia do to regain the number-one position?
It was a stunning achievement for an
upstart such as Apple to overtake the worlds
leading mobile phone company on prots.
Apple accounted for about 17% of the
worlds smartphone market compared with
39% for Nokia, according to Gartners gures
for the third quarter of
2009. And thats not
even counting the overall
handset market, which
Nokia also dominates.
Gartner believes
smartphones account
for 14% of overall mobile
device sales, so Apple
has less than 3% of the
total global market for
mobile phones.
However, Spektors
contention soon came
under attack on the
grounds that while
Nokias entire Q3 prots
were $1.1 billion (about
665 million), Apples total
protability came to $1.67
billion (about 1.01 billion).
This would imply that Apples entire non-
iPhone business only made $570 million
(about 345 million) for the third quarter, an
extremely unlikely scenario.
The solution lies in whether you consider
the real revenues accruing to Apple from the
iPhone, or the revenues that Apple can register,
according to US accounting regulations, which
require the company to account for iPhone
revenues over a two-year period.
When Apple iPhone sales are accounted
for in the quarter in which the company
actually makes a sale, they reach $2.85
billion (about 1.72 billion) as opposed to
$1.67 billion. This suggests Apple almost
certainly eclipsed Nokia as the worlds most
protable handset maker.
One of Verizons ads shows the iPhone in the Island of Mist Toys because its 3G coverage is so poor.
to Gartners gures
Despite having
the biggest market
share, Nokia has
fallen behind Apple
in terms of prots.
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MICROSOFT EMBARRASSED
BY PLAGIARISM COMMENT
M
icrosoft rushed to distance itself
from the embarrassing assertion
by one of its executives that the
company had copied parts of Mac OS X in
the latest version of Windows.
Attending a Microsoft partner conference
in London, Microsoft partner group manager
Simon Aldous said: One of the things
people say an awful lot about the Apple
Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that its very
graphical and easy to use.
What weve tried to do with Windows 7,
whether its traditional format or in a touch
format, is create a Mac look and feel in
terms of graphics, said Aldous.
However, while Aldous acknowledged
that Microsoft might have used Mac OS
X as an inspiration for Windows 7s look
and feel, he claimed that Microsofts
operating system was superior underneath.
Weve signicantly improved the graphical
user interface, but its built on that very
stable core Vista technology, which is
far more stable than the current Mac
platform, he said.
Nonetheless, Aldous comments upset
some of his colleagues at Microsoft,
who are sensitive to allegations that the
company copies Apples ideas when it
comes to software development.
A clearly peeved Brandon LeBlanc, a
Windows communications manager at
Microsoft, commented in the ofcial blog
for Windows he runs for Microsoft. In a
posting entitled How we really designed the
look and feel of Windows 7, he wrote: An
inaccurate quote has been oating around
the Internet today about the design origins
of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel
was borrowed from Mac OS X.
Unfortunately, this came from a Microsoft
employee who was not involved in any aspect
of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this
about one of our own, but his comments
were inaccurate and uninformed.
Microsoft executive suggests Windows 7
copies some features of Mac OS X
014
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Windows Mobile
loses market share
W
indows Mobile lost 28% of its
market share in the smartphone
market in one year, according to
Gartner. And the research outt painted a
grim outlook for Microsoft in the smartphone
market as its OS gets squeezed between
proprietary systems from Apple and Rim on
one side and open-source operating systems
such as Android and Symbian on the other.
Gartners research revealed that Microsoft
had a 7.9% share of the global smartphone
market during the third quarter of this year,
down from an 11% share for the same
quarter in 2008. During the same period,
Apples market share with the iPhone rose
from 12.9% to 17.1%, while Rims market
share with the BlackBerry rose from 16% to
20.8%. Meanwhile, Symbians market share
fell from 49.7% to 44.6%, a drop of 10%.
Googles open-source smartphone
operating system, Android, rose from nothing
to 3.9%, Palms WebOS took 1.1% and various
other Linux-based smartphone operating
systems accounted for 4.7%.
Gartner predicted the global smartphone
market would grow by 29% to reach 180
million units for the whole of 2009, overtaking
notebooks in total unit terms. At present,
smartphones account for 14% of overall
mobile device sales, but Gartner expects by
2012 they will make up around 37% of global
handset sales. Smartphone revenue is
forecast to reach $191 billion (about 115
billion) by 2012, higher than end-user
spending on mobile PCs, which is forecast
to reach $152 billion (about 91.95 billion)
in 2012. From 2009, user spending on
smartphones will start to surpass the
forecast for consumer notebooks, the
company predicted.
Clearly the smartphone market will become
very important, but Gartner warned PC vendors
who are eyeing the booming smartphone
market that it will prove a tough nut to crack,
especially if they enter the market with
handsets running Windows Mobile.
One Gartner analyst, Roberta Cozza,
predicted that by 2012 around 62% of the
whole smartphone market would be open
source with Symbian, Android and other
Linux avours. Meanwhile, the rest of the
market will be dominated by closed
environments such as iPhone and BlackBerry.
Cozza said Microsoft could nd it harder
to charge licence fees from handset makers
who increasingly have the option to use
free-of-charge operating systems such as
Googles Android. Already, Microsofts
licensees, including Samsung, HTC
and Sony Ericsson, are developing
Android handsets, while Palm and
Motorola have stopped offering
Windows Mobile phones altogether.
Windows Mobiles strongest
position is in the enterprise
market, but around 80% of
smartphones are sold to
consumers, according to Gartner.
PC vendors have traditionally
used Windows Mobile when they
offered smartphones, but not
counting Apple, Gartner found that
PC vendors cumulative share in
the smartphone market has been
static, at less than 1% for years.
Cozza said: PC vendors should
realise that while convergence of
technologies offers an opportunity
to enter into the smartphone
arena, the business models, go to
market and positioning of products
is very different from the PC
market. PC vendors will nd it
difcult to simply use existing
supply chains and channels
to expand their presence in
the smartphone market. The
smartphone and notebook markets
are governed by different rules
when it comes to successfully
marketing and selling products.
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Aldous comments are interesting, as
Apple has often alleged that Microsoft has
copied its operating system technologies.
Indeed, the company waged a long-running
and ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit against
Microsoft in the 1990s alleging that
the Windows giant had ripped off Apple
technologies in the development of the
Windows operating system.
Moreover, at Apples Worldwide
Developers Conference in June 2004,
Apple taunted Microsoft with allegations of
plagiarism when the Mac maker unveiled
an enormous poster that read Redmond,
start your photocopiers.
Windows Mobile is losing market share as it tries to nd space in
the competitive smartphone OS market place.
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015
Olympus E-P1. Not an SLR.
Not a Compact. Its a PEN.
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017
ANALYSIS:
Lifes little apps and Zunes
R
ay Ozzie, Microsofts chief software
architect, recently told attendees
at the companys Professional
Developer Conference that applications wont
be important on smartphones soon because
all the apps that count will be available on
every smartphone. Instead, he said it was
the operating system itself and the built-in
functionality that will count.
His point was that phone applications
are much smaller and less complex than
desktop applications, which means the
time to write and port code is shorter, thus
making it easier and less expensive to write
for every platform.
Ozzies comments were widely seen as
an attempt to downplay the catastrophic
way in which Microsoft has dropped the
ball in the mobile devices market. Once
the undisputed leader, Windows Mobile now
faces stiff competition
from Apple, Google
and Palm. If
anything, though, his
remarks highlighted
how much Microsoft
still has to learn
about the market for
mobile devices.
Theres a great
deal more to levelling
the playing eld with
respect to third-party applications than
making it relatively easy for developers to
write them. As Apple has shown with its
disastrous approval process, balancing the
interests of customers and developers with
those of the data networks in a way that
makes sense isnt exactly what you could
call straightforward.
In Apples case, it would appear that it
has been unable to either come up with a
set of guidelines for approval that make any
sort of logical sense, or that it has failed to
communicate its policy to those responsible
for accepting or rejecting applications.
Whatever it is that has gone wrong, it has
already driven two high-prole developers
away from the iPhone platform, and more
could follow suit.
That a company that has done such
a great job of building and marketing a
new smartphone platform could get it so
wrong should be a stark warning to others,
especially Microsoft, which hardly has a
glittering recent history when it comes to
selling mobile devices.
What makes the iPhone so
popular is the developers who
produce apps that performtasks
many of us never dreamed of
doing on a phone in a way that
makes thema joy to use
Kenny Hemphill has been at MacUser since
the week Apple bought NeXT and Steve Jobs
returned to the company, and the Internet was
something that ran on one Mac in a cupboard
in the corner of the MacUser ofce.
Remember the Zune? That was
Microsofts personal media player that was
going to break the iPods stranglehold on
the market. Its key feature, or unique selling
point in marketing speak, was its ability to
let users beam songs to each other. The
latest version is the Zune HD. It doesnt
have a Hard Drive. And its screen isnt High
Denition. It does, however receive HD radio
in the US and can store 720p HD movies so
you can play them back on a larger screen.
Just what you want from a personal media
player. Thats an indication of how much
Microsoft has lost touch with the market
for mobile devices.
At a time when it should be putting
everything into improving its share of the
fast-growing smartphone market by building
on the foundations laid by Windows Mobile,
its marketing personal media players that
are designed to be
connected to HDTVs
and talking about
adding Zune features
to the next version of
Mobile. And at a time
when it should be
chastened by the way
its being threatened
by Apple, Palm,
Google and Rim, its
instead denouncing
the market for third-party apps, which many
see as being crucial to the popularity of the
iPhone, as irrelevant.
Perhaps the clue to Microsofts view of
third party apps is in Ozzies phrase all the
apps that count. If those apps are the ones
that allow us to talk, send texts, access the
Internet, exchange email, look up contacts
and check calendars, then hes right, theyll
all be available on all platforms. And, yes, big
developers will develop for all platforms.
However, one of the key things that
makes the iPhone so popular is the
thousands of independent developers who
produce wonderful applications that perform
tasks that many of us never dreamed of
doing on a phone in a way that makes them
a joy to use.
Many of those developers have been
writing for the Mac OS for years and have
formed a bond with the platform and with
each other. Its them and the apps they write
who will make the difference. Thats why
Apple has spent so much money advertising
iPhone apps on TV. It understands how we
use the iPhone and what it will take to keep
us upgrading year after year.
Sadly, it doesnt yet seem to understand
how to communicate effectively with
developers, or even with its approval team.
That approval system needs an overhaul,
and quickly. Then Apple can demonstrate to
Microsoft just why third-party apps are so
important to every smartphone platform.
Contrary to what Microsofts Ray Ozzie believes, apps are the way forward
for the smartphone market, so Apple must get its approval process sorted.
coming soon
WATCHOUT FORREVIEWS OF THESE PRODUCTS INTHE COMINGISSUES
This issues round-up of the latest products features Macallys cooling
stand, a series of MFDs from OKI and a Bowers & Wilkins iPod speaker.
018
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Macally EzBookPad
Price 39.95 (about 35.67)
Contact Macally
+ www.macally-europe.com
Macallys EzBookPad is an aluminium cooling stand
for laptops with screens up to 15in in size. The feet
are fully adjustable, allowing you to place them
anywhere on the stand, so you can set the height
and tilt. Theres also a fan thats powered from
a USB port on the laptop, and which can also be
positioned anywhere on the surface of the stand,
so you can use it to maximum eect.
Bowers & Wilkins MM-1
Price tbc
Contact Bowers & Wilkins
+ bowers-wilkins.com
Hi-fi specialist Bowers & Wilkins is best known in the Mac
market for its Zeppelin iPod speaker dock, which has garnered
plenty of praise for its audio fidelity as well as its stunning looks.
Bowers & Wilkins is hoping to achieve the same with the MM-1,
a pair of desktop stereo speakers designed to be connected to
your Mac. The company describes the MM-1 as a serious hi-fi
speaker: a full range, active, near field monitor, with two separate
drive units including an aluminium down tweeter for a rened
treble performance. It employs Bowers & Wilkins digital signal
processing chip, which provides increased bass output, removing
the need for a sub-woofer.
Blue
Microphones
Yeti
Price tbc
Contact Blue
Microphones
+ bluemic.com
The Yeti is the first microphone to attain THX certication. THX is
a quality assurance audio reproduction system, originally designed
to ensure that Return Of The Jedis audio soundtrack was
accurately reproduced in cinemas. It has since become a recognised
standard and the THX mark is seen as an assurance of high quality
audio. The Yeti is a USB condenser microphone, which is designed
for podcasts, interviews, music and video soundtracks. It features
zero latency, amplied headphone monitoring, microphone mute,
and hardware-based gain adjustment.
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019
OKI MB400 series
Price from 300 (261 ex VAT)
Contact OKI + www.okiprintingsolutions.co.uk
OKIs MB400 series of mono LED multi-function devices features
three network all-in-ones, two of which can send and receive faxes,
as well as scan, print and copy. The MB460, the cheapest of the
three, is a PCL-based device, which has a resolution of 2400
x 600dpi and a 250-sheet input tray. The other two machines
support PostScript 3, have a resolution of 1200 x 1200dpi, and come
with a 50-sheet multi-purpose tray in addition to 250-sheet and
530-sheet feeders, respectively. All three have duplex as standard
and have quoted print speeds of up to 28 pages per minute.
EMAIL US AT MAILBOX@MACUSER.CO.UKTOHAVE YOURSAYABOUT ALL THINGS APPLE
mailbox
SSSSttttaaaarrrr lllleeeetttttttteeeerrrr
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Windows heaven
From Jeremy Burns
I am a smug Mac user. I have great
delight in teasing friends and family who
use PCs, telling them how easy Macs
are. I hadnt realised how accurate I was
until I wondered if it would be sensible to
upgrade my Parallels installation from
Vista to Windows 7.
I red up Vista on Monday for the
rst time in about a month and today is
Thursday. In that time, I have been unable
to use it for more than about 15 minutes,
as it has downloaded and installed 34
heavyweight updates, performed a number
of thorough virus scans and needed about
Snow or no Snow
From The MacUser forums at macuser.co.uk
macpheasto > I was thinking of picking up a
copy of Snow Leopard on my way home today,
but a few comments on Twitter have given me
second thoughts. Should I fork out for SL, or
keep my rupees and stick with Leopard?
a dozen restarts. These have rendered
Windows inoperable as it has hogged
network bandwidth, CPU and memory for
hours on end. To get on with my day job,
I have had to switch Vista off and leave
it to do its thing over night.
Now I appreciate Macs need updates
too, but that all happens silently in the
background, a restart is rarely needed and
it doesnt get in my way. Will I upgrade to
Windows 7? Maybe, if I can be convinced
that it will bring me an easier life. Now all I
need to do is choose which version Id like
and decide whether its worth about 140.
axtron2005 > I upgraded when it rst came
out and have had no problems with it (Mac
Pro 2006; C2D MB). It feels quicker and
seems quite solid for my limited home/light
ofce use. Its worth the money.
HeatherKay > No Snow for me. Im not sure
what benets the upgrade will give me. First,
it will break my PostScript Type 1 font
collection, so I have to decide whether to be
illegal and convert them to OpenType or just
drop all of them until I can buy new ones.
Second, it will kill my old AppleTalk printer,
and I cant afford a new one at the moment.
So, for now, Snow Leopard is not on
my shopping list.
mrstevenrogers > SL is running on four
systems here with no problems. If you do
get SL, disable the guest account before
the upgrade.
Artworker > As HeatherKay said, if you use
PostScript Type 1 fonts, dont upgrade
unless you can afford the time and money to
replace them with OpenType Font versions.
Otherwise, check that all your essential
software is SL compatible (some of mine
still isnt) before making the jump.
petermillard1 > Snow Leopard running
without issue on a MacBook and two iMacs
here; average hard disk space recovered
12GB per machine. If youre sure you wont
have critical software issues, Id do it.
SAughton > Ive been having problems with
external HDDs. Snow just doesnt seem to
cope as well as Leopard did. Other than
that its okay, but I cant say I miss it when
Im using the Snowless iBook.
020
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JJJJooooiiiinnnn tttthhhheeee ddddiiiissssccccuuuussssssssiiiioooonnnn
The Mailbox pages of MacUser are not
the only place you can have your say.
Whether youve got an axe to grind,
or just want to gush about your latest
Mac purchase or cool accessory, were
interested in your opinions. Go to the
MacUser forums at www.macuser.co.uk
to start talking with other Mac users
from across the globe about anything
and everything Apple and Mac.
macpheasto > Thanks for the opinions. Id
forgotten about the font issue, Ill have a
look tonight. I have a rather large and
somewhat old font collection, so it may
well be a problem.
big_D > Running it on three machines (my old
rst generation 24in iMac, a 13in MacBook
Pro and mini), and havent had any problems.
That said, I dont have any additional fonts.
technoidiot > Im on the Snowy one. I have
problems with an HP PSC 1410 it prints
ne, but I cant scan. No HP driver as yet. I
have a friend, who after going to 10.6.1 found
he couldnt use his Epson Photo R380. He
eventually got that working with quite a bit of
ddling, but Ill admit he was t to be tied
since it had worked well on 10.6.0.
krisjones2 > Have you tried ring up Image
Capture?
technoidiot > Now thats a great idea it
hadnt occurred to me.
mrstevenrogers > Cant the fonts folder be
backed up then after the upgrade use font
book to install the fonts back to the system?
HeatherKay > Not really. Its the way the OS
handles the font data to represent it on
screen and print. The font handling routines
for PostScript Type 1 fonts have been,
essentially, dropped as of Snow Leopard.
Its possible to convert Type 1 to
OpenType, but when you have a library of
several thousand fonts, its not something to
relish and it breaks the licence agreement.
As it stands right now, I have maybe 30
font families that will work with Snow
Leopard. The other 3,970 will either have to
be binned or slowly converted, or Ill have to
work through and choose the ones I really
cant live without, and then see if its worth
converting them.
Right now, its not worth my while for the
relative benets of Snow Leopard.
Artworker > Also for future reference anyone
who is going to be seriously affected by the
PostScript Type 1 font issue with Snow
Leopard wont be using Font Book. Theyll
have a proper font management application.
tombolt > With a studio full of G5s and G4s,
and a large font collection and everything
working perfectly well, I can say no, and
probably not for a long time yet. Not sure
what Ill do if I need new Macs, as new ones
will only come with Snow Leopard. Still, as I
say, its a production environment and it all
works perfectly well for the moment.
M
Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland St, London, W1T 4JD
EDITORIAL
Editor Nik Rawlinson nik_rawlinson@dennis.co.uk
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ART
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MacUser, incorporating Apple User, DTP, MacShopper and MacBuyer, is published fortnightly
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This issue is dedicated to Janis for baking some delicious mini Christmas fruit cakes for the
MacUser team. Mmmmm.... thank you!
The paper used within this magazine is
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MacUser Awards 2009
competition winners
The winner of a Mac mini is:
David Ackers, Balham Hill, London
The winner of a Sonnet Fusion F2 640GB
portable Sata Raid is:
Colin Alcock, Solihull, West Midlands
The two winners of Orbitsound T12 stereo
soundbars are:
Chris Andrews, Stone, Aylesbury, Bucks
Tony Barnes, Denver, Colorado, US
The ve winners of T3 mobile speakers are:
Arthur Battram, Grantham, Lincolnshire
Paul Beard, Poole, Dorset
Scott Burkett, W Bancro, St Toledo, Ohio, US
Rachel Byeld, Ramsbury, Marlborough
Darren Connor, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire
The winner of an iDowell iBox is:
Jerry Creedon, Lissarda, County Cork, Ireland
The winner of a iDowell iPack UPS is:
Nigel Curry, London
The four winners of an Booq Taipan
Bacpack, Steel, are:
Peter Davis, London
Andrew Douse, Rugby, Warwickshire
Julie Earnshaw, Morley, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Michael Gagan, Sheeld, South Yorkshire
The ve winners of a Grifn Navigate are:
Aidan Gill, Windlesham, Surrey
Ray Guthrie, High Littleton, Bristol
Marc Hindley, Forres, Morayshire
Peter Hobby, Poole, Dorset
Richard Johnson, Harlesden, London
The 10 winners of a Grifn AirCurve are:
Jon Landeryou, Bedminster, Bristol
Andrew Mayne, Long Sutton, Lincolnshire
Catherine Miller, Millbrook, Southampton
Erica Parkin, Wigan, Lancashire
Alexander Porter, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen
Iain Priestley, Balsall Common, Coventry
George Rankin, Jamestown, Dunbartonshire
Giles Rolph, Hanwell, London
John Rudkin, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
Peter Russell, Wanstrow, Shepton Mallet
The three winners of a Prosoft & Josoft
bundle are:
David Sung, Liverpool
Adam Watson, South Brentford, Middlesex
Alex Wickett, Eastbourne, East Sussex
Three prizes of a Rain Design iLap 17in
Notebook Stand are:
Don B Wijetunge, London
Denis Williams, Hailsham, East Sussex
Paul Jarram, Long Bennington, Nottinghamshire
The winner of a 400 Fotolia voucher
(see MacUser, 25 September 2009, p55,
and 9 October 2009, p66) is:
Chris Watson, Redditch, Worcestershire
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021
showcase
MAC-USINGCREATIVES SHOWOFF THEIRWORKANDREVEAL WHAT MAKES THEMTICK
022
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04 Martin Scorsese
Here, I wanted the director to be seen as one
with New York. We shot him on a balcony on
57th Street, with the city behind him.
05 Russell Simmons
I shot the producer/entrepreneur in a
recording studio. My goal was to develop a
unique mood and look to the image. This was
shot as part of a series for Business Week.
06 Fashion Image
This was done as part of a fashion story on
Canadian fashion for Glitterati magazine.
07 Martin Scorsese
This image was shot as part of a portrait
session with the director. I asked him to run
through a range of expressions and soon
found out how well he can act.
What or who inspires your work?
I tend to take all the art Ive ever seen along
with me for inspiration. I do have a great
appreciation for surrealism though, and bring
along a little bit of Ren Magritte wherever
I go. That said, I look at a great deal of
contemporary art, too. The Chelsea Handler
prop was inspired by a contemporary artist
whose work Ive bought.
What mistakes have you learned from?
Thinking you know something you dont.
Whats your ideal project?
My ideal project would be a series of
conceptualised images where I can work
with good set builders and creative people
to make my vision come alive. Right now, my
concept pictures are usually single images.
Tell us something good.
Its sunny and 23C in Santa Monica today.
Its a good day to write and create.
Michael Grecco started his career in Boston while in college working for the
Associated Press as a photo stringer. Aer working for the Boston Herald
and then People magazine, he decided to pursue his dream of shooting
portraits and celebrities. He now resides in the Los Angeles area.
What was your rst Mac and what other
equipment do you use?
When I started my business again in Los
Angeles, I realised I needed a way to send
out promotional pieces. My rst Mac was an
SE/30, with 4MB of Ram and a 40MB hard
drive, which sounds ridiculous now. Now the
ofce has eight Macs, my MacBook Pro, the
studio managers 24in iMac, another iMac
for the ofce music, two eight-core Mac Pros
for the images and two Mac minis one is a
FileMaker Pro and Calendar server, and the
other is an image server. We also have a few
high-end scanners and high-end printers.
CONTACT DETAILS
Name Michael Grecco
Current employment Self-employed
Email michael@michaelgrecco.com
URL michaelgrecco.com
Tel +1 310-452-4461
Can you offer any tips for success?
Well, I think theyre twofold: work hard and
dont let yourself get discouraged. Keep
looking look at what youre doing and look
at what others are doing around you. Your
work has to exist in the current world and
have some sort of relevance.
As a child, what did you want to be
when you grew up?
I totally wanted to be an astronaut until
I looked at my rst Time-Life book on
photography. After looking at masters
such as Ralph Gibson and Bruce Davidson,
I knew I was going to be a photographer.
I had no doubt.
How did you get your rst big break?
I dont know if I ever had one particular
break. The little jump I had was in 1993
when I did a very moody and distinct series
of images for Business Week magazine of
the top entrepreneurs in the world. This
included ying to the UK to shoot Richard
Branson and Anita Roddick.
Talk us through these examples:
01 Steve Martin
This was for Time magazine when Steve
Martin wrote his memoirs. I had this idea that
he had spent his life in the garden writing,
and the vines and garden grow around him.
02 Penlope Cruz and Pedro Almodvar
This was another feature magazine story
where the concept was the intimacy and
closeness of these two artists.
03 Chelsea Handler
This image was shot as a cover possibility for
her new book Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, in
which Chelsea describes growing up in New
Jersey among the partially renovated cars
from her fathers automotive hobby.
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reviews
FORTHELATESTREVIEWSGOTOWWW.MACUSER.CO.UK/REVIEWS
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HOW
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any analysis. Well never give a positive
review to a product that we believe isnt
worth our readers buying, which means
that a positive MacUser review is of
enormous value to both the reader and
the manufacturer of the product.
Products are tested in-house wherever
possible, using a mix of industry-standard
and bespoke testing software suites.
Top-rated products earn themselves
a place in our exclusive Hot Kit section to
provide you with an issue-by-issue update
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Mac mini with 25
Snow Leopard Server
An excellent option for anyone who wants to
run Mac OS X Server on a small network
Samsung Flashcam C10 28
This striking-looking camcorder is easy to
use and comfortable to hold
CameraBag Desktop 28
This fun toy allows you to add different
effects to your photographs.
Reframe 29
If youre on a budget, this is an inexpensive
way to convert video to a different format
Canon PowerShot G11 30
It might not be for everyone, but this compact
produces images with superior noise levels
Pure Chronos iDock 32
Redesigned radio alarm clock with an
iPhone-compatible Dock connection
Pure Siesta Flow 32
Wake up to the sound of your favourite
Internet radio channels
Canon Pixma MP990 34
Truly excellent wireless photo printer that
merits our Editors Choice award
Parallels Desktop for Mac 36
It may be more expensive than its rival,
Fusion, but its worth every penny
Doom Classic 38
Old-school gamers will lap up the iPhone
version of this venerable shoot-em-up
Championship Manager 38
2010 Express
If you love football, you wont be able to
tear yourself away from this iPhone app
Command & Conquer 38
Red Alert
The rst installment of the addictive
real-time strategy game for the iPhone
Microsoft Bluetooth 39
Mobile Keyboard 6000
Well-designed wireless keyboard and
number pad for notebook users
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A perfect product with great features
at a great price.
A product with minor aws but which
is nonetheless excellent.
A good product that does everything
its designed to do.
A product thats outclassed by
others in its eld.
A poor product that we cant
recommend in its current state.
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LABS
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editors discretion to a product
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would spend their own money.
024
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Mac mini with
Snow Leopard
Server
Price 799 (695 ex VAT)
Contact Apple
Pros Affordable compact Mac server
+ Two internal hard drives
Cons No built-in optical drive
Verdict An excellent and good value
option for anyone who wants to
run Mac OS X server on a small
or medium-sized network, though
the lack of an optical drive will be
a problem for some.
Pri 7 799 (6 7 (695 (6 VAT) VAT
Mac server
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025 025
T
he Mac mini has been a hit since
it was launched back in 2005,
and not just as a regular desktop
machine. It has also been put to work as
a server, from small one-off workgroup
installations to the Nevada-based
Macminicolo server farm. Apple
has now ofcially acknowledged
this with its new Mac mini
server, slightly tailored to server-
focused rather than solo user
requirements. This means it isnt
suitable for everyone, but it is a
rather more worthy product than
you might think.
Despite its rather clumsy name,
this is a well-considered machine. On
the back it has ve USB sockets, two monitor
ports (one mini-DVI and one mini DisplayPort),
one FireWire 800 socket and a single
gigabit Ethernet port. There is also a pair
of analogue/digital audio sockets, although
those will be less of a concern in a server.
On the front well, there is actually
only one thing that really distinguishes this
from the regular mini, but it is signicant: a
complete absence of an optical drive. In its
place inside the mini theres a second hard
drive, a twin to the 500GB model below it,
giving a total of 1TB of space. As standard,
these drives are set up as regular storage
volumes, and as Snow Leopard Server is
preinstalled, the majority of users will keep
it like that. The alternative would be to
reformat and merge the two drives as Raid
0 (for striped speed) or Raid 1 (for mirrored
safety) instead.
The difculty here is that this requires
using the supplied installer DVDs, and as
theres no DVD drive, youd be forgiven for
wondering how. There are essentially three
ways to go about this: run a second Mac in
Target Disk Mode (requires FireWire), use the
optical drive network sharing trick introduced
for the MacBook Air, or, our preference, buy
the external MacBook Air SuperDrive. Most
modern software is downloadable, so you
wont face this problem often, but it should
be considered.
The drives are standard 5400rpm laptop
mechanisms; not the fastest possible, but
perfectly adequate. You can add an external
drive to the FireWire 800 port for snappier
throughput, and the ve USB ports means
that adding inexpensive USB storage is also
simple. The minis single Ethernet port might
be an issue if split trafc routing between the
local network and the Internet is required, but
Apples USB Ethernet Adaptor would do the
trick in this case.
Were used to thinking of the Mac mini
as a kind of entry-level Mac, but todays
machine is surprisingly well-suited to life
as a server. With a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo
processor, 3MB on-chip level two cache (1:1
speed), a 1066MHz frontside bus and 4GB
of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, this is actually
a very respectable machine thats perfectly
capable of handling light to middleweight
work. There are reports that its two SO-Dimm
slots support 4GB cards, giving it an unofcial
8GB maximum, but for most of the tasks it
will face 4GB should be ample.
Why bother with a server in the rst place?
You could, as many do, simply switch on le
sharing on a regular Mac and be done with it,
but apart from the fact that this isnt suited
to large-scale access, it barely scratches
the surface of whats available from Snow
Leopard Server. Centralised le serving is
useful, and you can manage and control
client access (cross-platform) very efciently,
but on top of this, youll also be able to
manage network Time Machine backups,
calendar and address
book sharing,
and scheduling,
email, instant
messaging and video
conferencing, web,
blog and wiki serving,
and so on.
Buying Snow
Leopard Server on its own will set you back
just under 400, and adding this to a roughly
equivalent Mac mini (with SuperDrive but
just 320GB disk space) pushes the cost to
over 1000. Thats still reasonable for a total
server solution just look at the costs for
equivalent Windows server solutions but
its still not as cheap as this Mac mini server.
Not everyone needs a server, so this will
never be a sales chart-topper. But the scope
and ease of use of Snow Leopard Server
and the affordability of the Mac mini should
make this a big hit in the server world.
Keith Martin
Centralised file serving is useful, and youcanmanage
and control client access (cross-platform) very
efciently, but ontopof this, youll also be able
to manage networkTime Machine backups
The absence of an
optical drive on the
front of the Mac mini
with Snow Leopard
Server may prove
problematic for some.
With ve
USB ports, two
monitor sockets,
a FireWire 800
port and a single
Ethernet socket,
connectivity
isnt a problem.

026
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I
n such a crowded market, the Samsung
Flashcam C10 camcorder is going to
have to stand out to really impress. The
specications seem run-of-the-mill for this
price point: the C10 shoots at 720 x 576
pixels in H.264 format, has a 2.7in LCD
screen and a 10x optical zoom. Its available
from Argos for about 130.
The design, however, is immediately
striking, with the small pebble-like shape
T
he iPhones built-in camera has never
won awards for image quality, and
performs poorly in comparison with
the cameras in rival smartphones. There are,
however, apps available that compensate for
these hardware deciencies.
CameraBag is one such iPhone app. In
seconds, it applies one of a set of pre-dened
image processing lters to your photographs,
really much nicer, to our eyes at least, than
the straight-up types such as the Flip or
Kodak devices. The zoom toggle button sits
on the top of the camera and your thumb
sits naturally on it. The buttons on the body
could do with being more clearly identied,
as theyre all the same colour and are only
distinguishable by an icon etched onto them.
Mind you, over time youll get used to which
button does what.
and spits out something different; a stylish,
funky photo to replace your dull original. Its
simple to use, its fun and its a bargain at
just over a pound.
CameraBag Desktop is essentially the
same application, but for use on your Mac.
Using it is very straightforward. Drag in a
photo from anywhere, and youll see 10
new versions of it appear along the bottom
Its upturned nose is supposed to make
the camcorder more comfortable to hold for
prolonged periods, but were doubtful about
its ergonomic benets. It takes a little while
to get used to holding the camera at such an
angle, but, thanks to the rotating screen, its
not prohibitive.
The menus are easy to navigate, although
this is most likely down to the fact that theres
not much in the way of extra features in the
of the CameraBag window. Each is a preview
of one the built-in lters at work; just click on
one to see it full size.
As youd expect, the desktop application
offers a few more features than its iPhone
cousin. Images can be exported at a wider
range of sizes, from 100 to 1600 pixels.
Theres also limited cropping ability, using
preset sizes only (you cant specify an
Drag in a photo and 10 different versions will be displayed along the bottom of the applications window.
Samsung
FlashcamC10
Price 129 (112 ex VAT)
from argos.co.uk
Contact Samsung
+ samsung.com/uk
Pros Neat design
Cons Average video quality
+ No still image function
Verdict Overall an okay camera,
but not one that really stands
out from the crowd.
Digital camcorder
CameraBag
Desktop
Price $19 (about 11.42)
Contact Nevercenter
+ nevercenter.com
Needs PowerPC or Intel processor +
512MB Ram + Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Pros Instant + Good photo effects
Cons A little expensive + Overkill if you
have the iPhone app
Verdict A fun photographic toy, the
desktop version isnt as essential as
its iPhone contemporary.
Image editor
The C10s design stands out,
especially the upturned nose, which
is supposed to make the camcorder
more comfortable to hold.
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029
rst place. Theres a time lapse setting and
a wind noise reduction option, as well as
built-in image stabilisation, but otherwise not
much to really get us excited. One feature we
did like was the Easy-q setting, which at the
press of a button puts everything into auto
mode. So, if youve been tinkering around with
backlight or youve set it to record in black
and white, simply press the Easy-q button to
get back to basics. One odd decision is the
lack of a still photo capability. Other cameras
manage to combine photo and video, so it
seems strange for the C10 to leave it out.
Video quality was average and, like many
of these small camcorders, lming indoors
yielded grainy results. Other than that, colours
were good and sound wasnt bad, either. All in
all, the performance from the Samsung was
ne but hardly earth shattering: youre not
going to be disappointed, yet neither are you
likely to be over the moon with the results.
The Samsung Flashcam C10 isnt as well
specied as some of its competitors and the
video quality is at best on a par with the other
devices weve seen, but we did nd it simple
to operate and used it regularly over the
time we had it. If youre just looking to chuck
quick videos onto YouTube, then ne, but
you wouldnt want to use it for anything more
demanding. As it stands, theres not enough
to mark it out from the crowd. The C10 is a
decent camera at a fair price, but really there
are better alternatives available.
Christopher Brennan
arbitrary crop size). On the iPhone, image
borders are either on or off; here they can
be applied per image. This means you can
use the black-and-white effect, with a border
normally used for a Polaroid-style effect.
Multiple effects can also be applied to
one image, although we got better results
by using this sparingly.
CameraBag on an iPhone is a must-have
application, because it offers so much for
such a good price. On the desktop, it feels
less compelling. You cant email directly
from the desktop version, nor can you
drag images out of it. It lacks the iPhone
versions spontaneity, and seems very slightly
overpriced for what it offers.
If you already have CameraBag on your
iPhone, we cant see a convincing argument
for buying the desktop application as well.
If, however, you love toy camera photography
and have no intention of owning an iPhone,
then there might well be 11-worth of
entertainment here.
Giles Turnbull
R
eframe is a tool for converting
movies between video standards.
Its main focus is the Pal and NTSC
formats, and SD and HD resolutions, which
could cost you a small fortune using a
hardware-based converter.
We cant fault the immediate clarity of
Reframes workow. Its four tabs show the
process from left to right. Drop movies into
the Input tab, choose the video and audio
settings, then choose the output format
on the last one.
The Input tab seems mundane, but it
conceals some important features. Press
Edit and you can choose which video and
audio tracks from multi-track les to convert,
and override the sources aspect ratio. You
can also force Mpeg decoding to interpret
video as lm, progressive scan or interlaced
footage or rely on automatic detection.
The Transfer button lets you set up the
Video and Audio tabs for one item and
transfer those settings to every other item
in the Input list, which is an excellent time-
saver if youre converting several clips that
originated from the same reel or shoot.
After lining up movies for conversion,
the Video tab lets you choose from a list of
common operations, such as moving between
standard denition Pal and NTSC video, and
to 25 and 30fps (frames per second) movies
at 720p and 1080p line resolutions. These
are Reframes idea of presets, though you can
override frame sizes and frame rates below.
Youll have to choose one on the Audio
tab as well; the two operations arent
directly linked. You can independently control
interlacing of video and gain on audio, and
there are advanced settings that control
algorithms for image and audio quality. You
can set scaling options (padded, cropped
or stretched), motion vector analysis, and
whether to use motion compensation,
temporal interpolation or lm to video telecine
conversion to deal with changing frame rates.
Each tab links directly to the help le,
which requires careful reading to make the
right choices. Advanced settings are sticky, so
every time you open Reframe, youll have to
check theyre appropriately set for the footage
youre working with, rather than following a
wizard that asks about your movies content.
Picture quality in a frame with little motion
was very good, with smooth lines on a static
or slow moving car. However, there was
obvious shimmering of colour on the cars
body that wasnt noticeable in the NTSC
version. No matter which motion vector and
frame rate conversion settings we chose, a
fast-moving car travelling across the frame
and towards the camera became juddery.
Conversions for iPod and other devices
can be done with tools such as QuickTime Pro
7 or Mpeg Streamclip. For video standards
conversion, Reframe doesnt mean you can
abandon hardware alternatives, despite its
decent speed on recent Intel Macs. However,
if youre on a tight budget around Final Cut
Expresss level, its an inexpensive way to
add software conversion without stepping
up to Final Cut Studios Compressor.
Alan Stonebridge
Reframe
Price $129.95 (about 78.18)
Contact Miraizon + miraizon.com
Needs PowerPC G3 or later or Intel Mac
+ Mac OS X 10.4 or later + 512MB
Ram + QuickTime 7.2 or later
Pros Simple interface and workow
+ Good results in movies with little
motion + Inexpensive
Cons Sticky advanced settings and
no true presets
Verdict An affordable alternative to
hardware converters, though playing
with advanced settings doesnt turn
out great results in all circumstances.
Video converter
Inseconds, it applies one of a set
of pre-dened image processing
lters to your photographs, and
spits out a stylish, funky photo
to replace your dull original
Reframes presentation is clean and uncluttered rather than bombarding you with technical details, though
youll have to dip into the documentation to understand its advanced settings.
F
ew high-end digital compacts have
stayed the course like those of
the G-series from Canon, and their
popularity shows no signs of abating. We
were very impressed with 14.7-megapixel G10
last year (see MacUser, 21 November 2008,
p34), although noise levels above ISO400
meant either having to use a tripod or switch
to a DSLR to avoid speckling hardly the
impression of a typical walkabout camera
for street photography.
In response, Canon has taken an
unprecedented move of offering the
replacement G11 with a smaller, 10-megapixel
CCD using the same-size 1/1.7-in type (7.6
x 5.7mm) sensor. With nearly 50% larger
photosites and improved signal processing,
the G11 boasts the same ISO80 to ISO3200
range, but the maximum sensitivity jumps
from a lowly 1600 x 1200 pixels on the G10
to full resolution on the G11.
Canon also listened to comments about
the xed LCD screen, and the G11 is the rst
to feature a vari-angle LCD since the chrome
G6. In most other details, the G11 resembles
the G10. It has the same 28-140mm f/2.8-4.5
equivalent optical-image-stabilised zoom with
a continuous AF option for moving subjects,
optical viewnder, knurled metal mode selector
dials and Raw capture all the kind of features
that appeal to serious photographers.
The G11 shares much of the ergonomics
of its predecessor. A rubber-covered grip
aids one-handed operation, while shooting
modes, ISOs and EV compensation each
have their own metal selector dials on the top
plate, as seen on the earlier model. Although
that layout garnered praise, we prefer the
simpler control layout of the earlier G9, which
adopted the same method of EV shifting
using dedicated button and the command dial
as that employed by the Eos DSLR range.
Not only was the G9s feature active until
cancelled, making it much quicker to adjust
on the y, but it also meant the main mode
dial was a decent size. By contrast, the G11s
mode dial that sits atop the ISO selector is
small and ddly.
All the same, the tunnel-type optical
viewnder is usable, and even though the
2.7in 461,000-dot panel is a bit smaller than
the last two iterations, the ip-out and swivel
feature works well and is a real plus point.
Sadly, we suspect that to keep down the
G11s weight, Canon has shunned the all-
magnesium alloy outer of the G10 for a mix of
metal front and plastic top and rear. Although
the cameras body seems reasonably solid
overall, it doesnt have the same carved-from-
stone feel of earlier models.
On powering up, the G11 feels quite brisk
in operation, but we were surprised to see
the excellent wide-area nine-point AiAF mode
integrated into the Face Detection option.
Its supposed to offer the functionality of
both systems by switching between them
seamlessly, but you cant select the nine-
point system manually. If the G11 cant locate
a face, not once did we see the camera
select a focus point off centre. Choosing the
central focus-detection point every time has
its advantages at least you know where the
lens will focus but thats not the point.
The new Quick Shot mode sets continuous
AF, while the LCD acts as a data panel, which
we thought was a sensible addition. However,
the new Low Light mode, which can boost
sensitivity from ISO320 up to an incredible
ISO12,800 with a xed 1824 x 1368-pixel
image size, is a bit gimmicky.
The G11 shoots pretty good-quality
640 x 480-pixel 30fps (frames per second)
video using the space-saving .mov format
with H.264 codec, but the lack of any HD
video is a real oversight given the price and
target audience. This is especially true when
you consider rivals such as the cheaper
Panasonic LX3, Leica D-Lux 4 or the micro
FourThirds format HD-enabled Olympus E-P1.
Where the G11 does excel, though, is
in stills quality. While its true that outright
resolution and detail cant match that of the
G10, or the G9 for that matter, theres no
denying the superior noise levels throughout
the range. Weve no real complaints with the
anti-shake system and the lens is sharp,
although we noticed some slight barrelling
and fringing at the wide end of the zoom.
Viewed in isolation, the Canon PowerShot
G11 is an appealing offering, but its not
without its shortcomings.
Kevin Carter
Canon
PowerShot G11
Price 569 (495 ex VAT)
Contact Canon + www.canon.co.uk
Needs Mac OS X 10.2 or later
Pros Picture quality + Low noise
+ Vari-angle LCD + Viewnder
Cons Pricey + Slight cramping of
controls + Fringing at wide end + No
HD video + Mostly plastic construction
Verdict Given its price, lack of HD
video, plasticky build and quirky
controls, the G11 isnt the ideal carry-
everywhere camera it could have been.
Digital compact
Aimed at a narrower target audience than previous offerings, the 10-megapixel G11 has larger photosites
for improved noise up to ISO3200 and produces excellent still images.
Where the G11 does excel,
though, is instills quality. Theres
no denying the superior noise
levels throughout the range
Canon seems to have listened to its
customers, and has nally included a
pull-out-and-swivel LCD screen in the
PowerShot G11.

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9!
P
ure has beefed up its range of digital
radio alarms with the new Siesta Flow
and an update to the Chronos iDock.
The Siesta Flow, as its name suggests,
is the latest member of Pures Internet radio
line-up. It supplements DAB and FM tuners
with a subscription to Pures free The Lounge
service, which lets you organise a collection
of 12,000 online stations that are
then synchronised
across as many radios as you own from
the range. We tested the Siesta Flow
alongside an Evoke Flow and
were able to access directly
our Evoke favourites built up
over 12 months use on the
Siestas screen.
Setup is a breeze,
rst requiring
the encryption
password to
your wi network
(theres no wired
Ethernet option),
and then the code
dished out by The
Lounge when you
register the radios
serial number.
Both of our radios
then appeared
as entries on the
Siestas screen,
allowing us to
switch between
them. Any favourites
saved on either radio were also accessible
through a browser for listening to at work
or away from the radio.
As well as live Internet streams, the Siesta
gives access to podcasts and the BBCs Listen
Again feeds. And if you download the Mac-
compatible Flowserver software from Pures
website, you can also use it as a speaker for
streaming media from your Mac or PC.
The Siesta is a low-prole device, around
half the height of the Chronos, with an
upward-facing speaker mounted into the
top. The controls are split between physical
buttons and touch-sensitive areas around the
screen, all of which are easy to use, with a
large snooze button at the front on top where
its easy to nd when youre still half asleep.
The screen is a bright OLED display with super
smooth scrolling, but we found the rmware,
which was automatically updated over our
network during our testing, could sometimes
be slow particularly, for example, when
entering our 13-character wi encryption key.
Sound quality is good, but obviously
not of hi- standard in a device that will
predominantly be used for short periods at
the start of each day.
The Chronos iDock
has no Internet
features, but it does
have an iPhone-
compatible Dock
connection in the
top. Its an update
to Pures existing
Chronos radio,
and represents a
major improvement
in terms of usability. There are now just
eight buttons on the front of the body, all
clearly labelled and big enough to press
comfortably with the face of your thumb. Its
predecessor had 12 buttons, each a thin
strip that was uncomfortable to use and
required sufcient pressing that you could
end up shifting the radio as you used them.
Part of this rationalisation can be attributed to
the introduction of a rotary dial for selecting
stations and changing volume.
It also has a USB port behind the dock
connector, which is used to power external
devices such as USB lights for reading when
you dont want to disturb your partner, a fan,
or for charging phones and MP3 players. This
is supplemented by an auxiliary-in port at the
front for non-dock compatible devices.
While both radios are largely triangular in
shape, the Chronos iDock takes advantage
of its height to mount the speakers on two
corners, ring forwards. The sound quality is
better than that of the Siesta, with a warm,
broader spectrum.
The screen needs to display far less
complex menus and less information than
that on the Siesta, and so its a traditional
eight-segment clock in the top half, and a
two-line by 16-character alphanumeric display
below. This dims signicantly when the radio
is not in use, to save power.
These two radios are very different, and
although both are alarm clocks, theyre not
directly comparable. Which you choose will
be determined by which additional wake-
up option youd like on top of DAB and FM
stations iPod/iPhone or Internet streams.
Obviously, if its the latter, make sure your
ISP can maintain a steady half-megabit
connection and doesnt often suffer outages.
In the UK that shouldnt be too problematic.
Nik Rawlinson
Pure Siesta Flow
Price 99 (86 ex VAT)
Contact Pure + pure.com
Needs Broadband Internet connection
Pros Online favourites synchronisation
+ Unique wake-up option
Cons Sound quality could be better
Verdict An interesting twist on bedside
radios that lets you wake up to
Australian drivetime, Californian night-
time or Russian lunchtime shows when
the UKs enjoying breakfast.
Digital radio alarm
Pure Chronos
iDock
Price 89 (78 ex VAT)
Contact Pure + pure.com
Needs iPod or iPhone optional
Pros USB charging point + Good sound
Cons None to speak of
Verdict A great redesign of a good
radio, with a decent set of speakers
and the option of waking up to
your iPhone.
Digital radio alarm
The Siesta Flow accesses
live Internet streams, so make
sure your broadband is up to
the task. It also offers access
to podcasts and the BBCs
Listen Again service.
The Chronos
iDock lets you
wake up to your
iPhone. The new
model is streets
ahead of its
predecessor.

EDITORS
CHOICE

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YOURE THERE IN YOUR HEAD
DENONS AWARD-WINNING HEADPHONES KEEP IT REAL
In-ear headphones On-ear headphones
DJ headphones Noise-cancelling headphones
A range of high specification, yet lightweight headphones
designed to suit your life-style. And your listening needs.
Whether at home, in the studio, in clubs, on planes. Indoors or outdoors.
In fact, anywhere where you want to enjoy realistic sound in complete peace.
For more information and details of our complete range visit:
www.denon.co.uk
T
he Canon MP990 sits at the top
of its inkjet all-in-one range. As you
might expect, its feature-rich and on
paper has just about everything you could
possibly want from a multi-function device.
The MP990 offers wi, Ethernet and USB
connectivity, as well as a digital memory
card reader and PictBridge support. There
are six separate ink tanks, holding CMYK, a
pigment-based black plus a grey for better
monochrome prints. The MP990 has built-in
duplex allowing you to save paper by printing
on both sides. In addition, theres a CD/DVD
printing attachment, two paper trays capable
of handling media up to A4 in size and a
scanning adaptor that enables you to capture
35mm slide and negatives.
The printer itself is heavy, but the design
means its not all that bulky: considering all
of its features, it has quite a small footprint
when not in use. The LCD screen, which is
on a foldaway ap, is bright, sharp and, at
3.8in, very usable.
Setting up the MP990 is very easy,
although as we had Mac OS X 10.6 installed,
we had to download the driver from the
Internet. We assume that the Snow Leopard
drivers will make it to the install CD for later
models. Otherwise, its all fairly standard
fare from Canon, with a solid build quality
and design. However, thats what you would
expect for an all-in-one inkjet printer costing
230 (200 ex VAT).
At that kind of price point, specication
is only part of the equation, as performance
has to be up to scratch as well. Happily, the
MP990 is more than capable in this area. Our
suite of tests provided nothing that it couldnt
handle, and it produced speed and quality
worth every penny.
A page of draft text was through the
printer is just ve seconds, which isnt that
different from other models weve tested.
However, the quality of the output was better
than most draft text weve seen. A page of
best-quality text was out in 55 seconds and,
again, the quality was very good. Deep black
and sharp characters more than matched
some laser output weve seen. We also put
the MP990 to the test with a mixed text and
graphics business-style document. Again,
it didnt falter: just under
three minutes for 10 pages
of sharp text and excellent-
quality images. Colour text
over textured backgrounds
and pictures was legible and
well dened, too.
Photo quality was just as good, with a
borderless A4 image coming out bright, sharp
and really well balanced. Detail, even in
darker areas of an image, was excellent and
colour was just right, not over saturated or
bland, just very pleasing. At two minutes from
start to nish, its impressively quick, too.
A 6 x 4in photo was equally pleasing to the
eye and took just 44 seconds to make it to
the output tray.
The scanner was fast and accurate,
capturing a good level of detail and colour.
We particularly liked the way the 35mm lm
and slide adaptor was stored in the top of
the case, which means its always to hand
when you need it. The scanner took just nine
seconds for a 300dpi A4 scan. Copies were
similarly speedy, at 22 seconds for colour
and 15 seconds for black and white.
Theres no denying that the Canon
MP990 performs very, very well. Its fast and
produces excellent-quality results. Not only
that, but the specication is impressive. Even
at its list price of 329 the Pixma MP990
is worth every penny, as its not going to
disappoint in terms of output or speeds. At
the street price of about 230, its excellent
value. If youre after the best possible all-in-
one inkjet, then this may well be it.
Christopher Brennan
Canon Pixma
MP990
Price 230 (200 ex VAT)
from amazon.co.uk
Contact Canon + www.canon.co.uk
Needs USB port
Pros Great print quality + Very fast
+ Well specied
Cons None
Verdict If youre looking for a wireless
all-in-one photo printer, look no further.
Inkjet all-in-one
EDITORS
CHOICE
Our suite of tests provided nothing that the
MP990 couldnt handle, and it produced speed
and quality worthevery penny
Photo output from the MP990
is excellent for both colour and
monochrome images.
Despite its range of features, the MP990s clever design means it has a surprisingly small footprint.
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Meet the NEW
Interact S605
The NEW generation of
web enabled touchscreen printers
A huge improvement on previous generation Lexmark printers &
really a joy to use MacUser Oct 09
Intuitive touchscreen interface
The best touch interface weve seen
yet on a printer PC Pro
Browse the internet via the 4.3 screen
Download apps direct to the printer
View photos in an instant
Improved Vizix 4 ink system
Prestige Pro805 Platinum Pro905
Using 4 individual ink cartridges, prints
from the new Lexmark range display
visibly enhanced colour and depth
Only replace the colour you need
Print faster!
With an enhanced print engine, waiting
for your photos is a thing of the past!
A 6x4 photo in 24 seconds
A Full A4 photo in just over a minute
5 year guarantee
XL ink cartridges for 1p a page
printing*
Extended 300 page paper capacity
Standalone fax with 50 page ADF
XL ink cartridges for 1p a page printing*
Visit www.office-etc.co.uk for the full range
Exclusive FREE Bundle worth 20
A free extra black ink cartridge and a 50 pack of A4 Glossy
Photo Paper with every new Lexmark All-in-One Printer.
ffice etc
free delivery on everything
verdict
*Based on 105XL black ink cartridges 4.99 (inc. VAT) SRP in pounds sterling and a yield of 510 standard pages,
estimated in accordance with ISO,IEC24711. Actual yields may vary.
T
he arrival of Snow Leopard and
Windows 7 has prompted updates
to both VMWare Fusion and, hot on
its heels, Parallels Desktop for Mac, the two
virtual machine environments that let you run
Windows and other PC operating systems on
your Mac. But which is better?
Aside from support for the latest operating
systems, the big news in Parallels 5 for Mac
is support for 64-bit Windows 7, and 64-bit as
well as 32-bit Snow Leopard hosts, support
for the Aero interface enhancements in
Vista and Windows 7, and the ability to
run Windows over multiple monitors.
At rst glance, though, Parallels 5 looks
like an understated upgrade. Its Virtual
Machines List isnt as ashy as Fusions
equivalent Virtual Machine Library, which
shows live thumbnail views of virtual machine
environments, but its as practical. You can
start and stop virtual machines from here
and, by right-clicking the name of the virtual
machine in the list, edit its conguration.
Parallels doesnt offer the same lengthy
list of supported virtual machines as Fusion
3, but the 60 it does support should satisfy
most. Installing Vista from scratch was as
easy as it was under Fusion, and converting a
Fusion-based virtual machine was seamless.
Like Fusion, Parallels 5 offers several
virtual environment modes, including full-
screen and single window. In full-screen
mode, Parallels 5 adopts a clever effect that
allows you to pull back a corner of the screen
to reveal the underlying Mac background. Its
a neat way to switch control without resorting
to keyboard shortcuts.
Single-window mode has also seen some
improvements. On the left-hand side of the
windows status bar, a button menu lets
you quickly suspend, stop or pause a virtual
machine, while on the right you can switch
between modes.
Coherence is the equivalent of Fusions
Unity mode, allowing Windows applications
to run in a Mac environment. Where Fusion
adds a menu option to control Windows,
Parallels adds a Start menu application icon
and Windows Applications
folder to the Dock. This will
feel familiar to Mac users,
although as each virtual
environment is awarded its
own folder, and even renamed
virtual environments are given
fresh folders, it could quickly
get cluttered. However, a new
variation on Coherence, called
Crystal, removes almost all
trace of Windows by replacing
Parallels desktop icons and
folders with a single menu bar
icon. Right-click this and you
can see available applications;
left-clicking gives access to the
Windows Start menu.
There are a urry of other practical
improvements, including support for Apple
Remote and trackpad gestures, which worked
in Explorer, PowerPoint and Excel. Theres also
the bonus of additional Windows software,
including a years anti-virus subscription (a
deal similar to that offered by Fusion), and free
Windows backup and partitioning software.
How does it perform, though? Parallels
claims to have signicantly improved
graphics performance, with support for
DirectX 9 with Shader Model 3 and OpenGL
2.1. Indeed, in general use, it was faster
than Fusion on our test machine. An XP
virtual machine felt smoother in Parallels,
and the Mac was also more responsive
under Parallels when the virtual machine
was running in the background.
We used Vistas Windows Experience
Index, which determines the suitability
of hardware to run Vista, to gauge basic
performance on that operating system.
As youd expect, Fusion and Parallels
scored identically in memory and hard disk
performance, but Parallels proved faster in
the processor and gaming graphics tests,
while Fusion was marked higher when it came
to other graphics. In real-world use, we felt
Parallels ran Aero more smoothly if hardly
speedily with none of the artifacts that
appeared under Fusion.
Many users are unlikely to need high-
end graphics performance from their virtual
environment, and will instead care about
how quickly the virtual machine can be
launched and suspended. On identical
hardware, Parallels was nearly twice as fast
at suspending and shutting down a Windows
XP virtual machine, and quicker to resume a
suspended virtual machine. Parallels also had
a narrow edge on a Vista virtual machine.
Parallels 5 is an excellent solution if you
need to run Windows or Linux on your Mac.
In performance terms, this version has
leapfrogged ahead of Fusion 3 and while its
more expensive, wed recommend it over
VMWares offering.
Tom Gorham
Parallels Desktop
for Mac
Price 59.99 (52.17 ex VAT); upgrade
34.99 (30.43 ex VAT)
Contact Parallels + parallels.com
Needs Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later +
300MB hard disk space + 1GB Ram
Pros Speed improvements + Bundled
software + Good support for Aero
Cons More expensive than Fusion
Verdict Slightly pricier than Fusion,
but its performance merits the
extra money.
Desktop virtualisation
In the brand-new Crystal mode the presence of the Windows operating
system is almost completely hidden.
The peel back feature in full-screen mode is a great way of switching back to the Mac environment.
Parallels was nearly twice as fast
as Fusionat suspending and
shutting downa Windows XP
virtual machine
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T
his recreation of the 1993 game
lets you punch, chainsaw and blast
your way through the horrors of Mars
across 36 levels. Being unable to crouch,
I
f youre already hooked on Championship
Manager 2010, then youll be delighted
to know that Eidos Interactive has brought
the game to the iPhone, so you can hone your
managerial skills when away from your Mac.
T
he rst installment in the Command
& Conquer series to hit the iPhone
is just what youd expect from the
long-running strategy series. Two factions
ght for supremacy on a 3D terrain in
The game is simple you manage a
football club in one of the top four English
divisions, making the decisions that can
bring your team cup glory or relegation. The
game is played out a couple of days at a time
over the season, punctuated by match days
for league games and cup competitions.
As the manager, you not only pick the
team for each game, but you also determine
its tactics, formation and style of play. On
match days, you watch the team in action,
with options to substitute players and change
tactics to guide it to victory. During the match
itself, youll nd yourself engrossed watching
little dots scoot around your screen, hoping
your star player snatches a winning goal. On
the days when your team isnt playing, you
manage the players training, face the media,
make transfers to strengthen your squad or
remove disruptive players.
When we rst red up the game, we were
expecting a largely cut-down version of the
jump and look up and down seems odd
today, but Doom Classics labyrinthine base
has a real depth to its level design. Careful
exploration will yield hidden arms caches,
and some unpleasant surprises.
Enemies may look like cardboard cutouts,
but coming face to face with a grotesque
monster is still enough to set your pulse
racing. Their grunts and snarls are repetitive,
and of similar calibre to the noise of Pac-Man
guzzling down pills, adding atmosphere to
the red planet. However, its the controls that
are the biggest problem. Three variations are
available, including one that lets you move,
turn, strafe and re. You can be imprecise
when tapping the virtual sticks as the point
where you rst place your thumb becomes
the new centre position, which keeps your
eyes rmly on the action in the centre of the
screen, though our steps were more tentative
than with a mouse and keyboard, not out of
fear of enemies, but of taking a wrong step
and plummeting to our death in one of the
games pits of toxic waste.
There are also four-person cooperative
and deathmatch modes over wi, which adds
some replayability. For a few pounds, you get
an enjoyable blast down memory lane thats
worth keeping around.
desktop game, with many features removed,
so we were surprised to see the bulk of the
features was still present. Championship
Manager 2010 Express is incredibly in-depth
yet easy to pick up, but like the beautiful
game will take a lifetime to master. All-in-all
this is a must-have for football fans and at
2.99 its much less than a season ticket.
a series of real-time battles. Equally
unsurprising is that EA has embraced Apples
in-app purchases mechanism, though
the only content youll nd in the Command
& Conquer Store right now is a 59p pack
of six skirmish maps.
Youll get some additional value from
the game once the free multiplayer update
arrives, but brace yourself for other add-
ons, such as the Empire of the Rising Sun
expansion, to leech more pennies from
warmongers wallets.
The touchscreen interface feels like a
natural substitution for a mouse. Swipe to
explore the landscape, tap and drag around
units to direct them, and pinch to zoom into
the action. Gestures make the gameplay
ow reasonably well, though the view feels
restrictive even when zoomed out to the
greatest degree. That leaves you swiping a
lot to see whats ahead, which gets tiring
after a while.
If youre a huge fan of real-time strategy
games, youll probably persevere. The games
12 levels can be played as the Soviet or
Allied factions, and while the script is far from
a literary gem, the scenario is a classic. The
portable version of Red Alert is a passable
way to hone your battle skills on the road.
Jon Lysons and Alan Stonebridge
DoomClassic
Price 3.99 from the App Store
URL bit.ly/1na3JW
Verdict Doom may look its age, but id
has done a good job of adapting it to
the iPhone. The result isnt perfect, but
theres still plenty of fun to be had for
a few pounds.
iPhone app
Championship
Manager 2010
Express
Price 2.99 from the App Store
URL bit.ly/1fyBmF
Verdict An absorbing game for anyone
with a passion for the beautiful game.
iPhone app
Command
&Conquer
Red Alert
Price 5.99 from the App Store
URL bit.ly/42VbLA
Verdict While the action feels a little
cramped, its controls feel natural.
iPhone app
Doom Classics monsters may look like cardboard
cutouts, but theyre still fun to blast.
This version offers enough strategic warfare to
keep you occupied while away from your Mac.
Choose your formation, style of play and
gamesmanship before watching the drama unfold.
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039
M
icrosofts Bluetooth Keyboard
and Number Pad are designed
for laptop users who prefer to
type on a full-sized keyboard rather than the
keyboard on their notebook. The number pad
is particularly useful for anyone who bought
a recent MacBook and was disappointed to
nd that the option to create a number pad
from the keys on the right-hand side of the
keyboard is no longer there.
Both the keyboard and number pad
connect to your Mac using Bluetooth. We
experienced a little difculty getting the
keyboard to pair: the Macs Bluetooth app
wouldnt recognise the numerical code we
tapped in. However, we were able to resolve
that problem by selecting our own code
and using that.
Once the keyboard and number pad
are paired, theyre recognised by the Mac
whenever theyre in range and switched on.
We found that the curved keyboard took a
little getting used to, mainly because were
not used to typing on a keyboard that shape.
However, after a while it became second
nature and very comfortable to work on.
The keys themselves have enough travel to
make them satisfying to tap, although they do
make a rather loud clackety-clack if you punch
them as hard as were inclined to do.
The number pad also works well and if you
regularly use spreadsheets or an onscreen
calculator to tot up sums, its a huge
improvement on using the regular numbers
on a MacBook.
The keyboard takes two AAA batteries,
while the number pad uses one AA cell. All
are included in the box.
Our only real complaint about the
keyboard is that, although the rear is raised
slightly, theres no stand and it doesnt sit at
enough of an angle for our taste. That really is
a minor point, though, and it doesnt detract
from the usefulness of the keyboard.
We like the Microsoft Bluetooth Keyboard
and Number Pad a great deal. At 50, its not
cheap, but if you spend a signicant amount
of your working life using a laptop at your
desk, its a worthwhile investment indeed.
Kenny Hemphill
MERLINS 5TH
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Words Tom Gorham
Main image Danny Bird
N
ew Year is the time when, traditionally, we break
bad habits and aim to learn better ones. Its an
approach that could happily apply to the way we
work with our Macs.
We know we should be more organised that we
should put in place a backup schedule, stop losing our
contacts and manage our appointments more effectively.
And we know that wed work better if our les were neatly
organised on our Macs.
However, real-life inevitably gets in the way: keeping
track of calendars and contacts is tough if youre away
from your Mac, and however useful a backup routine
might be, doesnt it need a spare drive and self-discipline?
And as for le organisation: how long can that New Years
resolution really last?
The truth is that its easier than you might think to
better organise yourself, because often Mac OS Xs
features and third-party applications can handle the
organisational spade-work for you. For example, Spaces
can save you from distracting applications, Spotlight can
be turned into an ad-hoc project manager, iCal can act as
a reminder assistant no matter where you are, and online
services can manage backups on your behalf.
Over the next few pages, well reveal some organisation
tips for you and your Mac, as well as some advice on
how to better manage your nances and keep your Mac
in tip-top condition.
If you can spare a few quiet festive moments to set
things up, the results should repay that effort several
times over in 2010.
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043
From setting up a
backup schedule to
managing your
money, weve got 20
top tips for making
sure you stick to at
least one of your New
Years resolutions.
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1
Dont add les to the Desktop. Not only is a
cluttered Desktop a drag on productivity les get
lost, and can be a background distraction but
displaying Desktop icons also draws a fractional amount
of processor power. If you cant be organised, use
DeskShade (macrabbit.com/deskshade) to hide them.
2
To keep les and folders associated with a project
organised in one folder, prex their name with
a project code. Next, create a Smart Folder in
the Finder (File > New Smart Folder), and as its criteria,
choose les whose name begins with that code. Save
the folder to your Finder window sidebar.
3
If you lack an iPhone or MobileMe account, it can
be difcult to manage your contacts. However,
Address Book syncs with Google and Yahoo
Mail, so with an account at either, you can keep all your
contacts together. Set it up in Address Books Preferences
window under the Accounts tab.
4
Internet distractions
ruin productivity, and
while there are obvious
ways to avoid them turning
off your router or running
applications in full-screen
mode sometimes self-
discipline can do with some
help. Try the free Self-Control,
which blocks email and web
access for a set duration,
or the more congurable
Concentrate (roobasoft.com).
5
If you keep forgetting
to empty the Trash,
TrashTimer (hieper.nl/
html/trashtimer.html) will help
automate it. Dont forget to
empty iPhotos separate Trash,
which can become bloated
with unwanted images. iMovie
09 shares the Finders Trash,
but remember to discard
unwanted clips. Choose File >
Space Saver and then choose
what to delete.
6
Apples iCal isnt just useful for managing your
ofce or social life it can also open les and
folders for you. Create an event, and in the
Alarm option, choose the option for it to open a le.
This could be a document, le or even an AppleScript
to perform a series of actions.
7
Mail launches and runs signicantly faster with
fewer messages. To archive old email, rst sort
your message database by Date Received. Drag the
oldest emails to a new mailbox folder, select Mailbox >
Archive Mailbox and choose a place to store them. Once
youve archived all of your mail in this way, you can delete
the mailbox folder in Mail.
8
Smart Mailboxes are an underused way to organise
Mail messages, and theyre much more powerful
than Mails simple search tool. Choose Mailbox >
New Smart Mailbox and create multiple criteria that can
gather emails by subject, recipient or even their contents.
Like Smart Folders, these mailboxes update automatically,
so are easily managed.
9
Is your iTunes content hogging precious disk
space? If that sounds horribly familiar, drag your
users Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder to an
external drive. Back in iTunes, choose Preferences and
under the Advanced tab, click on Change. Navigate to the
folders new location. Ensure the Copy Files to iTunes
Media Folder When Adding to Library option is checked.
Finally, delete the original folder.
10
Use a similar technique to that above to
move images and video projects. For images,
copy your iPhoto Library le from your users
Pictures folder. When you next launch iPhoto youll be
asked to locate a library. Navigate to the new location and
click Choose. In iMovie, use the File > Consolidate Media
command to choose the elements to move.
iCal can notify you of events by email, so no matter where you are,
your iCal calendar is useful for keeping appointments.
You can save a lot of
disk space by removing
movie clips you dont
need from iMovie.
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045
Getting your nances in order is a popular New
Years resolution, but its difcult to reconcile the
ideal with the practical drudgery or complexity of
nance applications.
Fortunately, the days of inscrutability are
largely behind us. A new breed of Desktop and
online tools make tracking nances and managing
budgets possible even for the nancially illiterate.
Take MoneyWell (nothirst.com/moneywell).
Rather than adopting the inscrutable double-entry
procedures favoured by accountants, Moneywell
instead adopts a nancial metaphor anyone can
understand: buckets. You set up income buckets
to hold the money coming in, and assign any
budgeted expenditure to expense buckets, such
as rent, groceries, bills or cable TV subscription,
which can be ordered according to priority. If
you overspend, the bucket gives you a visual
warning by turning red.
Online tools, too, are a handy way to get
into the world of low-impact personal nance
management. Wesabe (wesabe.com) lets you
upload bank statements, organise and chart your
nances through tags with minimal fuss. It uses
what it terms collective intelligence to gather and
share merchant reviews and money-saving tips
based on your nancial history.
If you want to track your business as well as
personal nances online, invoicing applications
such as Blinksale (blinksale.com) and FreshBooks
(freshbooks.com) not only let you email invoices
to clients a huge timesaver but also let you
receive payments over the Internet, which can help
with cash ow. You can track paid and overdue
invoices and when it comes to preparing your
accounts for tax early in 2010, you can export
the results to a spreadsheet.
Finances
11
Folder Actions are scripts automatically
performed on les when theyre added to
a folder. To create a Folder Action, Ctrl-click
any folder and choose Folder Actions Setup. You can add
one of the pre-built image manipulation or le conversion
scripts or add your own AppleScript to your users Library/
Scripts/Folder Action Scripts.
12
Mac OS Xs Spaces feature is great for
keeping work applications away from games
and other distractions. Open the Expos &
Spaces System Preferences Pane, drag applications to the
Application Assignments window and assign them a space
in the pop-up menu.
13
If your New Years resolution is to get
things done, youll need help from a project
management utility. If youve grown out of
simple checklists such as Ta-da List (tadalist.com), Things
(culturedcode.com/things), which lets you track multiple
projects and organise them by tags, could be for you.
14
The Finder sidebar gives quick access to
networked drives and devices, but its also
a great application launcher or place to
store project folders or images. Just drag les, folders or
applications to the sidebar from any Finder window and
they will appear in every window you subsequently open.
15
Take the guesswork out of billable time next
year. Billings 3 (billingsapp.com) and On The
Job (stuntsoftware.com) are two excellent
utilities to track what you do and then turn the results
into good-looking invoices. On a tighter budget? The free
WorkTimer (gersh.no) does basic tracking and lets you
export the results.
16
A crowded Dock is the bane of the
busy designer. To avoid clutter, organise
applications there by topic. Create
appropriately named folders containing aliases of related
applications, such as graphic design or web development
tools, and then drag these to the right-hand side of the
Dock so that they become easily opened stacks.
17
Leopard users can sync iCal with
Google Calendar (instructions at google.
com/support/calendar/bin/answer.
py?hl=en&answer=99358#ical), but iCal can email
reminders anywhere. Select the event in iCal, and in its
Event Info windows Alarm tab, choose the email option.
The Spaces feature
has a useful side
benet: arranging
applications so they
dont distract you.
Attaching actions to
folders can save a lot
of time and effort.
There are standard ground rules for keeping your
Mac running at its best, such as plenty of Ram and
a speedy hard disk. However, other quick checks
will improve stability throughout 2010.
First, make sure you have plenty of disk space,
so applications run as speedily and reliably as they
can. While you can save space by moving media to
an external drive or deleting unwanted applications,
some les and folders slip through the net. The
free utility Grand Perspective (grandperspectiv.
sourceforge.net) is great for nding such
recalcitrant les.
The best tools for checking system health are
already on your Mac, such as Disk Utility, which
can spot the signs of a failing hard drive. System
Proler is a less well-known tool. It can reveal
important clues about your Macs health. Under the
Power heading of its single window, you can check
battery age and health, while the Logs section
holds important details about crashes.
Out-of-date software particularly PowerPC-
based software on Intel machines is a hard-
to-spot speed drag. Even here, System Proler
can help. Under its Applications heading, it lists
installed software together with the platform for
which it was built.
Another big cause of system problems is
bloated or corrupt system or browser caches.
System caches can be removed manually from
your System/Library folder and in Safari you can
choose Safari > Empty Cache to tidy things up, but
free utility Onyx (titanium.free.fr) does it quickly,
while repairing permissions and performing other
maintenance tasks at the same time.
Keep your Mac running
optimally and prevent crashes
By adding comments
to it, any le can be
tracked by Spotlight.
20
Spotlights a handy organisational tool, but
how do you track les it cant index? The
answer is to tag them. To do this, select a
le in the Finder and choose File > Get Info. Add tags
such as project or client in the Spotlight comments eld,
and Spotlight will nd them.
18
Offsite backup
has come of
age. BackBlaze
(backblaze.com) allows unlimited
backup including attached hard
drives for 40 per year. The rst
backup is slow it took a month
to copy our hard drive over but
the advantages are worth it:
its always on and data can be
restored from anywhere.
Apples Services menu is great in Snow Leopard, and even better
when you write your own actions.
19
Snow Leopard revolutionises the Services
menu, and with Automator you can
create services for tasks such as resizing
thumbnails. In Automator, select Service and click Choose.
In the workow area, select Service received selected
les or folders in Finder.app. Drag the Create Thumbnail
Images action underneath it. Choose thumbnail size and
sufx. Save and name: easy.
046
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Always on, hardly any setup. For
less than 50 per year, BackBlaze
is an inexpensive addition to Time
Machine backups.
Words: Nik Rawlinson + Kenny Hemphill
Main image: Danny Bird
T
he decade is drawing to a close. It hardly seems possible
that its a full 10 years since we were worrying about planes
falling out the sky and power stations shutting down under
the relentless force of the Millennium Bug. Well, that turned out to
be a big fuss over nothing.
After a shaky start, though, the Noughties really picked up,
and nowhere more so than in the world of the Mac. This time 10
years ago, there was no iPhone. There was no iPod, come to that.
Google didnt enjoy the dominance it does today, and the Mac was
still a PowerPC machine through and through.
What the next 10 years will bring, we can only guess, but you
can be sure it will build on the successes of the past decade. So,
come with us as we look back on the rst 10 years of the 21st
Century and relive the good times, the bad times, and the just
plain weird happenings of the years 2000 to 2009.
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the
N
oughties
draw
to
a
close, lets
look
back
at how
w
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lived
through
Apples
golden
years
and
see
just how
far w
eve
com
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Special thanks to Square Group LTD for
supplying the iMac for our photoshoot
048
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1 JANUARY
The world enters a newmillennium
and fears of widespread computer
failure due to the MillenniumBug
fail to materialise
MARCH
Dot-com
bubble bursts
The late 1990s saw the most extraordinary rise in the share prices of technology
companies. It seemed that any business with an Internet-related product was
unstoppable. And stock market otations raised huge sums of money for the likes
of MP3.com and Palm, which immediately after its IPO was worth more than former
parent, 3Com. Eventually, the market realised the error of its ways and corrected itself
with a huge crash. Thousands of
companies went to the wall, but
the strongest, such as Amazon
and eBay, survived.
JULY
Power Mac G4 Cube ships
The Cube was a masterpiece. The Mac itself
was perfectly cube shaped, but housed inside
a clear Perspex chimney to aid cooling. The
slot-loading optical drive was housed vertically,
so CDs slid in and popped out like bread in
a toaster, and it shipped with Apples digital
audio spherical speakers. It really was a thing
of beauty. Unfortunately, it was also very
expensive. Priced in the same region as a
Power Mac tower, but much less powerful, the
Power Mac G4 Cube was neither a consumer
machine nor a professional workstation. As a
result, it failed to nd a market, sold miserably
and was swiftly withdrawn.
SEPTEMBER
Clamshell iBooks last stand September 2000 marked the last hurrah for the toilet
seat iBook. First introduced in July 1999, the iBook G3s
brightly coloured clamshell case and carry handle grabbed
almost as much attention as the rst iMac had a year
earlier. The September 2000 model retained the G3
processor in 366MHz and 466MHz congurations. The
faster of the two, known as the iBook SE, was available
in Key Lime or Graphite, while the slower model came
in Indigo and Key Lime. For the rst time on the iBook,
both congurations featured FireWire ports.
ket realised th
SEPTEMBER
The birth of a new OS
Apples next-generation operating system
had been a long-time coming. During the
1990s it had developed an OS codenamed
Copland and then scrapped it. Then it toyed
with the idea of buying Jean-Louis Gasses
BeOS, before in 1996 it acquired Steve
Jobs NeXT and began work on what was
codenamed Rhapsody. That operating system
was released as Mac OS X Server 1.0 in
1999, and then was effectively scrapped.
Much of the development though, made it
into Darwin, the open-source underpinnings
of Mac OS X, which debuted with a public
beta on 13 September 2000.
THE YEAR THAT
Wifi standard takes off
Apple introduced its rst Mac with built-in
wi, the iBook, in 1999, but it wasnt until
the following year that the standard really
took off. Companies rushed to market with
wi adaptors, bridges, routers and eventually
all sorts of peripherals with built-in wireless
interfaces. Most of us were still hamstrung
by dial-up Internet connections and so unable
to enjoy all the benets of wireless surng,
but that changed the following year when
Broadband Britain emerged.
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FEBRUARY
DVD burning for all
By 2001, the DVD format had reached critical
mass and replaced VHS as the media of
choice for buying and watching movies and
TV programmes. However, creating your own
DVD video discs was a hugely expensive
business that involved complex software and
outsourcing to specialist DVD duplication
companies. All that changed for Mac users
when Apple bought DVDirector from Astarte
and turned it into DVD Studio Pro. At the
same time it shipped a DVD recorder, the
SuperDrive, in the high-end Power Mac and the
age of DVD movie-making was upon us. By the
end of the decade though, DVD was already
obsolete, replaced by Blu-ray and web video.
MAY
White iBooks launched
If the clamshell iBook seemed a little like
a toy, due to its styling and distinct lack of
power, the new iBook was something else
entirely. Styled to look much more like Apples
professional PowerBook range, the iBook
was smaller and lighter than its predecessor,
featured a faster processor, more Ram, VGA
out, stereo speaker and a higher-resolution
12.1in screen. The top-end model was the
rst Mac to feature a CD-RW/DVD-Rom combo
drive. It also featured two USB sockets and
one FireWire port.
JULY
Quicksilver G4 rolls out
The Quicksilver G4 wasnt the rst Power
Mac to feature Motorolas G4 processor,
but it was a signicant step forward from
the Graphite G4s it replaced. It featured
Motorolas Power PC G4 7450, an AltiVec
Velocity engine running at 733MHz or
867MHz, and a dual-processor 800MHz
model. It also featured the SuperDrive DVD
burner in both the middle-of-the-range and
top-end model, bringing it within reach of
many more Mac users.
11 SEPTEMBER
Two hijacked
planes crashed into
the World Trade
Center in NewYork,
destroying them. A
third crashed at the
Pentagon with a fourth
crashing in Pennsylvania.
Almost 3000 people
were killed
OCTOBER
Enter the iPod
Whats left to say about the iPod? Unveiled at a
special event in the US in October 2001, and
launched in the UK in November, Apples MP3
player changed the face of the portable digital
portable music market. It had a 5GB hard drive
enough to store, according to Apples famous
tag line: 1000 songs in your pocket. More
importantly, it had a FireWire port, meaning you
could ll it in minutes, rather than the hours it
would have taken with a USB 1.1 connection.
THE YEAR THAT
Internet goes broadband
While the promise of fast, always-on Internet
had been tantalising us for years, it wasnt
until 2001 that major ISPs began to roll out
ADSL and cable Internet connections for
consumers. Mac users, as so often is the
case, were left frustrated by the USB modems
that many ISPs used because their driver
software didnt work properly on the Mac.
Things improved quickly though, as more
PCs gained Ethernet ports and ISPs moved
away from USB modems to Ethernet devices,
which nally made good on the promise of
always-on Internet access.
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JANUARY
iMac G4 changes design direction
When Apple nally switched the iMac from its ageing G3 processor to a G4, it didnt just
rearrange the innards: it completely redesigned and redened its consumer desktop Mac.
The result was a dome-shaped computer with a 15in LCD screen and an arm that wouldnt
have looked out of place on an anglepoise lamp. Indeed, the similarity to Pixars Luxo
character was irresistible. The arm was fully adjustable and the screen could be moved
up, down or around in an arc with the push of only a couple of ngers. We worried about
the strength and durability of that arm, and had visions of sorry-looking drooping iMacs.
However, Apple assured us it had been tested to withstand years of adjustment, and it
was right we never did hear of a single case of drooping iMac syndrome.
APRIL
eMac targets schools
Having whittled Apples Mac range down
to a very neat 2 x 2 matrix professional
desktop, professional laptop, consumer
desktop and consumer laptop Apple
then muddied the waters by launching the
eMac. Initially only available to educational
establishments, the snow-white all-in-one
looked a little like the early iMac. It featured
a G4 processor, at CRT screen and became
very popular not just with schools and
colleges, but in ofces and in homes, too.
MAY
Xserve means business
By 2002, Apple had consolidated its position
as the computer of choice for creative
professionals, begun to claw back market
share in education and started to become
more popular among consumers. Next on
the agenda was the enterprise market. Big
businesses had ignored the Mac in favour
of Windows PCs, but Apple knew Mac OS X
and its Unix heritage could change that. In
2002, it introduced its rst rackmount server,
the Xserve. Built to run Mac OS X Server and
with the same design values and attention
to detail as every other Mac, it began to
make inroads and was slowly but steadily
adopted by large organisations.
MAY/JUNE
The Queen
celebrates
her Golden
Jubilee with
a tour of
Britain and
a Party in
the Palace
THE YEAR THAT
USB 2 vs FireWire hots up Before USB 2, connection interfaces on the Mac were split into two easily distinguishable types: USB 1.1 handled peripherals, such
as printers and scanners, that didnt
need fast data transfer; and FireWire was
used for hard drives, video cameras and
anything else where speed was critical. That changed with the launch of USB 2, whose
bandwidth of 480Mbits/sec was, in theory
at least, more than a match for FireWire.
Peripheral manufacturers gradually removed FireWire interfaces from their hard drives
and scanners, and it seemed as though
FireWires days could well be numbered. JULY
Apple buys Emagic
By 2002, Final Cut Pro was beginning to establish itself as the video editing application of choice for many professional movie makers. Perhaps spurred
on by this success, Apple attempted to repeat the trick in the music-making industry. It bought Logics developer, Emagic, and immediately ended support for PC versions of the application. It then set about making Logic Pro on the Mac the best sequencer and audio recording application on any platform. The Emagic acquisition also spawned Logic Express and GarageBand.
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JANUARY
PowerBook G4 17in ships
In January 2003, Apple announced a laptop
with a screen that was bigger than the
one many people had on their desktop.
The PowerBook 17in boasted a screen
resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels and was
the most powerful laptop Apple had ever
sold. It was the rst ever Mac to feature
FireWire 800, the new 800Mbits/sec version
of FireWire. It was also one of the rst Macs
to feature AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth.
The new laptop was available in one
conguration, with a 1GHz G4 processor,
512MB of Ram, and a 60GB hard drive.
APRIL
The Human
Genome project
is completed
with 99% of the
human genome
sequenced, with
99.99% accuracy
APRIL
The iTunes Music Store
By 2003, the iPod was beginning to move
beyond its initial market of enthusiasts and
early adopters. Tabloid newspaper pictures
of celebrities jogging wearing the iconic
white earbuds helped it along, but it was
the iTunes Music Store that really made it
take off. Apple managed to negotiate deals
with major record labels and independents
that enabled it to sell thousands of songs
and albums at one price. At a stroke, it
made downloading music legally very easy
and created a whole new market for the
music industry.
FEBRUARY
Google buys Blogger
Blogs are now such a fundamental part
of the web that it seems hard to believe
that at the turn of the decade, the idea of a database-driven platform for presenting
an online diary was alien to all but a few
imaginative developers. It wasnt WordPress or Moveable Type that took blogging to
the masses, but Blogger. Created by Pyra
Labs and launched in 1999, it was Pyras
acquisition by Google in 2003 that brought Blogger and blogging to millions of diarists, campaigners and would-be entrepreneurs.
MARCH
Google launches Adsense
Search giant, Google had been selling advertising space alongside
its search engine listings for a few years. In 2003, it took this a
step further and invited website publishers to display its adverts on
their sites in return for a percentage of the revenue. In doing so, it
provided a revenue stream for thousands of site owners, who had
previously regarded their websites only as hobbies. It also indirectly
created tens of thousands of spammy, content-free sites, whose
only purpose was to attract visitors by any means possible in the
hope that enough of them would click on the Adsense adverts to
make their owners rich.
JUNE
Power Mac G5
plays it cool
The G5 chip was the last hurrah for
PowerPC and Apples relationship
with Motorola. The Power Mac G5
featured the rst 64-bit processor
on a Mac and had an aluminium
chassis whose insides were
designed to help the warm air from
the processors ow away from
the motherboard. The G5 was a
powerful CPU, but Motorola had
been unable to get it to run without
generating signicant heat. Apple
was unable, therefore, to use it in
the MacBook Pro and eventually
abandoned PowerPC altogether
in favour of Intel processors.
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AUGUST
iMac G5 breaks the mould
Rumours of a new iMac design in which the
innards of the computer would be housed
behind the screen had been around for
sometime. So it was no great surprise when,
in August 2004, Apple unveiled the iMac G5.
It was a tribute to the design skill of Jonathan
Ives team that, despite the well-known heat
problems with the G5, they managed to
cram the whole lot into a case only 2in thick.
Available in 17in and 20in versions, it formed
the basis for the aluminium iMac case thats
still used today.
JUNE
SpaceShipOne,
partly funded
by Microsoft
co-founder Paul
Allen, is the first
privately funded
spaceplane
to achieve
space ight
JUNE
iTunes Store opens in UK
European iPod owners had looked across the
Atlantic in envy at the growing number of songs
and albums available in the US iTunes Music
Store, but that ended in June 2004 when Steve
Jobs ew to London to unveil a UK Store along
with several other European Stores. The pricing
model was the same as that for the US Store:
albums were priced at 7.99, while individual
tracks cost 79p. Anyone hoping that would be the
catalyst for an agreement to include the music
of iTunes biggest omission, the Beatles, was
disappointed, though. The rumours of Beatles
music on iTunes continue. For the moment,
however, its notable only by it absence.
JANUARY
iPod mini hits the streets
The forerunner of the nano, the iPod mini was the rst iPod to stray from the all-white
chassis of previous models. It was prettier and smaller than its sibling, but had less
storage: only 4GB. Some saw it as the iPod for fashion victims; others, who didnt need
to carry thousands of songs around with them, loved it. At 199, the mini was only
50 cheaper than the 15GB regular iPod, and that made it a tough sell, even for Apple.
The mini didnt last long and was replaced by the even more svelte nano.
AUGUST
Steve Jobs illness
In the summer of 2004, Jobs wrote to Apple
employees to tell them he had been diagnosed
with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He told
them he would be having surgery and would
need a few weeks to recover, but would be
back at the helm of Apple in the autumn.
Subsequent reports suggested he had, in fact,
been diagnosed the previous year and had
agreed to the Whipple procedure only after
attempting to treat it with a change of diet.
Jobs health was a cause for concern again
in 2008, when he visibly lost weight. In early
2009, he travelled to Memphis in Tennessee
for a liver transplant.
SEPTEMBER
iPod photo adds colour
The iPod photo was notable for one reason
only: it was the rst iPod to feature a colour
screen. That screen was put to use in a
redesigned user interface and in the feature
that gave the iPod photo its name: the ability
to transfer and view photos. The headphone
socket doubled as an AV output, which could
be connected to a TV to view slideshows. And
the dock that shipped with it had an S-Video
output for the same purpose. Photos were
transferred using iPhoto on the Mac and by
syncing with designated folders on a PC.
6 JULY
London wins the bid
for the 2012 Olympics
6 JUNE
PowerPC unplugged
After months of chatter and
speculation, Steve Jobs conrmed
at Apples Worldwide Developers
Conference that the company would
be transitioning all of its computers
from PowerPC to Intel processors. The
implications were huge, meaning that
developers would have to re-code their
applications for the new architecture,
and Apple would have the only legal
computer line-up capable of running
both Windows and Mac OS X
simultaneously if necessary.
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11 JANUARY
Mac mini announced
Apple announced its smallest computer to date at least
if you dont count the Newton MessagePad when Steve
Jobs took the wraps off the Mac mini. It looked like a
stopgap machine to ll out Apples product line and give
it a computer in the lower-priced end of the market. Its
appearance wasnt entirely surprising, as commentators
had been talking of a headless iMac in the works for
some time. What was surprising was just how small it
was and how tightly Apple had packed in the components,
requiring a wallpaper scraper if you wanted to do any
upgrades or DIY spec changes. Some said it was a short-
term x, but its still going strong ve years later.
5 MAY
General Election:
Labour wins
under Tony Blairs
leadership for
a third term
7 DECEMBER
Hello .eu
The European Union launched the .eu top-level domain, which
replaced .eu.int not only as the domain of the Unions own
sites (now focused on europa.eu) and, for the rst time,
became available to third-party individuals and organisations,
who were able to register domains within the .eu space from
7 April the following year. This led to a number of high-prole
races to snag the most desirable names, such as the three-
way sprint between Volkswagen, Nestl and Ralph Lauren to
snap up Polo. If you want to see who won, click on polo.eu.
15 FEBRUARY
YouTube goes online
Three former PayPal employees, Steve Chen,
Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, founded
the world-changing YouTube in early 2005,
giving the online masses a portal through
which they could post video and movie
content legal or otherwise for viewing
by a global audience. Its slogan was and
still is Broadcast Yourself and nobody
could have guessed at the time just how
big it would become. By 2007, estimates
put YouTubes trafc equal to that of the
entire Internet back in 2000.
20 JANUARY
George W Bush
inaugurated for his
second term of office
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JANUARY
Apple outgrows Dell
Michael Dell, when asked what he would
do if he were running Apple, once famously
answered that he would sell off its assets and
give the money back to its shareholders. You
cant help but wonder whether those words
came back to haunt him when, in January
2006, Apples market capitalisation exceeded
that of his eponymous computer rm.
10 JANUARY
Intel Macs arrive
Apple unveiled the rst two machines in its line-up to have made the switch to Intel processors:
the iMac and the MacBook Pro. That latter machine heralded a new product name for Apple,
with the machine replacing the much-loved PowerBook line, albeit in a very similar shell.
JANUARY
13 NOVEMBER
GooTube is born
Little more than a year after it was
founded, YouTube was snapped
up by Google for a staggering
$1.65 billion (then worth about
883 million) of its own stock.
13 OCTOBER
Ban Ki-moon
is elected
Secretary-
General of the
United Nations
16 MARCH
Blu-ray enters the scene
The format may have been set at the start
of the decade, but it took until 2006 for
Blu-ray to nally appear on sale in the US. It
was immediately up against stiff competition
in the form of rival HD DVD in the battle to
become the successor to plain old DVD for
data storage, movie playback and high-
denition audio. Blu-ray, as we now know,
nally won out when Toshiba announced
it was shutting down its HD DVD player
production lines in February 2008. To date,
Apple doesnt ship any machines with built-in
Blu-ray drives and, given the companys move
towards downloads and remote software
installation using drives in nearby machines,
it would seem its unlikely ever to do so.
13 JULY
Apple gets its shoes on
Apple and Nike teamed up to produce the
Nike+ transmitter and receiver device, allowing
buyers to use the iPod as a training tool.
The transmitter tted in the sole of special
Nike shoes and transmitted workout data to
a receiver plugged into the Dock connector
of an iPod (and now built into the touch
internally). When connected to iTunes, the
iPod posted the data to the nikeplus.com
portal, enabling users to compare their
performance against that of others.
7 AUGUST
The end of PowerPC
Apple completed its transition to Intel
processors, announcing it wouldnt ship
any further PowerPC-based machines. The
transition was completed ahead of schedule,
with the Mac Pro nishing off the new line-up.
Like the MacBook, which had hints of the
iBook, and the iMac, which was more or less
externally identical to the PowerPC edition,
the Mac Pro used the same case as the G5-
based Power Mac, giving the message that
despite the new processors, it was business
as usual and all the machines performed the
same functions as the models they replaced.
NOVEMBER
Battle of the consoles
Sony and Nintendo went head-to-head in
November 2006, launching, respectively, the
PlayStation 3 and Wii into the US market. Here
in Europe, we had to wait a while to get our
hands on the machines until 8 December
for the Wii and 23 March the following
year for the PS3. By the end of September
2009, Sony had shipped 27 million PS3s
and Nintendo a massive 56.14 million Wiis.
Microsofts Xbox 360 had been on the market
since 22 November 2005.
27 OCTOBER
Leopard arrives
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard nally shipped,
having been delayed when Apple devoted
much of its engineering resources to getting
the iPhone out of the door and through
regulator approval. Fortunately, it was worth
the wait, introducing key features such as
Spaces and Time Machine. It was the last
edition of the Mac operating system to
support PowerPC-based machines. Under the
hood, it beefed up security by introducing
application sandboxing and signing.
5 SEPTEMBER
New iPods unveiled
As tradition dictates, Apple
launched a raft of new iPods,
including the third-generation
(square) nano, the classic
and new entrant to the line-
up, the touch. Boasting many
of the features of the iPhone,
but without the camera or
cellphone capabilities, Steve
Jobs described it as training
wheels for the iPhone, although
it seemed unlikely that many
people would have bought one
just to see whether the iPhone
was right for them.
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7
JANUARY
Celebrity Big
Brother race row
9 JANUARY
iPhone, TV and the
end of Computer
Apple announced the iPhone and Apple TV
during Steve Jobs San Francisco keynote
address, heralding the next phase of the
companys evolution, taking it into two new
markets. The iPhone was hotly tipped and
an obvious success, but Apple TVs growth
since that date had been rather slower,
despite updates to both the hardware and
software. On the same day, Jobs announced
Apple would be dropping the word Computer
from its name: it was now just Apple Inc.
30
JANUARY
Microsoft
releases
Windows
Vista
21 MARCH
Apple TV ships
MAY
The rights
and wrongs
of DRM
Apple started selling tracks
from EMIs catalogue on the
iTunes Store without any DRM
protection. The move followed an
open letter written by Steve Jobs
outlining Apples desire to sell
DRM-free music to consumers,
explaining that its down to the
record labels whether or not
its able to do so. Other music
labels soon followed suit, offering
not only DRM-free tracks, but
also higher-quality music.
24 JUNE
Millennium
Dome re-opens
as the O2
27 JUNE
Gordon Brown takes
over from
Tony Blair
as Prime Minister
29 JUNE
iPhone ships
21 JULY
Final Harry
Potter book
released
27 JUN UNE
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17 FEBRUARY
Northern Rock is
nationalised at the
start of the recession
OCTOBER
iPhone success
confirmed
With only one current model in its
inventory and less than two years in
the market, Apple was named the
third biggest mobile phone supplier
in the world. Not bad for a company
that many of its better-established
cellphone rivals wrote off when it
announced it was going to play them
at their own game.
JUNE 27
Bill Gates
steps down as
chairman of
Microso to
concentrate on
his charitable
activities
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8 AUGUST
Opening of
the Beijing
Olympics
29 FEBRUARY
Playing with time
Apple built on the success of Time Machine by
introducing Time Capsule, its own external hard
drive system. It incorporated a wireless router,
allowing notebook users to automatically
back up their systems whenever they were
connected. This product was launched on a
leap years extra day. Coincidence or a neat
play on the theme of time?
11 JULY
Apps add another string
to Apples iTunes Store
On the same day that Apple upgraded the
iPhone to the iPhone 3G, it announced the
arrival of the App Store, allowing developers
to write native software for the handset,
and consumers to download applications
to expand its feature set. It gave birth to a
benign monster, which now hosts more than
100,000 apps more than any rival many
of which are free. This, as much as anything
else, has contributed to the enormous
success of the iPhone.
9 SEPTEMBER
Nano mark four goes long
Another generation, another shape. As the nano
hit mark four, it switched from square and sleek to
skyscraper-esque tall and curved. The smallest iPod
with a screen saw a radical overhaul and incorporated
the same accelerometer as that found in the touch
and iPhone, allowing it to change to CoverFlow mode
as you turned it on one side and play movies in
widescreen as they were supposed to be shown.
9 JULY
.Mac morphs
into MobileMe
MobileMe opened for
business. It wasnt much
more than a rebranding of
the old .Mac service, but the
less Mac-specic name was
intended to appeal to PC-using
iPhone owners, who could
have a desirable @me.com
email address. It built on
.Macs success by beeng up
the web hosting features and
introducing a brand-new Web
2.0-style interface for the email
and calendaring tools.
25 JUNE
Michael Jackson dies
1 JUNE
Air France ight from
Rio to Paris crashes
into the Atlantic
14 JANUARY
Jobs takes a
job break
Steve Jobs announced to the world
that he was going to take a six-month
leave of absence from Apple. This
came just nine days after he had
announced on Apples corporate site
that he was suffering from a hormone
imbalance, so there was much
media speculation and intrusion.
During his absence, he moved to a
house in Memphis, Tennessee, and
there underwent a liver transplant,
allowing him to return to Apple, as
scheduled, six months after his
temporary departure.
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061
9 SEPTEMBER
The teeny tiny shufe
The iPod shufe got even smaller, with the
third generation returning to an upright
format, but still without the integrated
USB plug. This shufe really was smaller
than a stick of gum, and a whole lot more
entertaining, with new VoiceOver features
to announce the names of tracks and
playlists as they came up.
20 JANUARY
Barack Obama
inaugurated
as 44th US
President
19 JUNE
iPhone 3GS debuts
The third-generation iPhone the 3GS
hit the shelves, but it wasnt such a
radical upgrade as some had expected.
The S in its name denoted the extra
speed, and the only material changes
to the hardware spec were a higher-
resolution camera (three megapixels
rather than two) and a compass to
back up the integrated GPS receiver.
28 AUGUST
Snow Leopard unveiled
Apple took the wraps off Mac OS X
10.6, the seventh generation of its
current operating system, having
stripped out the code that made it
compatible with PowerPC processors.
This effectively ended the companys
transition to the Intel platform. In
light of the fact that there were very
few obvious enhancements for end
users, Apple set the low price of 25
for retail copies.
25
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Trams LTD
Central London and Christchurch, Dorset
One of the UKs premier Apple resellers and Authorised
Service Providers. With 20,000 items available online, we
provide a comprehensive range of products and services
Call 020 7636 6667 Email help@micromend.co.uk
MicroMend Ltd
3 Tottenham Street, London, W1
(Near Goodge Street Tube station)
Walk-in computer repair centre Fast turnaround
Apple Authorised technicians Data Recovery Service
iPod repairs
URL www.cbshltd.co.uk Email salesteam@cbshltd.co.uk
Call 01823 430530
CBSH Ltd
Taunton, Somerset
Distributor of Mac accessories, laptop bags and cases
Exciting new UK range, XGear, Sumo, Mobile Edge & Maddie
Powers Great Customer Service Looking for resellers
URL squaregroup.co.uk Email sales@squaregroup.co.uk
Call 0800 08 27753
Square Group Ltd
Central London High Wycombe Derby
Apple Premium Reseller Video, Print & Publishing &
Education Apple Solution Experts Apple Authorised Service
Provider Training Centre
URL macwarehouse.co.uk
Email sales@macwarehouse.co.uk Call 0800 611116
MacWarehouse
South East
Your one-stop shop for everything Apple at exceptional
prices. With all the Mac expertise you need to support your
growing business
Call 01527 570535 Fax 01527 570355
URL atg-it.co.uk
Apple Tree Graphics LTD
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
Apple Centre Retail and business showroom
Training for major software packages Pre-sales and
consultancy Network design and installation
local dealers
Scotland
North
Wales
Midlands
South-west
South-east
London
Nationwide
LOCATION
FINDER
URL encompassuk.com
Email sales@encompassuk.com Call 01462 790773
Encompass
Home Counties
Authorised Service Provider Mac OS X server specialist
Mac OS X Leopard roll-out Digital colour specialist
Consultancy (network design) Cross platform
URL ctsolutions.uk.net URL ctsolutionsretail.com
Email info@ctsolutions.uk.net Call 01376 501536
CT Solutions
Premium Reseller Store in Chelmsford
Apple Authorised Reseller with 10+ years experience
Experts in total solutions, networking, consumables and
training Apple products in an exciting and vibrant store
URL serviceweb.co.uk Email sales@serviceweb.co.uk
Call 01227 794768 Fax 01227 792765
Serviceweb Ltd
Kent
Authorised Reseller and Service Provider On-site and carry-in
service Software and hardware installations iPod service
Xserve specialist Showroom Windows-to-Mac migration
Call 0845 6863500 URL cancomuk.com
Cancom
Brighton Cambridge Edinburgh Guildford
Kensington High Street
Europes largest Apple Reseller Apple Solutions Expert
in Education Authorised Apple Service Provider
Congure your Mac on our advanced website
Call 0800 756 9905 Email support@coretechnicalsolutions.co.uk
URL www.coretechnicalsolutions.co.uk
Onsite and workshop repair services Helpdesk and
Remote support Apple Certied technicians Sales
and Installations Businesses and Home users
Core Technical Solutions
London, Surrey and surrounding areas
Call 020 8400 1250 Email info@computerwarehouse.co.uk
URL computerwarehouse.co.uk
Computer Warehouse
London and the South East
Visit our shop and showroom in West London Open to
the public Monday to Saturday Apple Solutions Expert in
Audio, Video & Education Full nance and leasing options
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Call 01782 563999 Email sales@slelectrotech.co.uk
URL slelectrotech.co.uk
SL Electrotech (Instrumentation) Ltd
Newcastle
Apple Authorised Service Provider & Reseller Fast Turnaround
On-site and Workshop repair services Helpdesk and Remote
Support Showroom Apple Business Solutions and Consultancy
Call 01603 631801 or 01603 623623
URL bitesystems.co.uk Email sales@bitesystems.co.uk
Bite Systems
Weavers House, Mountergate, Norwich, Norfolk
Apple Authorised Reseller and Authorised Service Provider
Retail and business showroom Showroom open Mon-Fri
9am-5.30pm, Sat 10am-1pm On-site repairs and installations
Call 0870 444 4990 Fax 0870 444 1373
URL mccdigital.com
MCC Group
Warrington Chester Liverpool Stoke-on-Trent
Apple Premium Reseller Apple Solutions Experts
for Education and Video Apple Authorised Service Providers
Training Installation Maintenance
Call 01723 374196 Call 01904 796580
Buy Online jcsltd.co.uk
Jennings Computer Services Ltd
Scarborough and York
Authorised Apple Reseller & Service Centre Apple warranty
repair Out-of-warranty repair Mac, iPod, accessories,
upgrades Cross-platform support Online store
Call 0845 094 9820 Email info@i-aberdeen.co.uk
URL www.i-aberdeen.co.uk
i-Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Fully managed & cost-effective ICT service Specialists in
Apple Setup, Maintenance, & Repairs Broadband, Networking
& Web Solutions Cross-platform, OS X & Windows support
Call 0161 605 3838 Email sales@gbmdt.co.uk
URL gbmdt.co.uk
GBM Digital Technologies LTD
Manchester
Retail and business sales specialists with a technical
support team to provide maintenance, installation and
support services for business and education
Call 0151 291 6240 Email info@thebookyard.com
URL www.thebookyard.com
The Bookyard Ltd.
Liverpool, Nationwide Service
Online store offering new and used Apple spare parts with
next-day delivery Old or faulty Apple hardware purchased and
recycled Expert diagnosis & repairs with nationwide collection
Call 0560 244 7377 Email info@istereos.co.uk
URL istereos.co.uk
istereos.co.uk
Nationwide
Purveyor of audio equipment with USB inputs (including
USB turntable rentals), which transform your Mac into a
ne hi- set
Meet your local dealer
We catch up with your local dealer to find out
all about the services that it offers to Mac
users. This issue, we talk to SLi about its
commitment to customer service.
E
stablished in back in 1995, SLi is
an Apple Authorised Service Provider.
Based in Newcastle-under-Lyme,
Staffordshire, the company is within easy
reach of the M6/A34 trafc. It offers an easy,
walk-in repair facility for all Apple products
both in and out of warranty. Its open for
business six days a week.
We are the only local Apple Authorised
Service Provider that repairs all products
in our workshop. We dont send desktop/
laptop systems away for repair says
managing director Simon Birch. This is
important, and enables us to turn a repair
around in a matter of hours and not days.
We support all sizes of businesses, as
well as the Soho user, explains technical
manager Chris Rigby. One moment we will
be repairing an iMac and the next supporting
a Mac network within the public sector.
We are frequently called out to
customers problems on-site and are there
within a couple of hours claims senior
Technician Jay Carney. We also provide
telephone and remote support, as well
as our workshop facility.
SLi also sells all Apple products and is
a Sonos wireless music systems dealer as
well, which it believes slots in beautifully
within the Apple product range.
A year ago, SLi was appointed a Konica
Minolta Business Systems dealer, selling
and supporting the range of Konica Minolta
products from A4 to SRA3 paper, with
fantastic quality output.
Konica Minolta
is the best in its
eld, claims Birch,
and we are proud
to be appointed
the local dealer.
It came to us
because we are
well-placed in the
marketplace to
provide the right
solution to the end
user. He believes
that SLi can provide
a complete solution
to customers
requirements.
SLi
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Call 01782 563999
Email sales@slelectrotech.co.uk
URL www.slelectrotech.co.uk
Apple Authorised Service Provider &
Reseller Fast Turnaround
On-site and Workshop repair services
Helpdesk and Remote Support Showroom
Apple Business Solutions and Consultancy
Top 5 displays
LG Flatron M2294 Wide LCD TV Monitor
Rating 4 Reviewed 07/11/08 URL lge.com
AG Neovo E-W22 LCD
Rating 4 Reviewed 15/02/08 URL ag-neovo.co.uk
Eizo CG301W
Rating 4 Reviewed 01/02/08 URL eizo.co.uk
Samsung SyncMaster XL2370
Rating 4 Reviewed 06/11/09 URL samsung.com/uk
APPLE LED
CINEMA DISPLAY
The rst LED-based Cinema
Display is designed for
MacBooks with a Mini
DisplayPort, and it can be
used to charge them, too.
Reviewed 16/01/09
URL apple.com/uk
Top 5 external hard drives
Western Digital My Book Studio II 4TB
Rating 5 Reviewed 03/07/09 URL wdc.com
Freecom Hard Drive Pro 1TB
Rating 4 Reviewed 02/01/09 URL freecom.com
LaCie 5big Network 5TB
Rating 4 Reviewed 21/11/08 URL lacie.com/uk
Amacom ezSecure 160GB
Rating 4 Reviewed 26/09/08 URL originstorage.com
SEAGATE
FREEAGENT
DESK FOR MAC
An inexpensive 1TB external
hard disk that delivers good
performance. It has one USB 2
and two FireWire 800 ports.
Reviewed 02/01/09
URL seagate.com
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Also features a glass multitouch
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The built-in battery lasts up to 7
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NWMACmini
This little powerhouse is big on
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Mac mini is the worlds most energy-
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Nikon D5000
Rating 5 Reviewed 03/07/09 URL nikon.co.uk
Sony Alpha DSLR-A900
Rating 4 Reviewed 16/01/09 URL sony.co.uk
Olympus E-30
Rating 4 Reviewed 05/06/09 URL olympus.co.uk
Canon EOS 500D
Rating 4 Reviewed 05/06/09 URL canon.co.uk
NIKON D300S
A 12.3 megapixel sensor, 8
frames per second shooting,
HD video and dual memory
card slots all packed into a
sturdy metal body make the
D300S a winner.
Reviewed 11/09/09
URL nikon.co.uk
Top 5 video applications
CAMTASIA
FOR MAC
Camtasia can record video
and audio from your Macs
iSight and mic, add transitions,
effects and share the nished
video easily on YouTube.
Reviewed 11/09/09
URL techsmith.com
Final Cut Studio 2009
Rating 4 Reviewed 28/08/09 URL apple.com/uk
DV Kitchen
Rating 4 Reviewed 24/10/08 URL dvcreators.net
Aer Eects CS4
Rating 4 Reviewed 10/10/08 URL adobe.co.uk
DVDRemaster Pro 4.4.1
Rating 4 Reviewed 12/09/08 URL metakine.com
Top 5 super-zoomcameras
CANON
POWERSHOT G10
The PowerShot G10 is the
most compelling compact
weve seen. It has a 28-140mm
optically stabilised zoom lens
and a 14.7-megapixel sensor.
Reviewed 21/11/08
URL canon.co.uk
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
Rating 4 Reviewed 16/01/09 URL panasonic.co.uk
Fujilm FinePix F200EXR
Rating 4 Reviewed 05/06/09 URL fujilm.co.uk
Sigma DP1
Rating 4 Reviewed 15/08/08 URL sigma-photo.com
Canon PowerShot SX1 IS
Rating 4 Reviewed 09/04/09 URL canon.co.uk
076
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Daylite 3.7.3
Rating 5 Reviewed 06/06/08 URL marketcircle.com
Microso Oce 2008
Rating 4 Reviewed 18/01/08 URL microsoft.com
Studiometry 6
Rating 4 Reviewed 22/05/09 URL oranged.net
Nisus Writer Pro 1.3
Rating 5 Reviewed 31/07/09 URL nisus.com
MERLIN 2.5
Merlin is a top-notch project
management application. Its
powerful, easy to get to grips
with thanks to its manual and
templates, and works well with
Mail, Address Book and iCal.
Reviewed 01/02/08
URL projectwizards.net pro projec pro
Top 5 audio products
Guitar Rig 3 Kontrol
Rating 5 Reviewed 15/02/08 URL native-instruments.com
Logic Express 9
Rating 5 Reviewed 23/10/09 URL apple.com
Reason 4 Premium
Rating 5 Reviewed 26/09/08 URL propellerheads.se
Hear
Rating 4 Reviewed 09/05/08 URL joesoft.com
LOGIC STUDIO
Its headline grabbing new
features for guitarists, Amp
Designer and Pedalboard
are certainly the highlight,
however, theres plenty here
for all musicians.
Reviewed 28/08/09
URL apple.com app app app
Top 5 web publishing tools
BBEdit 9
Rating 4 Reviewed 30/01/09 URL barebones.com
Coda
Rating 4 Reviewed 29/02/08 URL panic.com
Flash CS4
Rating 4 Reviewed 10/10/08 URL adobe.com
RapidWeaver 4
Rating 4 Reviewed 04/07/08 URL realmacsoftware.com
DREAMWEAVER
CS4
For years, Dreamweaver has
been the de facto standard for
professional web development.
Its now fully integrated with
Adobes Creative Suite.
Reviewed 26/09/08
URL adobe.com
A00PH070SH0P
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Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 software
combines power andsimplicity soyoucanmake
your photos look extraordinary, share your
life stories inunique print creations andweb
experiences, andeasily manage andprotect all
your photos andvideoclips.
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ol CW, that buddy of
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www.cw5uy.ce.uk
Call: 0208 400 12J6
ACROSS THE STORE!!
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Finance Example. Purchase price 2231.32 less 10% deposit of 223.13. Balance of 2008.19 payable in 36 monthly payments of 72.90.
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Top 5 laser printers
Kyocera Mita FS-1300D
Rating 4 Reviewed 26/09/08 URL kyoceramita.co.uk
Canon i-Sensys LBP5100
Rating 4 Reviewed 21/11/08 URL canon.co.uk
Oki C710n
Rating 4 Reviewed 24/10/08 URL oki.co.uk
Samsung CLP-315
Rating 4 Reviewed 10/10/08 URL samsung.com/uk
XEROX
PHASER 3435
A good choice for workgroups
that need mono printing. The
high purchase price is offset
by low running costs and
speed output.
Reviewed 09/04/09
URL xerox.co.uk
Top 5 multi-function devices
Canon Pixma MP540
Rating 5 Reviewed 28/08/09 URL canon.co.uk
Xerox Phaser 8560MFP/N
Rating 5 Reviewed 04/07/08 URL xerox.co.uk
HP Photosmart C6380
Rating 5 Reviewed 30/01/09 URL hp.com/uk
Epson Stylus SX515W
Rating 4 Reviewed 03/07/08 URL epson.co.uk
BROTHER
MFC-7840W
Wireless laser printer with
scanner and copy features,
35-page feeder and fax
capability. Combined toner and
drum for easy maintenance.
Reviewed 06/06/08
URL brother.co.uk
Top 5 inkjet printers
Epson Stylus Photo R2880
Rating 4 Reviewed 02/01/09 URL epson.co.uk
Canon Pixma Pro9000 MkII
Rating 4 Reviewed 08/05/09 URL canon.co.uk
Canon Pixma iP100
Rating 4 Reviewed 29/08/08 URL canon.co.uk
HP OceJet H470
Rating 4 Reviewed 15/08/08 URL hp.co.uk
HP
PHOTOSMART
A636
Photo printer with slots for
common camera media cards.
Includes 120mm touchscreen
LCD and 20-sheet input feed.
Reviewed 10/10/08
URL hp.co.uk hp. hp.co.uk hp.
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Bokeh
Rating 5 Reviewed 30/01/09 URL alienskin.com
Portrait Professional 9
Rating 5 Reviewed 09/10/09 URL portraitprofessional.com
Nikon Capture NX 2
Rating 4 Reviewed 04/07/08 URL nikon.co.uk
Silver Efex Pro
Rating 4 Reviewed 29/08/08 URL niksoftware.com
PHOTOSHOP
CS4
One of the most important
applications on the Mac, the
CS4 edition helps it retain its
crown as the king of all photo
editing and montage tools.
Reviewed 26/09/08
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Top 5 illustration/3D tools
Phantasm CS Studio
Rating 4 Reviewed 01/08/08 URL phantasmcs.com
Microspot 3D Toolbox
Rating 4 Reviewed 18/07/08 URL microspot.co.uk
Cinema 4D Release 11
Rating 4 Reviewed 10/10/08 URL maxon.net
Live Interior 3D Pro
Rating 4 Reviewed 07/11/08 URL belightsoft.com
ILLUSTRATOR
CS4
The CS4 edition of Illustrator
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CS3, adding more intelligent
features and some fantastic
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Reviewed 26/09/08
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Top 5 publishing tools
QuarkXPress 8
Rating 5 Reviewed 15/08/08 URL quark.com
Fusion 2
Rating 5 Reviewed 21/11/08 URL extensis.com
Universal Type Server
Rating 4 Reviewed 18/07/08 URL extensis.com
Acrobat 9 Pro
Rating 4 Reviewed 04/07/08 URL adobe.co.uk
INDESIGN CS4
Adobes latest page-layout
environment delivers various
improvements including tighter
integration with Flash, precise
alignment tools and numerous
other important tweaks.
Reviewed 26/09/08
URL adobe.co.uk
EDUCATION DISCOUNTS
PRICE MATCH!
Atime warp CW96 design
8uy NewPay Later 0nllne 700AYl
CWmakes my dear
old mother smile - so
much class and so much
style!
ol CW, that buddy of
mine - pumps out the
deals and pimps up the
rhyme!

www.cw5uy.ce.uk
Call: 0208 400 12J6
ACROSS THE STORE!!
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079
HTML5
The Internet is changing, and you
need to change, too. If you create
web pages for prot or pleasure,
then its essential that youre aware
of the latest developments in coding.
Well take you through the changes in
HTML5 and explain why its essential
that every serious designer moves to
this new, more flexible standard.
All this, PLUS the latest reviews,
breaking news and more in the next
issue of MacUser, on sale 1 JANUARY
2010 at all good newsagents. Reserve
your copy today.
* Contents subject to change.
Prevention and cure
How do you tackle the most common Mac problems before they arise?
Well take you through the major potential pitfalls for any Mac user and
show you how to head them o before they come to pass. Then, in an
accompanying feature, well help diagnose problems that have occurred
and show you the best, most eective ways to sort them out.
method
OURGUIDE TOESSENTIAL CONCEPTS FOREVERYDESIGNER
E
very episode of The Simpsons opens
with an introductory sequence showing
Americas rst family returning to their
home in Springeld, where they collapse
onto a sofa in front of the TV. Above the
sofa is a painting of a sailboat. Sometimes
its a red boat with white sails, sometimes
an orange boat with red sails. Whatever
the colour, the boat is always right in the
middle of the painting, both horizontally and
vertically. The question is: whats wrong
with this picture?
As long ago as 1797, the artist J T Smith
wrote a book about landscape painting in which
he outlined his rule of thirds. For a visually
pleasing effect, Smith argued, the horizon
should always appear at the bottom third of the
picture, so that one third of the painting was
land or sea and the remainder was sky.
The rule of thirds has become a mantra for
painters, photographers and Photoshop artists
alike, as it helps us to create more powerful
Exploiting the rule of thirds
for more powerful images
It has been around for hundreds of years, but to this day the rule of
thirds continues to turn average images into powerful ones
Steve Caplin is a designer and
illustrator working for a range of national
newspapers. His best-selling How to
Cheat in Photoshop, now in its fourth
edition, is published by Focal Press.
images by aligning our main picture elements
with the vertical and horizontal divisions.
Imagine a noughts and crosses grid overlaid on
your image, dividing it into nine equal regions.
The horizontal lines mark the optimal position
for the horizon, the vertical lines indicate the
best place to align vertical elements. The four
inner points where they cross dene the power
points in the image [01], the positions that
have the most emphatic pull: placing the focus
of the image at one of these points instantly
makes for a stronger, more dynamic result.
However, does a rule formulated in the
18th Century really have any relevance today?
Indeed it does, and we see examples of the
rule of thirds throughout the commercial,
artistic and broadcast media. The studio layout
for the BBCs News at Ten, for instance, places
the presenters head directly at the upper right
power point; the dividing line between the desk
at which hes sitting and the screen behind
aligns with the lower horizontal rule [02].
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The grid for the rule of thirds, showing the power points at the intersections.
01
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081
So why is this rule so important? The
answer is that, perhaps surprisingly, the centre
of any picture is a weak place to position a
key element. Look at our example of a surfer
coasting across the image. When hes placed
dead centre, the image is static [03]. Hes
simply standing there, with no sense of motion.
When we move him towards the left, we can
see the distance he still has to travel [04];
toward the right, and we can see how far he
has already surfed [05].
We can also change the emphasis by
moving the image up and down. We can
choose to emphasise either the close-up
sea in front or the distant sea behind, by
giving each element a larger proportion of the
picture. Lining the surfer up with one of the
power points almost guarantees a stronger,
more dynamic shot.
When working with portraits, we can use
the rule of thirds to align the eyes and the
mouth. The face may be right in the middle of
the frame, but by positioning the eyes on the
upper hotspots and the mouth on the lower
horizontal third, we bring a greater strength to
the image. It may operate on a subconscious
level on the viewer after all, its unlikely
anyone would take a ruler to the photograph
to measure the position of the eyes but the
placement still has its effect. We may rarely
want to crop an image so tightly, but even if
we ignore the power points, placing the eyeline
on the upper third rule will generally lead to
a more balanced portrait.
Landscape photographers regularly use
the rule of thirds to divide the shot into three
separate components foreground, middle
ground and background. In this case, the
different elds appear in separate sections
of the image. It may well be that nothing
is placed directly on the rules, but each
component will appear rmly rooted within
its own one-third section.
The rule is perhaps most often used when
composing a landscape, as a guide to aligning
the horizon. Placing the horizon directly through
the centre of the image divides the picture
in half, producing an articial and awkward
composition; by moving it to either the upper
or lower third position, we can choose whether
we want to emphasise the land or the sky, so
creating a more powerful image.
When a scene contains two objects, such
as this shot of a bird approaching its nest [06],
we can add extra dynamism by cropping the
scene so that the bird appears at one power
point, and the nest occupies the opposite
third of the image. This kind of shot is almost
impossible to frame when taking the shot,
but is easy to crop to afterwards.
Some digital cameras now have a
composition overlay mode, in which lines
corresponding to the rule of thirds appear
in the viewnder, enabling photographers to
align elements as they take the shot. Some
photographers prefer to crop their image
after theyve taken the shot, using the rule to
force picture details to appear in the optimal
location. Photoshop artists, on the other
hand, can create their images from scratch,
and will frequently bear the rule in mind when
composing a scene.
We dont need to be too rigorous in our
adherence to the rule: its a suggestion, not
an absolute diktat. There are many occasions
when the dead centre of the image really is the
best location, or where the composition of a
shot forbids the precise application of the rule.
But as long as were aware of it when we take a
photograph, create a montage or even paint a
landscape, we can be sure that our labours will
have much more punch and visual appeal.
The studio layout for BBCs News at Ten shows the two thirds rule in action, with the presenters head lining up
with a power point and the desk occupying the bottom third of the shot.
Placing the surfer dead centre in the frame kills the
shot even though it should be full of action.
Moving him to the bottom right power point
emphasises the distance he still has to travel,
showing the expanse of sea beyond.
Moving the surfer to the top left power point shows
the turbulence of the nearby water in greater detail,
making for a dynamic shot.
This is a perfect composition made easy using the rule of two thirds. The bird is at the upper left power point
while the nest occupies the bottom right third of the image.
02
03
04
05
06
create
GET MORE FROMYOURMAC ANDAPPLICATIONS WITHOURSTEP-BY-STEPGUIDES
Develop photographic
looks in Adobe Lightroom
DIFFICULTY
RATING
T
he power of Adobe Lightrooms
development module sets it apart
from other photographic library/
workow applications. Yet this exibility,
for the new or casual user, can present a
learning curve so steep that many never
make it past simple development settings
such as exposure, clarity and contrast.
In this masterclass, were going to learn,
using just development settings, how to
create three vastly different looks with
Lightroom that well be able to save and
re-use as presets. More than simply learning
how to recreate these looks for ourselves,
well focus on understanding the process
of creating each one, with an eye towards
building condence and giving us room to
experiment in creating our own visual styles.
Using the same image as our starting
point in all three cases, we will start with
some simple adjustments that we can use
to give the image different looks, from a
soft-glamour wedding shot, a super-saturated
postcard, to an over-developed, cross-process
look suitable for a rock album cover.
As we progress through each step, well
build on the skills covered in the previous
steps, covering some of Lightrooms tools,
including the use of the target adjustments
tool to ne-tune hues and saturation, using its
simplied curves tool, and moving onto more
advanced topics like split-toning.
By using Lightrooms development settings, you
can give a photo a number of very dierent looks.
Kit required Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Leigh McMullen is a professional
technology strategist who has written
a number of books and articles on IT
and business strategy. He moonlights
as a travel photographer.
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Its trite to say it, but a great image is
made in the camera. This is not to imply
that using the tools available to us in the
Digital Darkroom are cheating, as some
so-called purists might suggest. Rather,
that having a notion of how you might
want to develop an image in mind before
you take the picture is paramount.
Though taken by photographer Vadim
Zee, and not the author, this photograph
was selected because it ts all of our
criteria: diverse vibrant colors and,
most importantly, it has a full ve
stops of dynamic range. Well nd that
having this range to work with gives
working room.
Of course, were not always going to
have a full lighting rig and a patient model
with us, and in those run-and-gun
circumstances, understanding the full
capability of Lightrooms development
module will help you make intelligent
compromises on when to under or over
expose to achieve a given effect.
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2. Popping the dress
Start by selecting HSL in the HSL/Color/Grayscale palette, then
select All to reveal an array of sliders. Click on the target adjustments
button to the left of the word Saturation, move the cursor to hover
over one of the dark yellow portions of her dress and scroll up. Looking
back to the sliders reveals +35 on Yellow and +7 on Orange.
4. Fixing the skin tones
Unfortunately, our adjustments have left her skin a bit jaundiced. You
could mess with saturation of skin tones, hair and dress, until you
drive yourself crazy. This is because Maryias dress, hair and skin are
all inuenced by the colour orange. If you pump up the luminance of
orange it will soften that colour cast. Of course, you dont need to know
all that colour theory. Just click the target adjustments button next to
Luminance, select a tan portion of skin and dial up slightly.
3. Adjusting her hair
Maryia has great hair, and our high key toning has left it a bit lifeless,
so well apply the same techniques that we used on the dress to her
hair. In this instance, select two different areas to make minor
adjustments, the highlighted area next to her eye and a mid-tone
area along the side of her head hair. Leave the Saturation settings
of Red at +21, Orange at +35 and Yellow at +36.
5. Dialing in the perfect vignette
Most users are pretty comfortable with Lightrooms vignette tool. Yet,
weve just spent a lot of time working with this image, so we want to be
exact. The quick way to do this is to set post crop vignette Feathering
to 0 and Amount to 50. Now, you can see the shape of the vignette
that will be produced as you adjust the midpoint and roundness
sliders. All you have to remember is to leave room around your focal
point, and dial the feather back up, until its just right.
A WEDDING
PHOTO THAT POPS
You know the standard
wedding photograph:
soft focus, high-key
and vignetted, requiring
knowledge of the contrast
and clarity sliders, and little
else. This works for wedding
photography, because it
minimises skin contrast
and reduces blemishes, while
giving the photographs
a surreal, ethereal dreamlike
presence. For this look, well
start with the photo every
photographer could make,
and hand dial in tones to give
it a sparkle that will make it unique. In the left Navigator pane
select Fill, so you can better see the results of your adjustments.
1. Basic adjustments high key, vignette and soness
Well start with those basic adjustments that typify wedding
photography: pump up the brightness to +75, drop contrast to 0 and
set clarity to -50. These are very generic settings that youll need to
adjust to your specic images and camera proles. They give us that
dreamy wedding look, but also wash out Maryias red hair and yellow
dress. You can add a bit of punch by setting the Point Curve selection
under Tone Curve to Strong Contrast.
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083
3. Back to basic (sliders)
One of the reasons to manually adjust your tone curve to create depth
and contrast is that it leaves the full range of basic slider controls at
your disposal. So now when you play with the Vibrance and Saturation,
a light touch is all thats needed: at +21 and +10 respectively. You also
need to add a bit of Fill Light (+14), to bring out highlights in her hair
and belt. This contrasting curve can create some unattering details,
you can dial down Clarity to -29 without loosing much detail.
2. Using curves to push
the mid-range
Making adjustments to the
tone curve in Lightroom is a
lot easier than in Photoshop,
making curve adjustments
more accessible to the casual
user. Were not going to use the
Target Adjustments button here.
Instead, were going to enter
a pretty basic S Curve, with
Highlights at +15, Lights at +40,
Darks at -40 and Shadows at
-15. With the point curve set to
Strong Contrast, Maryias hair is
pretty dark. A more linear curve
would x this but also take out
some of the punch. Instead, we
grab Tone Range Split control in
the middle and move it to the
left, until its around 38.
4. Final polishing
Pushing the colours so much has made the blue mast in the
foreground and sail in the background distracting. Using the Target
Saturation button, dial the saturation in both to reasonable levels,
which for this image is pretty much all the way out (Blue at -61, Purple
at -55 and Magenta at -78), creating an effect of girl in colour on a
nearly monochrome background that puts the focus on our subject.
A LAS VEGAS
CLUB INVITATION
The Las Vegas look is
supersaturated and vibrant,
yet its all too easy to focus
only on adjusting those two
dials to achieve this. By
putting a bit of extra attention
in development, you can
create an image thats far
from ordinary. Were going to
build on our toning work, and
work on pushing as
much dynamic range as
possible into the photo
by manipulating curves.
1. Basic setup
First off were going to change the brightness and contrast on the
image. Keep an eye on the histogram window, making sure the bulk
of the tones are conned to the mid-range. Wind up Brightness to +6
and Contrast to +9.
Before Aer
TIP
While Adobe
Lightrooms
sliders are easier for
casual users, Photoshop
veterans can still adjust
curves by selecting points
in the histogram.
084
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1. Finding your overdevelopment sweet spot
Overdeveloping the image is about pushing the Blacks and Fill Light.
The trick here is working out a balance because every image is going
to be different in the way it responds. Heres what we do to nd a
workable ratio: rst set the Blacks to 20 and then slide up Fill Light
until things look pretty good, in this case 23, yielding a 2.3: 2 ratio.
Now if you keep that ratio, youll get something that looks pretty good,
no matter how far you push it, which in this case is all the way, with ll
light set to around 100 and blacks to 85.
3. Adjusting curves and tones
What we have right now is a great golden sunset glow with aqua marine
details, great for CSI: Miami, but not Heavy Metal. We can dial out the
cartoonish look by dropping the saturation to -50. As with our Vegas
look, we want a contrasting curve, setting lights to +25 and darks to
-25. Just like the last look, we also want to tone down the distracting
sail and mast using Target Saturation adjustments.
2. Split toning
Usually reserved for giving different looks to monochrome treatments,
split toning offers a way to add a different hue cast to the highlights
and shadows in your image. Rather than adjusting the sliders, click on
the box next to highlights to pull up a colour menu. Whats cool about
this is the live preview as you click and mouse around in this box.
While playing around with the highlights and the shadows, youll see
that you get some very unusual effects. For our look, we need to be a
bit more conservative, so weve chosen a hue of 52 and a saturation of
64 for highlights, and a hue of 119 and a saturation of 38 for shadows,
and weve moved the balance bias to +25.
4. Finishing touches
This look is nished off by pumping up the exposure one-third of a
stop to give it a bit more edge, adding a vignette using the method
we described earlier to get it just right, and nally removing a touch
of clarity, to keep Maryia looking edgy, but beautiful.
A ROCK ALBUM COVER
When shooting the next big thing practicing in
your neighbours garage, simple toning levels
and curves arent going to give the edge to
make a group-shot stand out from the also-rans
on the A&R guys desk. The classic Hard Rock
look demands cross-processing (especially if
you start as we are with a less than hard rock
shot). Cross-processing is the technique of
intentionally using the wrong chemicals to
develop lm, and is very popular in fashion,
movies and band photography. While were all
digital these days, the power of Lightrooms
develop module will get us there in a snap,
with no risk of spilling things on our clothes.
TIP
Break down development
work into steps. Even with a
look in mind, one of your intermediate
steps might be a keeper, if not now
then maybe later. The rst step here
could be saved as a Miami Neon look.
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DIFFICULTY
RATING
I
n this masterclass, well be focusing on
lighting effects and showing off an
assortment of techniques to make your
work sparkle and glow in an unnatural but
eye-catching way.
Photoshop lighting effects are a versatile
set of techniques that have, in recent
times, come back into fashion within
advertising. These effects are a creative
way to add exciting illustrative touches to
an image; they can communicate feelings
of motion and fantasy. By adding glows,
light streaks, sparks and other effects, you
can immediately give your images more
ambiance and are. Light and motion effects
can become part of the composition, adding
lots of depth to an image.
Create luminous line
effects in Photoshop
Add some sparkle to your blog header or branded
Desktop wallpapers with this smart lighting effect.
The techniques used to create them in
Photoshop are good to know because of the
exibility they offer; they allow you to create
intense effects that stand out, or to simply
add some subtle highlights to an image.
In this tutorial, youll learn some
indispensable light effect techniques by
creating an ambient glowing background with
glowing light streaks. Well explain how you
can integrate text or a company logo into
the piece, and well combine layer styles
and blend modes to achieve a cool glowing
effect and add depth by using the Liquify
lter and some layer masks. This would look
great as a branded Desktop wallpaper or
even using some techniques to add are
to a blog header.
Ross Aitken is a design student
from Glasgow. He regularly
writes for Photoshop and
design-related websites as well as
running a few of his own.
Kit required Photoshop
1. Create a simple background
First create a new Photoshop document thats 4000 x 3000 pixels.
Use a simple gradient as a background. Select the gradient tool and
create a new gradient going from a dark crimson colour (#4C1020) to
a dark purple (#240F19). Change the gradient type to radial, and click
and drag from the centre of the document to one of the corners. You
can enhance this background if you want, perhaps by adding another
gradient, or some soft brush strokes.
2. Throw in some text
Well add some text to the image now, so select the type tool and
create some large text in the centre of the document. Command-click
on the text layer, then select Create Work Path. Create a new layer,
then select the brush tool and choose a 10-pixel hard round brush (the
colour doesnt matter), then hit Return. This will stroke the path so that
you can delete the original, lled text layer. You might substitute this for
a company logo or some other brand identity, rather than text.
3. Make the text glow
With this layer selected, change the ll
opacity of this layer to 0% at the top of the
Layers palette. Double-click the layer to set
its layer styles; rst add an inner glow and
just change the blend mode to Color
Dodge and the source to Centre. Next add an outer glow; again use
Colour Dodge for the blend mode and set its opacity to 50% and
size to 40 pixels. Click on the New Style button to save this style, then
click on OK to close the dialog box. Duplicate this layer then lower the
opacity of one of the copies to 50%.
TIP
Experiment with the
colour option within
both these layer
styles to subtly
change the glow.
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087
4. Paint some light strands
Now well create some strands of light
using a similar technique to the text. Select
the Pen tool and draw a curvy path going from one side of the
document to the other. Stroke the path the same way as you did in
Step 2, but use a 15-pixel brush this time. We want to use the same
glow as we did for the text, which is why we saved its style, so select
the layer and apply that saved style.
6. More strands
Repeat Steps 4 and 5 to add more lines; weve created ve in total, which
is a reasonable amount to avoid clutter. We need to add some depth to
these lines, so put all six layers within a new layer group, then add a layer
mask to that group. This allows us to hide part of the lines by selecting a
large soft black brush (20% opacity) and brushing over parts of the lines.
Try brushing around the edges of the canvas so the lines dont reach
them and to maintain the text in the middle as the focal point.
8. Final adjustments
Create a transparent black to opaque
black radial gradient, going out from
the centre of the canvas to the
corners. Lower the layers opacity to
50%. Add colour balance and hue/
saturation adjustment layers to push
the shadows towards blue, the
midtones more orange and the
highlights more yellow. Our nal touch
is a light sheen. In a layer above the
background, make a rectangular
marquee then draw a radial gradient
(white to transparent) from its edge to
its centre (8a). Lower the transparency
and rotate it into position. Repeat
several times to create three
gradients (8b) of varying opacity.
5. Manipulate the strands
Duplicate this layer, then choose Filter > Liquify, which allows you to
uidly distort a layer. Make sure Show Backdrop is checked with All
Layers selected. Use your mouse to manipulate parts of the line; try to
draw it towards the outline of the text. Also try changing the brush size
for different effects, although keep the brush density at 30.
7. Finishing touches
Now lets add some glowing beads of light;
create a new layer and choose a hard round brush with a diameter
around 20 pixels (the colour doesnt matter). Place them on top of the
light strands and the text outline. Vary the brush diameter to give some
variety. Now click on the glow style we created earlier to nish off the
beads. In a new layer, use the white star brush (in Assorted Brushes,
located in the yout menu at the top-right of the Brushes palette) and
add sparkles to parts of the text outline. Grab a pink, 1-pixel round
brush and scribble some ne freehand lines around parts of the text.
TIP
Go to
Window
> Styles to bring up
the styles palette.
brush with a diamete
TIP
Use the
square
bracket keys to
increase or decrease
the diameter of a brush.
8a Final result
8b
DIFFICULTY
RATING
A
lthough the LCDs on digital
cameras have become much larger,
to the point where they can ll the
back of the camera, it can still be difcult to
tell whether the image youve just taken is
pin-sharp and perfectly exposed until you
see it on your Mac. Nothing can be more
annoying than to nd out that a
portrait is slightly out of focus when
you view it on a monitor back at the
ofce, leaving you with little option
but to try to correct it in Photoshop
or arrange a costly reshoot. Either
way, its going to add to the hours
before you can complete the job.
The answer to this problem is tethered
shooting, whereby you connect your digital
camera directly to your Mac and have the
images automatically downloaded as you
take them. Preferred by many professional
photographers, tethered shooting is ideal
for portraits or fashion images when focus
or exposure is critical.
The advantages of viewing your images
on a larger screen as theyre taken, even if
its just a MacBook with a 13in screen, are
fairly self-explanatory, but the main ones are
that you can see the exact point of focus,
exposure and white balance, and identify the
highlight and shadow areas of your image
details that are notoriously difcult to see on
a small LCD screen.
If you can identify these aws during the
shoot, you can easily make adjustments
to your camera settings, studio lighting or
composition, and take another image to see
if youve got it right.
The added benet of using your preferred
digital workow tool is that the images are
imported directly into your application, which
Tethered shooting
When you have to be absolutely certain
that the image you want to capture is
perfectly exposed, tethered shooting is the
best option. We show you how to do it in
three of the leading digital workow tools.
088
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saves you time downloading the pictures once
the photoshoot has nished. Furthermore,
you can set it up to automatically add
metadata, such as le names, to your
images as you take them.
In this tutorial, we look at three of
the leading digital workow tools
Aperture 2, Lightroom 2 and
Capture One Pro 5 to see
how easy tethered shooting
is. Weve tested the
technique with Canon
and Nikon cameras,
but most digital
cameras should work if theyre
supported by the application, although you
may need to download a dedicated API.
Jon Lysons is MacUsers production
editor and has been using Macs
since 1993. Hes been using camera
for much longer, his rst being a
Kodak Pocket Instamatic 130.
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Kit required one of the following:
Aperture 2 from Apple now supports tethered
shooting natively for most digital cameras.
However, recent Canon models for example,
the Eos 5D MkII arent yet supported and so a
workaround is needed. Aperture 2 costs 126
(109 ex VAT).
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Capture One Pro 5 is the application favoured
by professional photographers and is developed
by digital back and photography specialist Phase
One, however, it is the most pricey of the three
applications. It costs 299 (about 266).
Lightroom 2 from Adobe doesnt support tethered
shooting directly, but theres a simple workaround
to give the appearance of tethered shooting.
Lightroom 2 costs 229 (199 ex VAT).
Additional kit if necessary
Sofortbild sofortbildapp.com
Hot Folder automator.us/leopard/aperture
Eos Utility
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2b. For Canon cameras
If youre using a Canon model, connect and
turn on your camera, then open Eos Utility,
which is on the CD that came with your
camera. Use this to download the images to
your Watched Folder. Go to Camera Settings/
Remote Shooting to call up the dialog box,
click on Preferences and go to Destination
Folder, and navigate to TetheredShooting (the
Watched Folder you created in Step 1).
Uncheck the three boxes that sit below that.
Next, from this list, go to Linked Software and
select None, as Lightroom is going to import
the images automatically.
LIGHTROOM 2
1. Create a Watched Folder
Although Lightroom doesnt support tethered
shooting directly, theres a workaround that
enables the application to automatically import
images as theyre captured on your camera.
Depending on what make of camera youre
using, you need to download an API. Here,
were going to cover two of the most popular
camera manufacturers Canon and Nikon.
2a. For Nikon cameras
If youre using a Nikon camera, you need
to download an extra piece of software to
allow your Mac to read the images on your
camera. Nikon recommends that you use
Camera Control Pro 2, but this will set you
back a rather hefty 139 (121 ex VAT), so
weve used the free application Sofortbild
If you have a camera made by another
manufacturer, you can still follow these steps,
but using the software dedicated for your make
of camera. First, create a folder on your Mac;
here, weve called it TetheredShooting. This is
a Watched Folder to which the API will
download the images and subsequently allow
Lightroom to import them.
3. Open Lightroom
Youre now ready to work in Lightroom itself.
Go to File > Auto Import > Auto Import
Settings. Now you can navigate Lightroom to
import all of the images that are downloaded
into the Watched Folder, which weve called
TetheredShooting.
Next, navigate to File > Auto Import >
Enable Auto Import and make sure Enable
(available from sofortbildapp.com). Connect
and turn on your camera. Go to Preferences
and navigate to TetheredShooting (the
Watched Folder you created in Step 1) in
the Save captured images to eld. Find
the Import captured images into eld and
select None.
Auto Import is ticked. Thats it youre ready
to start tethered shooting, as Lightroom is
now able to import these images.
Finally, make sure youre in the Library area
of Lightroom and your photos are automatically
stored in Lightroom, enabling you to move
them to a folder of your choice depending on
your particular workow.
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Canons latest cameras
If youre using one of Canons latest
DSLRs, such as the Eos 5D MkII, then
theres a workaround with an AppleScript
called Aperture Hot Folder (automator.us/
leopard/aperture). Create a Watched Folder
in Eos Utility (see Step 2b, left), open
the Aperture Hot Folder to begin the
script and follow the on-screen prompts.
First, select TetheredShooting (the
Watched Folder youve already created)
and choose to load the images into an
existing Project or create a new one. You
also want the script to import the images
into Apertures Library. Youre now ready
to shoot tethered.
1. One for professionals
Tethered shooting is a breeze with the
professionals tool of choice, Capture One
Pro 5, as this application includes support for
more than 150 cameras. Connect your
camera and open the program. In the top-left
of the window is a Camera icon. Click on this
to take you into capture mode you should
see your camera model at the bottom of the
left-hand pane. Next, click on New Session
found under File in the menu bar and give
your shoot a name. Youre now ready to start
shooting. The latest photos will appear in the
main window pane, enabling you to view your
captured image with thumbnails underneath
in a Browser. If you require a large image,
click Command-B to hide or reveal the
Browser. Clicking on the Library icon allows
you to organise your images those captured
with tethered shooting are automatically
located in the Capture Folder.
CAPTURE ONE PRO 5
APERTURE 2
1. Shooting with Aperture
Tethered shooting is a simple task in Aperture,
but only if your camera is supported. Go to
support.apple.com/kb/HT1085 to see a list of
supported models, but some cameras may
work if you set them to use PTP. Start Aperture
and connect your camera. Before switching it
on, however, you need to create a new Project
and give it a name. Select this Project and go
to File > Tether > Start Session. This brings up
the Tether Settings dialog box, where you can
create subfolders and amend the le names.
However, to actually start shooting tethered,
click on the Start Session button. A black HUD
pops out and youre ready to go. Your images
are automatically downloaded into the
application in the folder youve designated.
No flying sauces in sight
When times are hard, success in business comes through innovation, not
just change. To survive, companies must not repeat past mistakes.
EMAILYOURPROBLEMTOHELP@MACUSER.CO.UK
If you need technical advice,
write to us explaining the
problem in full. Please include
all the details of hardware and
software you use.
Email help@macuser.co.uk
Post Help, MacUser,
30 Cleveland Street,
London, W1T 4JD
Theres a wealth of information
and help available online. Here
are some useful sites that may
be worth turning to along with
the MacUser site.
Apples pages provide helpful
information; try the search
options to nd specic help.
URL info.apple.com
Keep abreast of software
releases and xes, and track
down new utilities and tools.
URL versiontracker.com
WE CAN HELP YOU THEY CAN HELP YOU
O
ne of the most delightful but
annoying human traits is our
apparent pleasure in repeating
common mistakes. One autumn evening,
when I was tucking into a chilli at a Little
Chef along the A303, my colleague shook
the tomato sauce bottle with vigour. Although
we all joke about the top ying off and its
colourful consequences, following an ominous
pop from across the table, I looked up to
see him covered, as if an extra in Hostel.
We keep repeating these foolish errors:
walking into lamp-posts while concentrating
on GPS instead of visual navigation,
performing major system updates without
rst backing up, and so on.
This year has shown, once again, that
the pooled minds of our greatest companies
and institutions conspire to repeat even
greater mistakes. Banks reward employees
for taking risks rather than mitigating them,
politicians not long ago proclaiming an
end to boom and bust see green shoots
of recovery when they are in fact weeds
along the road of recession, and weather
forecasters leave us wanting a ne evening
for a barbecue, let alone a whole summer.
iPhone and iPod competitors queue
for entry to the Last Chance Saloon, their
designers clearly never having grasped
why the original products have succeeded.
Amazon makes the Kindle as unattractive
a deal as possible for European Mac users,
while competitor Sony restates its complete
lack of insight into the Mac market. As Intel
Macs go 64-bit with Snow Leopard, Adobes
disjointed development cycle leaves Creative
Suite stumbling along in 32-bit mode for
another year or two.
When times are hard, success comes
through innovation, not mere change, nor
the repetition of mistakes. Of course, Apple
hasnt always innovated right: the Lisa was
brilliant but awed, the Newton a meteor that
burned up before its time, and many features
in the Mac OS have rankled until they were
dropped or xed. Few rms have generated
such sustained interest in, and speculation
surrounding, their next step. Its only through
a culture of innovation that Apple has attained
de facto market leadership, and the moment
that its re ceases to burn in the cubicles of
Cupertino, Apple will be doomed to enter the
grand corporate care home.
Successful innovation in technology
isnt a matter of mere invention, but
discovering how to build on invention to
make it accessible to prospective purchasers.
Its about design for humans where much
of Apples greatest innovation has been
and helping them do new and exciting
things easily. Those rms that have come to
believe that innovation has anything to do with
haggling over patents, marketing mystique
or bleeding captive markets dry have truly
lost the plot and risk going the way of the
SCO Group, moribund in the wake of its futile
litigation against IBM, Linux and Novell. Just
as politicians do best when they heed the
old caution against negative campaigning,
businesses do best when they manufacture,
sell and support.
In terms of those last basic business
imperatives, Apple has had a very good,
perhaps excellent, year. With its every
move speculated on in countless blogs and
newsfeeds, it may at times have felt like a
rollercoaster ride. With even the BBC running
headlines about a fatal aw in Snow Leopard,
once we learned the facts all shrank back into
proportion. If anyone has been shaking sauce
bottles in Innite Loop the street encircling
Apples headquarter buildings, surely an
inspiration to the late and great Douglas
Adams then they checked that the top
was screwed on rst.
Howard Oakley has used Macs in science
and medicine for 20 years, and developed
commercial software.
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Peripheral vision
From Alan Henderson
Q My iMac, which I upgraded to Snow
Leopard, now has intermittent problems
with USB devices. Memory sticks and other
USB peripherals sometimes vanish from the
Desktop, whether connected directly to a
port on the iMac or via a hub. However,
once they have vanished, disconnecting
them results in a disk was not ejected
properly alert. On other occasions, trying
the open the volume results in a spinning
beachball cursor freeze, forcing me to
switch off its power before starting it up
again. Is this a problem in Snow Leopard?
A There doesnt appear to be any widespread
or systematic problem with USB in Snow
Leopard, although there are occasional
glitches such as losing printer connection
when ejecting a memory stick.
The memory stick(s), the hub or
your iMacs USB port(s) could be failing.
Demonstrate that this affects multiple
devices connected via different ports, and
power your hub before ruling out a hardware
problem. Shed other USB devices in case
theyre to blame an old USB 1.1 peripheral,
for instance. Next, check installed third-party
software, particularly Startup and Login Items,
and drivers for older USB devices such as
a broadband modem. Restart with the Shift
key held down to engage Safe mode, with
BBBBuuuuggggg bbbbuuuusssstttteeeerrrr
Mac OS X 10.6.x can misbehave when
using an Apple Remote or other infrared
transmitter, and some applications.
Candelair is a free replacement driver
that can x these. Its available from
iospirit.com/labs/candelair.
Pro Applications Update 2009-01
delivers xes for many bugs in Final Cut
Studio (2009), with Final Cut Pro 7.0.1,
Motion 4.0.1, Soundtrack Pro 3.0.1, Color
1.5.1, and Compressor 3.5.1. Its at
support.apple.com/kb/DL949.
Final Cut Pro 6.x may not process
jobs when sequences are exported to
Compressor 3 using the File/Export/Using
Compressor command if a Virtual Cluster
is enabled. Either disable the cluster or
export as QuickTime reference movies
and process in Compressor. Details are at
support.apple.com/kb/TS2594.
Adobe Services Update 1.0.2 xes a
bug in CS4 services under Snow Leopard,
which prevents authentication for services
and their update. Go to adobe.com/
support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4568.
Bluetooth Update 1.0 for Windows xes
problems with Bluetooth devices when
running Windows under Boot Camp. Visit
support.apple.com/kb/DL952.
iMac (late 2009), MacBook (late
2009), and MacBook Pro (13in and
15in mid-2009) models running Windows
may not automatically switch audio output
when headphones are connected. If
affected, manually change the Speakers
properties in the Hardware and Sound
control panel. Further details are available
at support.apple.com/kb/HT3588.
Mac OS X Server up to 10.6.1 repquota
command may erroneously return lists with
users that have no quota enabled even
when they are. A x is expected.
Wireless Mouse Soware Update
1.0 for Leopard lets you use multitouch
features of the Magic Mouse and is at
support.apple.com/kb/DL951.
Default Folder 4.3.2 xes bugs with
Snow Leopard, improves compatibility
with Final Cut Pro and other applications
exporting using QuickTime, and more.
Its available from stclairsoft.com/
DefaultFolderX/index.html.
non-Apple extensions turned off. Your Snow
Leopard installation could have become
damaged, either during the original install or
the update to 10.6.1. Try downloading the
standalone update from support.apple.com/
kb/DL930 and see whether that helps.
Note that you should never turn off the
power to your Mac unless its a matter of
immediate safety. Even a forced shutdown,
normally effected by pressing and holding the
power button, is preferable, as it shouldnt
leave software errors on your startup disk.
Ensure you have a good, complete and
recent backup and restart from the Snow
Leopard install DVD. From that, run Disk Utility
to repair your startup disk and then repair
permissions on it.
Explosive fireworks effect
From Adam Court
Q A client has requested that I make
their logo look as if it has been lit up with
reworks. Is there a plug-in that I can use
to create convincing rework effects in
Adobes Photoshop CS4?
A There are several plug-ins that offer
unusual lighting effects and the like, but
arguably the best of these is Akvis LightShop,
80 (about 72) from akvis.com/en/lightshop/
index.php. You should also look
through back issues of MacUser,
and books by Photoshop Grand
Masters such as Steve Caplin, as
this is a fairly popular subject for
tutorials and workthroughs.
Tidy little MacBook
From Errico Andreou
Q Snow Leopards Finder seems
to want to keep my MacBook
Pro tidy even when I dont want
it to. When I wake it from sleep
lasting more than an hour or two,
it quits all open applications and
Akvis LightShop works as either a Photoshop plug-in or a
standalone application that can add a wide range of standard
and customisable rework and lighting effects to images.
If you have access to utilities from Apples Xcode SDK (available on your Mac OS X Install Disc), USB Prober is
useful for getting to the bottom of problems, providing more information than is available in System Proler.
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DDDDDiiiiiddddd yyyyyooooouuuuu kkkkknnnnnooooowwwww......
Network-attached storage (Nas)
systems present several problems
for Mac users when compared with
shared storage attached to a Mac.
Most importantly, they cant be
searched using Spotlight, and need
their own backup routines, as well as
local repair tools. Despite these, they
can prove cost-effective.
Adobe InDesign CS4 and earlier have hardly any
controls over the screen rendering of elements
within a page, such as subtle tints. Flaws in
CS3 could reect its age.
If you want the Finder to leave les scattered in an
Icon view, rather than tidying them up, ensure that
its View preferences are set with the Arrange By
pop-up menu reading None.
aligns document icons I have left scattered
on my Desktop. Can I opt out of this
authoritarian behaviour?
A Although the Finder has been completely
rewritten for Snow Leopard to run as a 64-bit
Cocoa application, and it does still have some
rough edges, this is more signicant than
that. Rather than just sleeping and waking up
again, your Mac seems to be shutting down
and starting up altogether. When this has
happened, open Console and consult the
logs to see what they contain.
Quitting applications should leave tell-tale
evidence as to why that occurred and could
even turn out to be a hardware problem. The
only control that you have of Finder Icon Views
is to bring the window to the front and use
the Show View Options command in the View
menu. In the resulting dialog, set the Arrange
By pop-up menu to None to ensure that Finder
windows at least shouldnt be automatically
tidied up when youre not looking.
Colours fade away
From Helen Richardson
Q When a colleague is working on InDesign
CS3 documents on his mid-2007 iMac
running Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.6.1, he cant
see any tint thats below 20%, as theyre
shown as plain white even on an external
monitor. Rolling it back to Mac OS X 10.5.4
restored normal function for a while, but it
soon started happening again. Why is this
and how can we x it?
A Its easy to suggest changes in Snow
Leopard that could contribute to this, or
account for it, but more difcult to understand
how it could happen under Leopard, let alone
go away. It could, of course, be one of the
many and growing list of minor problems
in CS3 reecting its age, so upgrading to
CS4 could be the best solution. It could be
a result of a clash with third-party software,
such as extensions or plug-ins; engaging
Safe mode could be diagnostic, as could
clearing out suspect plug-ins.
Look for software that could be ddling
with display or image internals, such as
Shade, a System Preferences pane that
could cause this, particularly in Snow
Leopard. This is unlikely to be a hardware
problem, although sometimes graphics
adaptors that are starting to fail can show
problems before becoming more overt.
More specic to Snow Leopard, remember
that it now has a gamma of 2.2 rather
than 1.8, which does alter the appearance
of images: see support.apple.com/kb/
HT3712 for details. Beware of older screen
calibrators and their proles under Snow
Leopard. Ensure their software is updated
to a compatible version, run new screen
calibrations, and use those new proles.
Perhaps this will strike a chord with another
reader who may have experienced similar?
Read all about it
From Jim Ormiston
Q Ive bought a new Sony SRP-600 Reader,
and eventually installed my rst book
purchase from Waterstones. However,
subsequent syncs between my Mac and
Reader have taken forever. How can I
create and install my own books on it?
A Software tools for the Mac that convert
books for use on Sonys Reader products
include Calibre, DeskUNPDF, Stanza and, of
Those with eBook readers such as the Sony
models sold by Waterstones should nd the
freeware Calibre a very capable conversion and
library management tool.
From Rob Pigott
Q Ive been backing up les to a couple
of Nas drives. When I look for them there,
recently copied documents are ne, but
older ones dont open in QuarkXPress or
other applications. Could this be because
Ive connected to the drives using SMB
rather than AFP?
A Network-attached storage (Nas) systems
are essentially a networked computer, often
running a stripped-down version of Linux
sharing its drive space out via different
protocols. Macs prefer to use AppleShare
File (AFP) protocol, while Windows systems
generally adopt SMB.
To get most Nas systems to work
properly with Macs, you should ensure
you connect to them using AFP, as
that will result in
the whole of the
Mac le being
copied, stored and
retrieved properly.
While SMB and other
protocols should be
able to work ne,
in practice theyre
vulnerable to glitches
that can make
documents unusable
if copied across
or retrieved using
that protocol.
Although theres no
way for your Mac to
limit its connections to AFP, you can set the
Finders Connect to Server command in the
Go menu so that it offers AFP connections
in preference, avoiding typing in SMB
connection details.
Nasty problem
To ensure that you can connect to a Nas or similar server via AFP rather than SMB,
you save and retrieve the server details in the Connect to Server dialog.
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Launchd is a key part of Mac OS
X that acts as conductor and
co-ordinator of most processes
running on your Mac. Although you can
still use the traditional cron tool to run
periodic tasks, launchd should now
be used to start and run background
services, as well as those scheduled
at xed time intervals.
Snow Leopards better integration of Quick Look document
previewing has changed the way in which icons are displayed.
Select a le and press the Spacebar for a full preview.
For basic scientic-style 2D and 3D graphing,
Gnuplot performs better than commercial
products such as Microsoft Excel or Numbers in
iWork, but it relies on command scripts.
course, Adobe Acrobat Pro. Calibre, free from
calibre.kovidgoyal.net, is a large and rapidly
maturing tool for converting into, between
and managing a variety of electronic book
formats. Centred on PDF conversion and
adjustment, deskUNPDF is 46.64 (about
42) from docudesk.com/deskUNPDF-PDF-
Converter-for-Mac.shtml.
Stanza Desktop is still in beta release,
an eBook reader for the Mac that has some
useful conversion features and is free from
lexcycle.com/desktop. Acrobat Pro is the
industry standard tool for working with and
tidying up PDF documents, and is valuable for
preparing them for use as eBooks.
Secrets of chart success
From Barry Lane
Q Im looking for simple software to turn
paired x, y data into basic graphs, in which
I can set parameters and change the look
of the resulting graph. Ive tried Excel, but
was disappointed with its business avour.
Is there some better maths-based software?
A General-purpose graphing and charting
products such as Excel and Apples Numbers
are aimed at business users, who seldom
want to plot the sort of paired x, y data that
are more widespread in sciences, including
maths and statistics. If youre interested in
a high-end maths package, particularly if you
can get academic pricing, then Wolframs
Mathematica is an astonishingly capable
and exciting working environment, but far too
much for just a quick graph.
Specialist scientic graphing applications
such as Aabel (from gigawiz.com/Aabel.html)
are also expensive and perhaps overkill for
you, as would be fully featured statistics
packages. Free products worth considering
include R, a hugely capable statistics
environment that sports excellent graphing,
from stats.bris.ac.uk/R. However, you would
need to work from a book at rst, as its
still centred on its own command language.
Gnuplot, free from gnuplot.info, is more basic
and easier to use, and could t your bill.
More specialist scientic graphing is
available in Pro Fit (from quansoft.com) and
Igor Pro (from wavemetrics.com/products/
igorpro/igorpro.htm).
New-style icons
From Claire Russell
Q Ive upgraded to Snow Leopard and
noticed that document icons have changed.
When I save a Word document, its shown
with its familiar, type-specic appearance,
but quickly changes to a generic document
icon. Likewise, a screenshot starts off as
it used to be, but changes to show the
appearance of the screen in miniature.
Acrobat PDF les behave in a similar way
to Word documents at rst, before being
changed to generic icons. My preferences
havent changed, so why is this?
A Because of the enhancements made to
Quick Look and its closer integration with the
Finder, Snow Leopard generates document
icons differently to Leopard. As its still new,
its also prone to minor glitches and bugs.
When you take a screenshot, its captured
in an image le and is normally displayed
with a custom icon showing the image in
miniature, as before. Documents with more
complex contents that need to be parsed and
rendered, such as HTML and PDF, are shown
with a miniature icon that shows their generic
type, but no preview. Larger icons
will try to show a preview of the
rst page of the document, but
the full scrollable preview will only
appear if you select the icon and
press the Spacebar.
Type-specic document icons
are also the rule for documents
belonging to other applications
such as Microsoft Word, which
rely on Quick Look converters
to generate the preview. A
collection of Quick Look plug-ins
is being made at qlplugins.com.
So what you describe is now
normal behaviour.
From David Ward
Q I installed new Epson printer drivers
for Snow Leopard using Software
Update. Now my printer doesnt
work, with Console showing repeated
messages about throttling respawn,
and entries such as:
posix_spawn("/Library/Printers/EPSON/
InkjetPrinter/EPW/IJEPWAgent.app/
Contents/MacOS/IJEPWAgent", ...): No
such le or directory
What should I do?
A Your printer needs background
processes running to enable its driver
to work. These are normally controlled
and run by launchd using a technique
known as spawning or respawning
Throttling respawn
the process. Hence the log entries
youre seeing repeated so often are the
components that make up your printer
driver trying to get going, but failing
because a le or folder is missing. After
an update, this is a good indication that
something went wrong and the update
was botched. Open the Print & Fax pane
in System Preferences and remove your
printer. Next, download the standalone
installer from support.apple.com/kb/
DL900 and install that. Restart, re-install
your printer in Print & Fax and you should
nd that it works properly again.
Earlier releases of Mac OS X were
prone to incomplete or messed-up
updates through Software Update.
More recently, these issues have
become uncommon and you should
be able to trust Software Update.
When it does fail, its simple to use
a standalone installer instead. When
this occurs with full system updates,
its usually wise to download the latest
Combo installer, as that will repair
and restore everything that has been
changed since the initial installation
of that major version of Mac OS X.
When an update downloaded by Software Update
malfunctions, download a copy of the standalone
disk image from Apples support site and install that.
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macbusiness
M
ac users who have stayed the
long haul from the rst public
beta release of Mac OS X will
have suffered at the hands of its Installer
application more than once. Formerly
notorious for turning well-running Macs into
unbootable nightmares, Installer has also
come a long way. Because Mac OS X has a
Unix heart, it has xed ideas about where
different software components belong. For
instance, an application that includes custom
fonts must install them in the /Library/Fonts
folder, or they will be rendered inaccessible;
document templates and similar supporting
les normally need to be placed in a folder
within /Library/Application Support if theyre to
be made available to all users of that Mac.
The central function of Installer, a
standard application found in /System/
Library/CoreServices, is therefore to copy the
various components required for a software
installation into the correct locations.
Apples updates are either downloaded
by the Software Update pane in System
Preferences as package les (.pkg),
or separately from support.apple.com/
downloads in disk images (.dmg). The latter
are the recommended container for Installer
packages, but theres nothing to stop you
from putting them into compressed archives
or whatever you like. One advantage of using
disk images is that a damaged or corrupt
image cant be mounted and used. By
contrast, its possible for damaged Installer
packages to be run, and this may explain why
some Software Update installations go awry.
More complex installations can be
delivered as several packages, orchestrated
in JavaScript from a metapackage le (.mpkg).
If, however, youve downloaded Apple updates
through Software Update, which, like iTunes,
have a combination of .mpkg and .pkg les,
youll have discovered that their .mpkg
orchestration doesnt normally work when
Inside Installer
Every software update relies on the Mac OS X Installer. Understanding
what it should do is valuable in understanding its problems.
opened in the Downloads folder. Mounting
at the top level of a disk image is usually
successful, or you can install its individual
constituent .pkg les manually. The latter has
the disadvantage that the .mpkg scripts wont
be run, which could stunt the installation
process, although this doesnt normally worry
iTunes updates.
An Installer package is a regular le,
not a bundle like an application thats a
folder pretending to be a le. It contains
product information, including any licence
le and version data, and a list of installation
properties. The latter include system, volume
and authentication requirements, and the
action to be followed after installation, such
as forcing a restart. In addition to the les
required for the installation itself, there are
four scripts to cover preight, pre-installation,
post-installation and postight. In essence,
Installer runs the preight then pre-installation
scripts, puts all the enclosed les in the
FACINGABUSINESSDILEMMA?EMAILHELP@MACUSER.CO.UKTODAY
PackageMaker is located in Xcodes
/Developer/Applications/Utilities folder,
and has a straightforward interface centred
on a single project window. Prepare all
the les that you need to install, ideally
ready in the correct folder hierarchy and
bundled up into an .app as necessary.
If youve developed the product yourself
using Xcode, perhaps in AppleScript
Studio, it should be close to that already.
PackageMaker prompts you to create a
new Installer package when it starts up,
and requires specication of the minimum
version of Mac OS X on which a user can
install, and your organisations identity,
normally its Internet address in reverse,
such as uk.co.macuser.
Add components to be included in the
package to the left-hand pane of the main
window, perhaps the application bundle
itself, documentation les, and any
Library additions. Selecting each
in turn, you then need to complete
entries in the Conguration,
Contents, Components and
Scripts tabs. Each has extensive
options that will have signicant
effects on the installation
process. For instance, enabling
the checkbox to Allow custom
location will make Installer add
another button that enables the
user to select a different destination folder.
Remember that any components to be
installed outside a users Home folder will
require admin authorisation. Components
that should be offered as optional installs
are added as choices, for which you can
determine additional options such as
whether theyre selected initially.
Select the package, in the top left-hand
section, and work through its Conguration,
Requirements and Actions settings. Among
Requirements, you cant only set essential
needs, without which Installer will refuse to
proceed, but Optional specications; if the
target system falls short of those, Installer
will display a warning message, but will
complete the installation if the user wishes.
Making your own packages
PackageMaker gives you full control over the permissions settings
of each le and folder that you build into a package. Kept as a
receipt, these are also used to repair permissions later.
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Unlike disk images, Installer packages are
a minority pursuit and potentially complex.
This means there are relatively few third-
party tools that work with these packages.
The exception is with utilities to remove or
uninstall software that has been installed
by Installer something that Installer itself
remains incapable of accomplishing.
Pacist, $20 (about 12) shareware
from charlessoft.com, is the established
alternative to Installer. It enables you to
open packages and install individual les
or elements within them. Installer will list
the les to be installed from a package,
through the Show Files in its Files menu, but
its constrained by the options chosen by
the person who built the original package.
If you inadvertently trash your QuickTime
Player application, you may not want to
re-install the whole of the latest edition of
QuickTime. Instead, you can use Pacist to
selectively install just the Player application
from the last QuickTime update.
Uninstallers present a more complex
choice. For products that came in Installer
packages, you can open the original
package(s) using Installer, list their
contents, and then manually remove all
the different components that it installed.
Alternatively, an application such as
fseventer, free from fernlightning.com/
doku.php?id=software:fseventer:start,
can watch your lesystem using the same
system features employed by Spotlight, and
record the le activity performed during an
installation. This allows you to discover what
any installer has actually done during an
install, including any les generated when
you rst run the application. While this is
probably overkill for single users, system
administrators who need to know how to
roll back an update or installation could
nd it a useful addition to their toolbox. Its
disadvantage is that the system interface
on which it relies can become overwhelmed
by heavy le system activity, something not
inconceivable during software installation.
Inside packages and uninstalling
specied locations, replacing existing les
as specied, following which it runs the
post-installation and postight scripts.
The rst phase of an installation consists
of checking that the Mac meets the packages
requirements. If it falls short, then Installer
tells the user why the installation cant
proceed and goes no further. The developer
who produces the package may unwittingly
allow installation on an unsuitable system,
though: this commonly occurs when theyve
specied a minimum version of Mac OS X
thats required, but dont exclude future major
releases. This means you can install products
designed for Tiger on Snow Leopard, although
they could then prove badly broken.
Once Installer has determined that the
installation can proceed, it runs the preight
script or, in the case of metapackages,
all preight scripts from the .mpkg and its
associated packages. After those, pre-
installation scripts are run. If an error occurs
during preight or pre-installation, Installer
informs the user and cancels the installation.
This normally works perfectly, but if preight
or pre-install scripts encounter an error but
dont handle it correctly, Installer will continue
with an installation that will fail.
With all preparations complete, Installer
gets on with the main course, copying every
le from the package to its designated
location on the Mac. Here, theres ample
scope for programmer error, inadvertently
wiping out key les belonging to other
applications or system components, or
misplacing vital les. When this is complete,
the package le less its payload of les
that have been installed is copied to the
/Library/Receipts folder of the volume on
which installation has taken place. Although
package receipts like this appear identical
to their original packages, they lack the les
that were installed, and are folders disguised
as single les, like an application bundle.
If you open one, you can see its binary
bill of materials (.bom), a .dist script, and
various of the scripts and other components
that make up a distribution package. Because
the .bom les in receipts specify the intended
permissions of all the les and folders that
have been installed, theyre used by Disk
Utility when you use it to repair permissions.
In Mac OS X 10.3.3 and earlier, there
was a nal step needed for an installation
to take properly: updating of prebindings.
In order to launch applications more quickly,
Mac OS X used to process its executable
les in advance, a trick termed prebinding.
Thankfully, improvements in the loading
and execution of code in Mac OS X 10.3.4
and later have rendered this unnecessary,
so you should never see Installer updating
prebindings now. Before quitting, Installer
runs post-installation and postight scripts,
and the installation or update is complete.
Most application installations and updates
have to place (and/or remove) les from
folders to which administrator or even root
access is required. Consequently, Installer
SSSSSuuuuummmmmmmmmmaaaaarrrrryyyyy
Apples Installer utility is designed
to perform complex installations and
updates, involving the placement of
components in folders required by
Mac OS X, with its Unix heart.
Packages delivered in disk images
are automatically checked for integrity;
those downloaded by Software Update
can be damaged but still installed.
Metapackages (.mpkg) orchestrate
installation of multiple packages
(.pkg) using co-ordinating JavaScript.
Manual installs of constituent
packages normally work for iTunes,
but dont run that script.
When an Installer package has
been installed, the package is stripped
of its payload and copied to the
/Library/Receipts folder.
System administrators can use
PackageMaker to build packages to
facilitate system maintenance. These
can also be installed remotely using
Apple Remote Desktop.
Pacist is a valuable tool for
performing selective installations of
only part of a package. Uninstallers
are a more complex issue, and
manual removal using Installers
le listing may be best.
has to prompt you to enter an administrator
user name and password. One way of
streamlining this process when performing
multiple installations is to load all packages
before Installer has completed and quit
by double-clicking remaining packages or
dragging them to the application icon while
its still running. Metapackages automate this
for those distributing complex products.
Constructing Installer packages isnt
just for professional software developers.
Using Apples PackageMaker, part of the free
Xcode SDK, system administrators can build
their own packages and metapackages to
help maintain the Macs that they look after.
Apple calls these managed installs, and
with the cover of Apple Remote Desktop,
its possible to perform remote installs on
multiple clients for instance, to the many
Macs on a lab network.
Apples Installer isnt the only game in
town, although its now probably the most
sophisticated and mature. Smith Micros
StuffIt InstallerMaker (my.smithmicro.com/
mac/stuftinstallermaker/index.html) was
popular in the days of classic Mac OS, and
is available for Mac OS X. More widely used
because of its availability for Windows as
well, MindVision VISE X (mindvision.com/
vise_x.asp) has been adopted by other
application vendors. If you need to build
installers for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux,
then BitRocks InstallerBuilder (bitrock.
com) could be a good choice.
Pacist opens existing Installer packages, so you can
choose elements or components within the package
and selectively install them. This saves you having to
run the whole install or update.
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ONE MORE THING:
I dont want no freedom?
I
like things that are free. I do subscribe
to the notion that theres no such thing as
a free lunch in principle, but that hasnt
stopped my one-man quest to disprove the
notion over the past decades of my life.
My youth was (partly) spent ringing up
for free catalogues, entering competitions
that I always lost on the tiebreaker (Why
do you want to win this? Because then
I wouldnt have to pay for it, silly), and
engaging in a one-man hunt for gift horses,
whose mouth I then never even remotely
stared in the direction of.
As Ive got older, Ive found myself far
happier to pay for things, a phenomenon I
never really thought Id get to grips with in my
infant years (thats what 25p a week pocket
money does for you). But I appreciate its right
and proper that if someone has spent time
and effort working on something, then I dont
have a right to tea leaf it. That said, I recently
read a story of one IT magazine editor not
our beloved Nik, I should hasten to add who
admitted to stealing sweeties from his local
shop in his youth. This
is a well-to-do man,
too, who Im wagering
got more pocket
money than me.
Yet that didnt stop
the young cad from
slipping a packet of
Fruit Polos in his coat
pocket. Fruit Polos!
At the very least go for
the Fizzy Chewits, man!
Thats where the action is. The late, great
Woolworths even used to sell them in bulk
packs. But I digress.
While I have little quarrel with paying
a price for good-quality products, Im
getting increasingly bothered at the cost
of many technology-related services. A text
message, for instance, has such a miniscule
manufacture cost that I begrudge even
spitting a penny in the direction of my mobile
phone operator for the dubious pleasure of
sending one (given that said operators staff
may well have sold my details, too, I gure it
owes me money if anything). Likewise, Ive
had a letter from Sky telling me the price
of my telly is going up. Why? As far as I can
make out, the quality of the 2384 channels
it offers hasnt improved, and it still only
offers a 10-minute limit on previews of, er,
the arthouse programmes it transmits late
at night. Why should it have an extra pound
While I have little quarrel with
paying a price for good-quality
products, Imgetting increasingly
bothered at the cost of many
technology-related services
of my cash? But then we, as a society,
tend to cough up easily for things like this,
thanks to the modern-day accomplice of big
corporations, direct debit.
Last month, though, I began a very belated
ght back. At long last, I discovered Skype.
I say discovered. This wasnt some Indiana
Jones-esque quest that had me moving a
Chocolate Orange slightly from one side of my
desk to the other to uncover a new cavern
under the piles of papers. This was me
refusing to pay the bill for an hour-long phone
call to Los Angeles. Id like, at this stage, to
tell you that this phone call was to a major
international talent agent, who was primed to
pluck me from deepest Dudley and transport
me to the glitz of Tinseltown, but that would
be a lie, and quite a big one. Im happy for
you to think its true, though. Ill be in Heat
magazine at this rate.
Nonetheless, a phone call I had to make,
and the thought of saving a good tenner or
two was enough to have me signing up. I
borrowed a fairly clunky USB microphone and
speaker combo that
had been reluctantly
formed into the
shape of a phone,
downloaded the
software and bravely
ventured forward. I
daringly clicked on
a phone number in
my email client, and
waited for the phone
to call a friends UK
landline to test it. It was as if the technology
fairies has danced across my keyboard and
sprinkled magic money-saving dust onto it.
I completed a call, only interrupted by two
instant messenger messages sounding their
arrival, and a web pop-up making the kind of
noises that I suspect the person on the other
end of the line didnt want to hear. I learnt
valuable lessons about closing windows here,
friends, let me tell you that right now.
Then it was time for the big call to Los
Angeles. Im not used to technology working
rst time, so Skype utterly caught me off
guard when a chirpy American voice greeted
me. Have you got video switched on?, the
person on the other end of the phone asked.
No I havent, you nosey fecker, I thought.
I have to hold some values in this new
technological world, and reserving the right to
not wear a shirt when Im on the phone, while
sneaking in mouthfuls of Toblerone, is one I
intend to preserve. But Skype is a technology
of potentially world-changing genius. The irony,
of course, is that because its free, nobody
wants to pay to promote the thing. As such,
the child in us who gladly grabs anything free
they can nd is happy to ignore a genuine gift
horse when it turns up and stares lovingly in
our direction. Im guessing if said gift horse
offered the adult population Fruit Polos en
masse for free, thered be a very different
reaction. I can think of at least one satised
customer straightaway.
Fed up with the growing cost of technology-based services, Simon Brew
discovers that there is such a thing as a free lunch, and its called Skype.
Simon Brew wrote this column fully clothed,
which makes a change.