mac action issue 3 june 2009
Post on 25-Mar-2016
218 Views
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
ac
tio
n
MACTHE APPLE LOVER’S MAGAZINE
JUNE
winIS THE APPLE TAX INESCAPABLE?
The problem with the feminist movement was that the wrong women were burning their bras.
* As an Apple Premium Reseller we’re very un-pc. Sorry.
.co.za
Mac Action 1
Then we’ve got some very interesting feature content as well.
The Mac Tax article might be a touch lengthy but persevere
through it and there’s a fairly balanced, reasonable conclusion
in there. Quite rare for any MS – Apple comparison frankly. And
of course, there’s another healthy selection of detailed HowTos
to get you working better, easier, and more confidently with
your Mac.
Now, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that you
guys had better start firing up your mail clients and sending
us some letters. We’ve secured several new Shuffles from
the generous crew at Core for the best letters every month,
but with a theme. “What drove me from my old PC into the
comforting embrace of my Mac” – all you have to do is send
us a few words on this subject and, if your entry is the best for
the month, one of these 4GB babies will be on their way to
your doorstep. Letters@macaction.co.za is the address, so get
typing.
We hope you enjoy reading our third issue as much as we
enjoyed putting it together. And keep on computing with
panache, it really is the least stressful way.
THERE’S A WHOLE LOT OF INTERESTING
CONTENT IN THE PUBLICATION THIS
MONTH. SHOCKINGLY ENOUGH, OUR
EDITOR STEVE ALLISON HAS REVIEWED
THE NEW SHUFFLE, AND DESPITE
ALL THE HYPE HAS IDENTIFIED A
FEW WEAKNESSES IN ITS IMPRESSIVE
ARSENAL OF COOL FEATURES! QUITE
A SHOCK FOR THE APPLECOMMITTED
MAN, I CAN TELL YOU!
from the editor
Mac Action2
contents
ac
tio
n
MACTHE APPLE LOVER’S MAGAZINE
April 2009
NEWS
05. News
New products, new software
releases, new cool stuff in the
App Store, new crazily-priced
designer incarnations of Apple
products. And the imminent Apple
Worldwide Developer Conference,
read more details on the lot here in
our monthly roundup of hot Apple
news!
EDITOR’S CORNER
10. Editor’s Corner
Steve hates restrictions, and is
quite certain life is way too full of
them as it is. For his beloved Apple
to endorse and perpetuate yet
another, is a problem for our Ed
this month.
11. The other side
This month Russell Bennett stares
fear in the face, and wonders if a
technology tipping point is one
the cards?
FEATURES
14. Mac Tax
The infamous Mac Tax continues to
be perpetuated all over the place,
not least in Microsoft advertising
campaigns. But how true are the
claims? We build a direct desktop
comparison, let’s find out right
here, right now..
20. iSchools
The Core Groups bid at bringing
relevant, useful IT into the
underprivileged classrooms of SA
delivers the strengths of the Apple
brand where it may just be needed
most – developing the minds of
the country’s next generation.
PRODUCT REVIEW
24. We’ve got some tasty gear
Our Superdrives have been busy
loading up and trying out all sorts
of software this month, but we do
also have a detailed look at the
all-new, all-talking iPod Shuffle this
month. You can win one too, check
the letters page for more details.
25. iPod Shuffle 4GB
26. Apple iWork 09
28. MacFreelancer
30. Roxio Toast 10 Titanium
HOW TO
32. How To’s
Our monthly selection of detailed,
and useful, HowTo content starts
here. This month we launch out
onto the web with iWeb, delve
deeper still into iPhoto, and
elaborate on the thousands of
keyboard shortcuts on your Mac, at
least the important ones.
33. Building a website
37. Mastering keyboard
shortcuts
40. Manipulating your images
THE LITTLE THINGS
44. The Little Things.
Our new section dedicated to
those smaller bits that help you
get the most from your tech
purchases, and lifestyle itself. We’re
looking at two brands which are
locally represented by Phoenix
Software with this selection,
Exspect and Elonex, and although
not all of them are available locally
as yet, we reckon if enough of you
pester them they’ll bring them to
our shores!
IPOD COMPETITION
ILOVEMYMAC
MACS IN ACTION
GAMES REVIEW
52 Gaming Macs.
Colin Mcrae Rally is about as
close to the real thing as you can
get without the taste of mud, oil
residue, and unburnt hydrocarbons
filling your gob. All the thrills and
spills right here.
Mac Action team
Editor: Steve Allison
Deputy Editor: Russell Bennett
Editorial Contributors: Steve Allison, Russell
Bennett
Art Contributors: Plutonic
AVC
Management: Steve Allison, Russell Bennett
Advertising Sales: Sean Tingle
sean@plutonic.co.za
Hosting : www.virtualmags.co.za
Subscriptions: www.macaction.co.za
All data contained in this magazine is for information
only and every effort is made to ensure its accuracy.
However reviews, comment and instruction are the
views of the authors and may contain inadvertent
errors, for which Mac Action apologises but takes no
responsibility for any actions of any person resulting
from the use of information contained herein.
Any prospective contributor or correspondant
submitting unsolicited material with a view to its
publication automatically grant Mac Action license to
publish such material in whole or in part in any edition
of this magazine. Any material submitted is at the risk
of the sender and Mac Action cannot be held liable or
accountable for its loss or damage.
Whilst this magazine is devoted to the operation
and usage of Apple Mac hardware and software
products and such third party software and peripherals
which may be attached to or installed on Apple Mac
products, Apple Mac Corporation do not own in whole
or in part this magazine or its publishers. Nor does
the Apple Mac Corporation agree to or accept any
responsibility for any text or graphic
material published herein.
Mac Action4
Ad
REC
www.nikon.co.za
Nikon’s unique 2.7” LCD Vari-angle monitor makes it easy to take pictures from any angle. 12.3 megapixels and EXPEED image processing system for high defi nition images. Live View with four AF modes. Enhanced creativity with HD movie function for high impact movie clips.View life from a different angle with the D5000.
Self-portrait angle
View life from any angleThe new D5000. Stills and HD movie.
It will change your perspective.
Mac Action 5
SO, REGULAR,
COMMONORGARDEN
IPHONE JUST NOT
DOWNRIGHT, WELL,
OSTENTATIOUS
ENOUGH FOR YOU?
Luckily for you, Stuart Hughes
is following-up on it’s 22ct gold
iPhone with this, the latest
iPhone 3G carved from 23g
of pure titanium and sprinkled
with 53 certified conflict-free
diamonds just for the ultra-elite,
and it could be yours today for
just USD37 4!
With the current state of the
global economy, we’re not
sure this functional titanium
sculpture could be called a
particularly good buy, especially
considering that Apple is
preparing to announce new
iPhones any day now, but it
would certainly get you noticed
in a crowd. Or, wait, no it won’t
really. How many people will
actually even realise it isn’t just a
skinned iPhone, unless you leave
it’s pricetag on printed in large
letters perhaps? Otherwise you’d
turn into an insufferable bore,
explaining to everyone who’ll
listen how you’re just so damn
rich you needed a phone that
would last longer than you will.
Nor can it even be art,
unfortunately, by its very
definition. An iPhone serves many
purposes beyond merely being
itself after all. In fact although
only a 16GB 3G model, this
one is even more useful than
most as it’s not locked to any
specific network. Surprised
Apple aren’t firing up the legal
department for taking these
elite rip-off artists on, but then
any company that can charge
USD4K for a cell phone surely
has bank-vaults full of cash to
blow on drawn-out courtroom
dramas.
Still, if you just can’t stand the
thought of the shiny metallic
case being scratched or the
class-leading display cracking,
this outlandish creation fits
the bill perfectly. And it is
quite breathtaking when you
know what’s gone into it –
copious amounts of raw wealth
engineered into a modern
handheld fashion-utility.
news
The $40K iPhone 3G
Mac Action6
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
iClone 3. is
an innovative
yet easy-to-
use software
application that
makes it simple
to add animation
to video projects,
whether you are
an aspiring filmmaker or
just someone who would like
to add talking 3D actors and
SIMS-like content to your latest
YouTube offering, podcast,
blog, corporate presentation, or
school project.
Put the camera where
you want it
The enhancements in iClone 3.
begin with the most elemental
of all filmmaking tools, the
camera. iClone’s camera system
is revised to allow you to add as
many cameras to a scene as you
require and actively switch the
live camera view throughout
your animation, enabling you to
record an animated scene much
like real-world filmmaking.
The camera system also has
capabilities to support first-
person recording with FlyCam
and WalkCam cameras that
follow terrain or soar through
the sky with adjustable speeds.
Wear different hats
iClone 3. simplifies the
animation process to two
production modes: Editor Mode
and Director Mode. Editor Mode
allows you to create
and refine your scene
and actors, and Director
Mode to command how
your actors behavement
with the ease of moving
around in your favourite
videogame.
For users who want to
go beyond the characters,
scenes and other content that
comes pre-loaded with iClone
3., there’s the iClone Content
Store (www.reallusion.com/
contentstore) where you can
select from thousands of props,
scenes, historical and fictional
themes.
With output options ranging from
HD-sized video to YouTube-sized
video and the new Flash video
option with a variety of quality
settings, iClone users can share
their productions in the full-
screen, DV video format for DVD
projects and as streaming videos
for Web sites. Videos can also be
produced for mobile handsets
and e-mails. iClone 3.0 is available
from leading retailers at a RRP of
R1 099.
For additional information, please
visit phoenixsoftware.
AMAZON’S KINDLE ON THE IPHONE
Amazon’s Kindle electronic
reading device hasn’t really had
any impact on the local market
as yet. It’s pricey, for such an
archaic-looking monochrome
screen, even if it is thin, light,
and “magazine-sized”.
But the format got a serious
shot in the arm when Amazon
released a free to download
Kindle viewer for iPhone last
month, essentially turning all
iPhones (and iPod Touches, of
course) into potential Kindle
e-book readers. Unfortunately
the software doesn’t extend
to newspaper or magazine
subscriptions, and you can’t
buy e-books directly from
Amazon onto your iPhone via
the application, instead having
to purchase your chosen e-book
online and then transfer the
downloaded file over to your
mobile.
The free software includes
a neat feature dubbed
WhisperSync, which allows you
to switch our of the reader app
and back to your iPhone OS
without losing your place in
your book, and is the first time
that Amazon has offered Kindle
e-book format support for any
mobile device other than the
Kindle platform itself.
news
PHEONIX BRINGS ICLONE 3.0TO SA
Mac Action 7
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac usnews
Media Giant goes
massively mobile
To help cross this digital
divide, Gannett relies on
Apple iPhone 3G. Gannett
employees embraced iPhone
and the company launched
USA TODAY in the App Store,
adding to Gannett’s ability
to produce must-have news
and information updated
24/7 for mobile users.
iPhone has helped redefine
how it delivers content and
advertising to consumers.
As the largest newspaper
publisher in the U.S., Gannett
is well aware of the changes
happening in print publishing.
And for the McLean, VA-
based media giant, change
brings opportunity. “The
newspaper business is still a
good business. We’re looking
at how to get news and
information to people in the
way they want it, when they
want it,” says Mark Morneau,
Vice President of Information
Technology.
To do that, Gannett is moving
beyond print to digital
content published around the
clock for mobile consumers.
“The news and information
business has always been a
24-hour business, because
we don’t control when
news happens,” explains
Morneau. “The technology is
changing, and our business
is really in a transformation.
iPhone is making a lot of this
transformation happen.”
Maximizing Revenue
By delivering a customized
view of USA TODAY to iPhone
users, Gannett has created
a loyal — and growing —
audience who may have never
picked up the newspaper. “We
realize the more local, the
more updated, and the more
interactive we are with mobile
content, the more we can
connect with our audience,”
says Carroll.
Access to the iPhone audience
has unleashed advertising
opportunities as well, creating
new revenue potential for
Gannett. The company, along
with its subsidiary PointRoll,
has developed the first mobile
rich-media advertising for
iPhone. The mobile ads are
fully expandable and provide
advanced features such as
video tap-to-play, coupon
downloads, integrated
mapping technology, and
user-initiated tap-to-call.
“iPhone presents a new
business opportunity that
allows our traditional print
advertisers to extend into
mobile and leverage that
influential, affluent audience,”
says Jones. “We are very
pleased with the feedback we
are getting from our users and
advertisers. Developing for
iPhone is a very bright future
for us.”
Media powerhouse Gannett knows how to work fast and furious under deadline. Its recent challenge was to go mobile — transform its 9-plus publications, including the flagship USA TODAY®, from traditional
Mac Action8
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.zanews
Apple will kick off its annual
Worldwide Developers
Conference (WWDC) with a
keynote address on Monday,
June 8 at 1: a.m. A team
of Apple executives, led by
Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior
vice president of Worldwide
Product Marketing, will deliver
the keynote. WWDC will offer
in-depth sessions on both
iPhone OS 3., the world’s most
advanced mobile operating
system, and Mac OS X Snow
Leopard, an even more powerful
and refined version of the
world’s best desktop operating
system and the foundation for
future Mac innovation.
“Last June, we gave developers
an early look at the powerful
new technologies that form
the underpinnings of Mac
OS X Snow Leopard,” said
Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior
vice president of Software
Engineering. “At WWDC, we
will be giving our developers a
final Developer Preview release
so they can see the incredible
progress we’ve made on Snow
Leopard and work with us as we
move toward its final release.”
Snow Leopard and Mac
technical sessions will showcase
hundreds of refinements to
the operating system and dive
deep into its new technologies
including a 64-bit architecture,
QuickTime X, next-generation
multicore and GPU processor
support, and amazing new
accessibility technologies.
iPhone OS 3. technical sessions
will cover introductory and
advanced concepts to help
developers get the most out of
the iPhone OS 3. SDK and over
1, new APIs available for
iPhone OS 3..
WWDC also offers attendees
the unique opportunity to
work side-by-side with Apple
engineers to solve code-
level issues, gain insight into
development techniques and
get expert advice on interface
design.
Other activities at Apple’s
WWDC 29 include:
�� More than 1 technical
sessions presented by Apple
engineers on a wide range
of technology-specific
topics for developing,
deploying and integrating
iPhone OS 3. and Mac OS X
technologies;
�� Over 1, Apple engineers
presenting the latest in
Apple technologies and
providing one-to-one
direction in hands-on labs;
and
�� The opportunity to connect
with thousands of fellow
iPhone and Mac developers
from around the world.
Visit the Apple Worldwide
Developers Conference 29
website for registration and
more details at http://developer.
apple.com/wwdc.
Apple Worldwide Developers Conference
to Kick Off with Keynote Address on Monday,
June 8
Mac Action 9
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac usnews
How much do you love your Mac?
Send us pictures of your devotion
and you could win great prizes
ilovemymac@macaction.co.za
ac
tio
n
MACTHE APPLE LOVER’S MAGAZINE
Mac Action10
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
There was a time when I
could sit down at work or in
a restaurant and light up a
cigarette without thinking
about it. Those days are long
gone. There was a time when
people could express an
opinion without fear. Political
correctness has put an end to
that.
I can’t ride my motorcycle
around Kyalami if it makes
too much noise. The nearby
residents get all upset. Kyalami
has been there since 1961.
When people built their houses
next door to a racetrack, what
did they expect? Back to
the road, I can’t drive my car
without a seatbelt and the list
goes on and on.
It is frustrating that we can’t
enjoy the benefits of using the
iTunes store in this country. I do
have an iTunes store account in
the U.K. but even that is of little
use because of the fact that
Telkom will only allow me 3Gb
of data a month, yet another
restriction.
I am a Mac person through
and through, as you all know.
The reason is simple, Apple
has the best hardware and
operating system, it just works.
The original reason I changed to
Mac all those years ago though
was that I was tired of the
restrictions involved in using
a PC, the way that Microsoft
treated me like a criminal. Apple
has never been like that but
recently, I have been frustrated
even with the company I’m such
a supporter of.
IT IS FRUSTRATING THAT
WE CAN’T ENJOY THE
BENEFITS OF USING THE
ITUNES STORE IN THIS
COUNTRY
I downloaded a series of my
favourite television program
from the iTunes store on a
recent trip to the U.K. Had I
bought the DVD, I could have
lent it to my family for them
to watch as well. I decided
to create a DVD using Toast,
which I would lend to them.
Guess what? I can’t, the files
are locked! I understand that
they don’t want the files to be
distributed around the Internet
but surely I should be allowed
to burn a DVD, I can burn a CD
of iTunes music. I wouldn’t even
mind if they put some security
in so that the DVD couldn’t be
copied.
The other thing that has been
annoying me is the iPhone.
As an Apple user, I really want
my mobile phone to be an
iPhone. Why shouldn’t I be
allowed to use the phone on
the network of my choice?
Changing networks is not easy.
We are usually locked into
long contracts with our service
providers, another restriction.
Changing your number is quite
difficult, having to get new
business cards and so on. Worse
than that, I live in an area where
the Vodacom coverage is so
poor that the phone is virtually
unusable.
So, I guess I do have freedom
of choice. Either don’t use a cell
phone at home or don’t have
an iPhone. I love living in a free
country!
editors column
I don’t know about you but I find there are more and more restrictions on our lives every day. Governments and corporations around the world talk about freedom, democracy and choice and yet, in reality, the opposite seems to be the order of the day.
Life’s Restrictions
Mac Action 11
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
I had one of those fiery debates this week, with
the tech ed of a very well-known consumer
mag, about no less than the merits of the Mac
versus the PC. His viewpoint, as ever with these
sorts of polarising issues, was straightforward.
Macs are the worst, and PCs rule the planet. That
sort of concept for an argument really gets to
me.
Now this bright guy who usually has a pretty
measured way about him actually started using
nonsensical statements like “This latest MS TV ad
proves that Mac is ridiculously overpriced” and
“Wow Steve Jobs really did a number on you”...
You know, the sort of grown-up, thoughtful stuff
that it always seems to degenerate to in such a
discussion.
And I suddenly saw what the problem is
with the Apple way, the Mac concept, for
people like him. After all I am a person like
him, so his disproportionate vehemence had
editors column
Tippinngpoints
Mac Action12
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
to come from something in
that background. We’re both
PC wizards, diagnostics and
repair skills bordering on the
intuitive, ability to just “pick up”
technology honed and sharp...
It’s fear.
You see people like us, we
actually quite like it when
our PCs fall over. It gives us
the opportunity to dive into
them wholeheartedly and fix
the problem. Maybe, while
we’re in there, make it even
better. Faster. Even heavier
on juice. We’re the extreme of
the PC world, modders and
tweakers and overclockers. A
troublesome machine is a great
challenge, and an opportunity
to utilise our talents.
These monstrous skills allow us
to do things with computers
which others can’t. We don’t
in any way fear them, as some
members of the general public
still do. We aren’t crippled when
anything goes wrong, merely
delayed until we get it sorted
out. Our machines are stable,
only really still crashing when
we deliberately provoke them
anyway. Any piece of hardware
you give us, we can install,
configure, and work with in a
few minutes.
If, suddenly, tomorrow, the
market share were reversed,
and Mac was the dominant
environment by a huge margin,
many of these hard-earned and
proud skills would be largely
irrelevant. Obsolete. Or simply
not supported. Overnight
the hardcore techie would
become a dying breed, caged
up in dank dungeons filled with
mouldy old systems like a mad
scientist’s main tower. Large
businesses built around selling
and maintaining such machines
would collapse, and digital
outlaws would start hinting the
Web.
You see people like
us, we actually quite
like it when our PCs
fall over
The fear of redundancy makes
even the suggestion of this
scenario becoming a reality a
terrible idea.
I totally understand this. In fact,
it’s precisely the same emotion
which still has me grimacing
in sheer distaste whenever a
DSG gearbox, you know one of
those ones that are operated by
panels behind the wheels and
operate insanely smoothly and
quickly complete with digital
blips of the electronic throttle
to ensure total smoothness on
down shifts, is mentioned in
casual conversation.
In just about every way, from
a technical standpoint, I have
to admit the damn things are
superior. They’re faster than a
manual shift, smoother, waste
less power and are totally
consistent. I still quite regularly
fluff a good heel-and-toe down
shift, which the electronic
throttle blipping mimics
perfectly every time. That isn’t
the point.
The point is that a driver who
hasn’t for years practised these
driving techniques, can now
simply buy them in the shape
of a DSG-like gearbox, and have
more efficient and effective
gear changes than I can slam
through with all my years of
focussed practice. It’s downright
galling.
Anyway, naturally, the world
still needs both sides of the
equation. It still needs people
who are happier working a stick
than paddles, and it still needs
die-hard enthusiasts who love
little more than getting into
the oily bits of their computer
systems.
I just wonder if, like with DSG,
the balance might tip at some
point in the IT world in favour of
sheer useability?
editors column
Mac Action 13
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac usnews
Mac Action14
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.zanews
THE ONLY TWO THINGS, APPARENTLY,
INESCAPABLE IN OUR LIVES. CAN THE SAME BE
SAID OF THE APPLE TAX?
Mac Action 15
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
Now naturally there are
several arguments against
his flawed thinking, most of them
quite reasonable. The simplest is,
Mac users don’t care. The price
premium is worth it for a machine
which gets the job done in a
faster, friendlier, and more efficient
manner. With a healthy dose of
style alone worth a few bucks
here or there.
But having just a few weeks
earlier read a great report
on AppleInsider completely
debunking the MS-commissioned
report, “What Price Cool”, by
analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint
Technologies, focussed in
particular on the new xServe,
I’d like to talk rationally for
the purpose of this feature,
about pure costs. The result,
incidentally, of the AppleInsider
piece is (not surprisingly, to be
sure) startlingly in favour of the
Apple server. Once the various
CALs had been added-up over
a five year licensing period, the
xServe still only cost its original
supposedly costly (some USD7
more than the MS server), while
the branded midrange server
stacked up against it more than
tripled in price to get the same
functionality for a 5 year period.
But let us take a look, in Rands,
at a similar cost-focussed
comparative of desktops.
Being a technical journalist for
more than a decade, I know how
to put together systems at a
decent price point – the trick is
to pick your parts carefully, order
them as components and then
build the machine up yourself
of course. So, in half an effort to
give every advantage possible
to the MS team, that’s what I’ve
gone and done. I know a few
good places to get hardware at
appealing prices, without dipping
into resources the consumer
doesn’t have readily available to
him like obliging press officers.
I’m also comparing against one
of the costliest-looking Macs
available, the fully-featured iMac
24” upgraded to a 3.6GHz Core 2
Duo with 1 TB Mac HD.
Let’s quickly look over the iMac
first. Yes, R28 999 looks whopping.
In the pre-built world of Windows
you have to go to the surreal
sector of hardcore gaming
laptops to hit this kind of money,
so surely a comparable desktop
machine is going to kill it in a pure
price comparison? Well now let’s
compare it part for part against
our self-built desktop and add up
those prices.
That all comes up to just R15 426.
And before you climb into me
for inflating anything, let me
highlight one or two things.
Yes you can get an LGA775
motherboard for R7, not R3K.
And yes this pricey board does
Item Cost
Core 2 Duo 3. GHz CPU R2245
4 GB Corsair DDR3 R19
Desktop chassis with
38W PSU
R1548
Intel LGA775
motherboard
R2941
Radeon 485 (512 MB) R215
Keyboard/mouse
combo
R126
1 TB WD HDD R188
Samsung 26” LCD R4225
82.11n WLAN (PCI) R625
Speakers R324
JUST YESTERDAY, GOOD OLD STEVE BALLMER YET AGAIN QUOTED THE “US$5 APPLE
TAX FOR NO MORE THAN A LOGO” ARGUMENT WHILE GLEEFULLY EXPLAINING THAT THE
COMPANY HAD ACTUALLY, FINALLY, SEEN ITS MARKET SHARE DIP IN THE MOST RECENT
STATS. THIS, CONCLUDES BALLMER, COULD WELL BE THE END OF THE GROWTH FOR
APPLE, THE DIFFICULT FINANCIAL ENVIRONMENT MAKING PAYING THE INFAMOUS TAX
LESS AND LESS SENSIBLE.
Mac Action16
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
come with things that the iMac
can’t compete with, like dual
PCI-E slots for multi-GPUs for
instance, but we had to base
it on a criterion, so we’ve used
the support of DDR3 RAM.
Believe it or not, this is about the
lowest price you’ll pay for a PC
motherboard which supports
DDR3.
Speaking of the RAM, why didn’t
I grab some more value-oriented
RAM? After all the iMac runs at
only 166 MHz, these Corsair
modules are rated at 1333 MHz.
Well, for 4 GB, you’d save just
R2 by going for the lesser RAM
modules, and every good PC
builder knows that skimping too
much in RAM will bring down the
performance of the entire PC. It
just isn’t good practice.
I’d be a bit concerned about that
38W PSU as well to be honest. I’d
probably consider upgrading it,
which is going to cost still more.
The iMac comes with just a 28W
PSU installed, and it can handle
the load just fine because of the
power efficiency built-in to the
laptop-oriented hardware needed
to squeeze everything in to that
sleek, shiny package.
I didn’t come up with an exact
match for the 24” (viewable) size
of the iMacs screen, but went
with the 26” rather than the 22”
because there’s a psychological
barrier that you cross in terms
of desktop real estate when you
go beyond 24”, that you’d sorely
miss on a 22” PC if your other
alternative was a 24” iMac. Same
with the smaller bits and pieces,
the 82.11n WLAN card, desktop
microphone and webcam have
to be added if you can claim to
be building a directly comparable
user experience.
Really, the input devices should
be substantially more expensive.
This cheapie combo I’ve specced
will feel rubbish beneath your
fingertips compared to the slim
aluminium Mac keyboard, but
because I’m not the biggest fan
of the Mighty Mouse and would
therefore want a decent Logitech
for my iMac as well, I’ll cut this
slack.
So you’ve got all your
components together, and
at R15 426 it looks like you’ve
managed a substantial saving
over the coolly costly iMac. I guess
Ballmer was right – R14K for pure
“cool” and being able to proudly
display that famous logo at my
desktop would be inconceivable
for me...
But...
There’s no way it’s over yet. All
we’ve got on the PC side are a
huge pile of bits so far. To make it
into a PC, you need an OS at the
very least, right? So, on to round 2,
software.
There isn’t any point buying the
latest hardware then hobbling
this with an old OS, besides we
Mac Action 17
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
want all the flashy features we
can get our hands on to compete
with OS X so it’s Windows
Vista Ultimate. Then we need a
productivity suite, so we’ll add
Office 27 on to the cost of the
PC, and iWork 9 onto the cost
of the Mac. Now we at least have
strong, office-related productivity
capabilities on both machines. I’m
not even going to add the cost of
AV to the PC, although technically
I probably should (and recurring
over the lifecycle of the machine
at that), but although the Mac is
barely affected by threats from
malicious code its probably good
netiquette to include it on this
side as well, for the sake of not
accidentally passing nasty worms
on to your colleagues using PCs.
Besides, there are still decent,
free AV packages available for
download.
But, if you want to match what’s
pre-installed on our iMac on the
Vista box blow for blow, there’s a
lot more to consider. Every new
Mac comes with a complete
installation of iLife 9 already
set up. So that’s iWeb, iPhoto,
GarageBand, iDVD and iMovie,
all ready for you to be productive
with.
iMovie and Windows Movie Maker
are hardly comparable, while
iPhoto makes the Image viewer
app in Vista look ridiculous – you’d
need at the very least to add
on a decent image cataloguing
package, if not a full-blown
professional image manipulation
suite. iWeb, GarageBand, and
iDVD bring three very useful
built-in functions and again
exist somewhere between the
void the Microsoft environment
leaves you in and the massive
cost of a professional solution.
And although you may argue
that you’ll never use GarageBand
for instance, you can’t deny that
having it there makes the iMac
more versatile a default system
configuration.
Yes, if you want, you can get all
of this, from the OS up, for free
on the PC. Technically though,
that’s entirely illegal, friend, and
if you tried to use an unlicensed
Windows box like this in your
business you’d be risking fines of
closing-down proportions, which
isn’t really worth it to me.
So let’s tally up then:
Just these brings the Windows
machine up to R21 841. Add
R899 for iWork 9 to the price of
the iMac and you come out at
R29898. But it honestly cannot be
left there either.
For GarageBand-like functionality,
you’d need to add at least R2
to the Vista machine. No free
website builder gives you the
flowing, easy design capabilities
of iWeb, but a truly professional
environment like Dreamweaver
setting you back five grand may
be stretching it. You can get a
similarly middle-of-the-road third-
party app for Windows at R15,
and then for a fully functional
DVD-creation suite like iDVD,
you’d need at another R5.
Item Cost
Vista Ultimate R219
MS Office 27 Std R4225
Mac Action18
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
Just for effectively cataloguing
an extensive photo library, add
another R1.
And then, of course, you’d
be doing without the close
integration of all of these
applications in the Mac
environment, each third-party
app behaving like the standalone
it is rather than as part of a
complete suite. At R27 841 for
the PC with all of its software,
the Apple Tax has shrunk to just
R3.
Now, consider what premium
you would pay for all of the
softer advantages? The neat,
clean, room-lifting real-estate
of the Mac versus the sprawling
cabling nightmare of the PC?
The productivity benefits of a
machine which runs faster and
almost never fails, surely worth
at least 2 minutes of extra work
time a day (5 hours a month, at
a billable rate of let’s say R3,
sees the Mac paying for itself
in 2 months)? The satisfyingly
high-quality components
bringing an air of luxury to your
ICT interactions and improving
the perceived quality of the tool
you’re working with? The peace
of mind of using an entirely legal
software environment? The sheer
feel-good factor of working daily
on a Mac versus a more mundane
(albeit high-end) PC? Difficult to
quantify, very difficult to attribute
a cash value to, but nonetheless
all tangible.
There is one final thing. If
you’re a hardened old techie
like me, building and installing
your Windows machine from
components up is going to take
you in the region of four to five
hours. The build process itself,
done lovingly to try and ensure
that nothing suffers from that
common malady installation
failure rather than rushed through
production-line style, will be
about two hours. Then half an
hour for the Windows installation,
and another 2 hours installing
all the drivers for your individual
components, setting up your
productivity environment and
associated software. Of course if
you aren’t a technician, you’ll have
to pay a professional to cobble it
all together for you...
An iMac will be up and running
within minutes of arriving home
with the box. It will consume less
power than the PC, saving you
something on your electricity
bill every month, be relevant for
longer than a PC (A 5-year old
Mac can still be resold, as it’s still
useful. Try that with a PC without
finding one hell of a sucker),
and does all of this through that
slick OS X interface which is
easy to learn and improves the
mechanics of content creation –
what many of us do daily with our
PCs – enabling you to produce
better results for your client and
yourself in a shorter timeframe.
These softer points are, to me
and many like me, worth the
suddenly tiny upfront cost delta
(R3 before even considering
the build cost) by a huge margin.
With ongoing cost savings which
over the lifecycle of the system
(electricity, support builds,
upgrade costs) and the high
likelihood of recouping some of
that investment when it does
finally come time to replace,
and it appears as though even
here, with test conditions set
up to favour the generalised,
competitive hardware
environment of the Windows
box, the Mac Tax argument takes
only a few moments thought and
some elementary addition to turn
around.
Oh yes, and you get the logo
which Microsoft themselves
have admitted is far cooler than
any of the Windows-run white
box builders can even come
close to, let alone the software
environment. That sounds like a
good deal to me.
And to add insult to injury, you
haven’t even got a genuinely
high-end PC there... my own
home PC would cost quite a lot
more and perform better, while
you have got the range-topping
Mac desktop. Perception versus
cold hard fact, however, is always
going to be one Titanic struggle.
Office-in-a-box for
small/medium businesses
ConvergenceConveConve eWireless Office Communicator
All-in-one wireless office communicator
PSTN WiFi
DSL
LAN
IP PBX
VoIP
Cellular
Connecto is a cutting edge appliance for 2G/2.5G/3G/3.5G
cellular networks that bundles a wide range of services into one
integrated solution. A true multi-service business gateway (MSBG)
appliance, Connecto is unique in its ability to operate on both
wireless and wire line networks.
With embedded full featured IP-PBX, data router, FMC
(Fixed-Mobile-Convergence) gateway and WiFi access point,
Connecto is the foremost integrated solution for voice and data
over cellular, NGN, and wireless networks. It’s your
office-in-a-box.
This innovative blend of advanced features and interfaces
enhances business productivity and reduces costs. It delivers the
convenience of a single unified IP environment—with seamless
handover of voice and data between VoIP, PSTN, WiFi, and
cellular networks. With Connecto, offices can go completely
wireless with internal WiFi and external GSM/HSPA networks.
With Connecto running over the cellular network, cellular
operators can match the offerings of land-line operators to the
SMB market, introduce new revenue streams, and extend their
reach in familiar territory.
All-in-one voice and data solution for SMB
over the cellular / NGN networks
Fully featured IP PBX, data router, FMC
gateway, and WiFi in one box
Multiple connectivity options via wireless
and wire line interfaces
Simple and reliable: one integrated appli-
ance, one network, one provider
High-end telephony and data system at an
affordable price with lower monthly costs
Mac Action20
MANY OF YOU WILL HAVE THE GAUTENG
ONLINE FIASCO FRESH IN YOUR MINDS AND BE SCEPTICAL TO SAY
THE LEAST. THAT’S UNDERSTANDABLE
BUT CORE GROUP IS CONVINCED THAT
IT KNOWS WHAT MISTAKES WERE MADE IN THIS DISASTER AND
HAS COME UP WITH WHAT IT BELIEVES IS A
VIABLE ALTERNATIVE.
There can be no doubt that
technology is a valuable tool
for education. Often though,
educators have taught school
children about technology rather
than integrated it into the daily
learning experience. This is one
of the limitations of Gauteng
Online. They set up a classroom
full of computers where children
come to learn about computers,
and many of these classrooms lie
vacant today.
Core Group has taken a different
approach, and one which seems
to have been recognised as
preferential. The iSchoolAfrica
iGnite project integrates the
computer into the regular lessons
in the curriculum, making the
technology a tool which improves
learning across the board.
iGniting the flames of knowledge
Mac Action 21
School children, or learners, as
we’re supposed to refer to them,
from wealthy backgrounds
generally outperform
learners from underprivileged
backgrounds in school grades,
according to recognised studies.
Take two children from opposite
ends of the social scale and
give them access to the same
technology and their grades will
be a lot closer says the theory.
Unfortunately we live in a country
where the gap between rich
and poor is huge. What some
children take for granted, others
can’t even imagine in their lives.
Our government has never been
known for it’s generous spending
on education, and whether that
is due to a poor economy or
ministers feathering their own
nests is not the point. The fact
is millions of young people are
receiving sub-standard education
due to a lack of facilities, skills,
and funding support. Core has
recognised that we need to
elevate education levels across
the social spectrum if we are ever
to make this a great country.
Core is ideally suited to providing
technology to schools as the
distributor of Apple products
in South Africa. The Apple
platform has so much to offer
in the education arena - that
is a given. The fact that the
platform is so stable and that
the hardware, operating system
and software come from the
same manufacturer, virtually
illuminates support problems. The
iLife suite, which is used for the
iSchoolsAfrica projects, is standard
on all Mac computers so all the
participating schools are using
the identical software. Then, of
course, there is the ease of use
for which Apple computers are
famous. Learners can get right
into a project without spending
time learning the software. The
whole focus is to teach children
regular curriculum using a
computer rather than teach them
to use the computer.
Core Group hopes that the project
will be funded by both public
sector and private organisations.
There will no doubt be public
private partnerships as well.
There is some healthy scepticism
here; in addition to a heightened
sense of corporate-social
responsibility, Core Group
obviously support the project so
that they can sell a pile of Apple
laptops into the educational
sector. Core are contributing to
the development of the country
as a whole with the focus on
education though. Not only
that, alhough Core is looking to
external organisations to fund
the project, it is providing all of
the training and the teaching
models itself, as thrashed out in
the Core-funded project which
covered a total of thirteen schools
in three provinces early this year.
As executive director of Core, RJ
van Spaandonk pitches it, ‘Give us
the money and put your name to
it and we’ll do the rest’. In addition
to the R1.5-million pricetag
per iSchools “mobile class”, the
sponsor is required to provide a
facilitator who will at first remain
on-site full-time to ensure that
both teachers and learners can
extract the most from their Apple-
branded educational tools.
Core has put its money where
its mouth is by funding the pilot
project. And from this investment
has come some compelling
evidence of its efficacy, the
THE FACT IS MILLIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE ARE
RECEIVING SUBSTANDARD EDUCATION DUE TO A
LACK OF FACILITIES, SKILLS, AND FUNDING SUPPORT.
CORE HAS RECOGNISED THAT WE NEED TO ELEVATE
EDUCATION LEVELS ACROSS THE SOCIAL SPECTRUM IF
WE ARE EVER TO MAKE THIS A GREAT COUNTRY.
Mac Action22
participating schools all returning
tales of delight, enthralment,
and proof of quality learning in
progress.
The project
The iSchoolsAfrica iGnite project
is designed to group 5 schools
together in a cluster. Each
school is provided with 12 Apple
MacBooks, 1 for the learners 1
for the resident school facilitator
and 1 for the class teacher. The
External facilitator will carry
their own laptop as they roam
between the 5-school cluster. Also
included in the kit is a projector, a
wireless router and 1 mini video
cameras. The whole kit is packed
up into a heavy-duty metal
case, which purportedly fits into
the back of a Toyota Conquest
without hassle. The case is small
enough that it can be easily
carried between classrooms.
The idea is that learners will work
in groups which is why 1 laptops
is sufficient for a class of 35 or so
children. Working effectively with
others as a member of a team
is one of the objectives of the
Governments favoured ‘Outcomes
Based Education’ (OBE). The iGnite
program is in fact designed to
meet all of the main objectives of
OBE.
The pilot
What we need to do in order to
assess the likely success of the
project is to cut through all the
corporate jargon and look at the
pilot in practical terms.
Children were divided into
groups and given a task, which
was to make a film about an
environmental issue concerning
them. Taking this approach was
a deliberate attempt to make the
learning interesting, which would
inspire the children. The teams
had to work together to achieve
their end result. They would also
have to carry out some research
before starting filming. Each
team was then issued with the
mini video camera and went
out to shoot their very own,
highly localised documentary
on their chosen subject, or even
find another creative way of
highlighting their findings. Once
they got back to the classroom,
they used the MacBook to
download their footage and
iMovie, being part of the iLife
suite, to turn the footage into a
watchable short film.
Scripting, directing and editing
all encourage creativity, while
the pre-filming fact-finding
teaches sound research principles
and logical thought processes.
Teamwork, understanding and
discussion of the key issue, and
creative presentation skills are
WHAT WE NEED TO DO
IN ORDER TO ASSESS
THE LIKELY SUCCESS
OF THE PROJECT IS TO
CUT THROUGH ALL THE
CORPORATE JARGON
AND LOOK AT THE
PILOT IN PRACTICAL
TERMS.
Mac Action 23
all keys to every aspect of the
project.
The learners interviewed after
the pilot project were very much
in favour of their Apple learning
experiences, after all all of this
flash tech and interesting ways
of approaching the same-old
curriculum subjects makes
learning more fun. The teachers
were very positive as they
recognised that they were able
to get more out of the children
who were downright enthusiastic
about participating. Teachers were
also at ease knowing that the
facilitator was on hand to step in
should they be unsure how to use
the equipment, and often put in
after-schools hours learning with
the guidance of their facilitators
the ins and outs of the MacBooks
themselves.
All in all, I think the pilot project
was a success and what is
amazing is the quality of work
produced by children that have
never had access to technology
before.
Technology is becoming
more and more a part of the
way we educate our children.
First world countries’ schools
and even wealthier private
schools in this country have
been using technology to
enhance and support advanced
learning methods for several
years. It is good to see that the
iSchoolsAfrica iGnite program
aims to deliver these same
advantages to children in less well
off schools.
On the other side of the coin, it
is a concern for me that children
educated using technology lose
some basic skills. My generation
lost mental arithmetic skill that
our parents have because of easy
access to calculators. Even though
we had plenty of spelling tests at
school, it is a skill I’m losing due to
the lazy technique of leaving it to
the computer spell checker. But
such is the way of the high-tech
age I suppose, I suppose in a few
years it’ll be more commonplace
to know the correct formatting of
HTML than regular old English.
Technology is brilliant and
is definitely a huge benefit
to learners of any age and
background. iSchoolsAfrica is a
commendable project which
looks far more likely to have an
effect than any of the digital
training implementations have
done so far, even if it does help
Apple sell a host of systems and
expose the youth of our country
to the Apple ecosystem as their
very first hands-on experience
with technology. Clever both
in the short and long term, and
beneficial to the entire country as
well.
Mac Action24
Mac Action 24
Product reviewsLots of tinkering with software going on this month. Our one piece of Apple hardware
getting a thorough going over is the new 4GB Shuffle, and we came to an interesting
conclusion on this one!
25 IPOD SHUFFLE 4GB
Yes, it’s tiny. Yes, it speaks to you. And yes,
it’ll go even better with your stretchy, tight-
fitting health club apparel. But is it a step
forward? Steve’s not so sure.
26 APPLE IWORK 09
Apple’s iWork suite is an even more relevant
alternative to Microsoft’s expensive Office
for Mac than ever before in 9 guise. Get
to grips with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote
here and decide for yourself.
28 MACFREELANCE
A useful little workflow management
packaged designed specifically for the
freelancers of the world. For a centralised
solution to the admin needs of your small
business, this package is well worth a look.
30 ROXIO TOAST 10 TITANIUM
It may be the de facto Mac toasting suite,
but is the latest version full of great new
features or just cashing-in on the good ‘ol
name? Join us for a spot of Toast and find
out.
Mac Action 25
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
THE IPOD SHUFFLE
HAS ALWAYS BEEN
A GREAT LITTLE
DEVICE.
TINY, LOW
COST AND
WELL BUILT.
UNLIKE OTHER LOW
COST MUSIC PLAYERS,
IT SYNCS SEAMLESSLY
WITH ITUNES JUST LIKE
ITS BIGGER BROTHERS.
The new Shuffle is available in
1Gb, 2Gb and 4Gb capacities and
doesn’t cost much more than a
memory stick of equivalent size.
The Shuffle has changed shape
although, overall it’s probably not
much smaller than the outgoing
model, which, let’s face it wasn’t
known for its bulk. What is
interesting about the new model
is the array of new features,
previously only found on more
expensive models.
The new Shuffle can now handle
things like multiple playlists and
podcasts. The big new thing
though, is that it talks. As
someone who has 65 songs
in my iTunes library, I quite often
hear a song that I like and can’t
remember the song name or
the Artist. Shuffles don’t have a
screen so there’s no way to find
out right? Wrong. The new Shuffle
will tell you using a rather cheesy
digitised voice. You can also use
the Shuffle as an external drive if
you select Enable disk use.
Something that appealed to
me was the Shuffle’s ability to
communicate with my iMac
using the USM 1.1 port on
my keyboard. The supplied
cable is quite short so it
saves you having to squeeze
your arm up around the back of
the computer. It does throw up
a couple of warnings telling you
that it is going to take longer to
charge and sync but it does work.
Once connected, it informed me
that it couldn’t accommodate all
of my music and asked if I would
like it to create a playlist. It created
the playlist and then told me that
the playlist wouldn’t fit? What I
do miss though, is the absence of
the “Auto Fill” feature of the older
unit. I can see that being able
to manage playlist has certain
advantages but I liked the ease
of plug in and go. It’s all my own
music so I’m sure I’ll like whatever
iTunes chooses.
review: iPod Shuffle
The new 4Gb
iPod Shuffle
Price : R199
Supplier:
www.apple.co.za
Mac Action26
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
All in all, I think I preferred the
ease of use you got with the older
Shuffle but then I also have an
iPod classic. The new Shuffle offers
a lot more functionality even if it
is fidgety to get to. After all, it is a
feature rich iPod for the price of a
memory stick. What more could
you want?
Summary: Still a great device, but
somewhat more flawed than the
old one.
Click hereto learn more about the Shuffle.
Our rating 3/5
Another problem with all of
this functionality in such a small
device is that it’s a little bit tricky
to operate. The standard iPod
control has been removed and
everything happens using a little
button on the headphone cable.
The control sits right up under
your chin so you can’t actually
see what you are doing. Not only
that, you have to remember how
many clicks are required for each
function. A single click to pause, 2
clicks skips to the next track and
3 clicks restarts the current song.
I got it wrong several times and
ended up selecting the next song
instead of the previous one. Click
and hold and the little Shuffle will
tell you the name of the song and
artist. You have to click the top
or bottom of the control switch
to adjust the volume, which is
difficult if you have large fingers.
The headphones are not the
greatest but you can’t replace
them because you’ll lose the
control unit. I’m sure there will be
aftermarket headphones available
soon but they are bound to be
expensive.
iWork 09
MICROSOFT OFFICE
IS PRETTY MUCH THE
INDUSTRY STANDARD
OFFICE SUITE.
SEVERAL PC USERS
THAT CHANGE TO A
MAC IMMEDIATELY
SEEK OUT A COPY
OF THE MICROSOFT
PRODUCT. THERE
IS HOWEVER AN
ALTERNATIVE, AND
A MORE COST
EFFECTIVE ONE AT
THAT.
review: iPod Shuffle
ALL IN ALL, I THINK I PREFERRED THE EASE OF USE YOU
GOT WITH THE OLDER SHUFFLE BUT THEN I ALSO HAVE
AN IPOD CLASSIC. THE NEW SHUFFLE OFFERS A LOT
MORE FUNCTIONALITY EVEN IF IT IS FIDGETY TO GET TO
Mac Action 27
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
Mac Action 27
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
iWork 9 is Apple’s own office
suite and since the introduction
of the last release, 8, it is now
fully grown up. iWork has been
around for a while but previous
releases lacked the all important
spreadsheet application. That
oversight was rectified; the 8
release included an Excel rival
called Numbers.
Those of you familiar with iWork
will know that you get three
applications in the suite although
Pages is really two applications in
one.
Keynote is the presentation
graphics program which is
regarded in the industry as one
of the best in its class. Pages is a
word processor and a desktop
publishing solution all in one.
Last but not least, Numbers is the
spreadsheet program of the suite.
New in the 9 release of Pages is a
full screen view as well as several
new templates. Numbers 9 has
a range of new templates as well.
Keynote 9 includes some rather
impressive new visual effects and
of course the obligatory new
themes.
ONE OF THE MOST
IMPRESSIVE FEATURES OF
IWORK IS THE ABILITY TO
OPEN AND SAVE FILES
IN MICROSOFT OFFICE
FORMAT
One of the most impressive
features of iWork is the ability to
open and save files in Microsoft
Office format. There really is no
need to worry about compatibility
if you are thinking of trying iWork.
I sent a couple of spreadsheets
to Windows users that I’d created
using Numbers. They were able
to open and edit them and
weren’t aware that they had been
created in a different application.
Documents have to be saved
in their native format and then
exported but it’s no real problem.
Documents that were sent to
me in Office format opened
without any conversion being
necessary. The only problem I
experienced was that Numbers
changed the currency in a couple
of my spreadsheets from Rand to
Malaysian Ringet.
iWork 9 is a fairly minor upgrade,
without any real whiz bang new
features. It is nevertheless a fully
featured office suite that can
easily rival any of the competition.
Being an Apple product, it
integrates seamlessly with the
iLife applications as well as iTunes.
At a price of R899. for a 5 user
“Family Pack”, it represents much
better value than its Microsoft
rival.
For more information click here
review: iWork09
Our rating 4/5
Mac Action28
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
�������������� ������������������������������������� ����������������������������� ����� ���������� ���� ��� ���� ���������������� ������������������������������ ������!������ ���"���� ��������� ������������������������������������ ������ � ���� �����������������#������ ������������������������������ �� �������������������$������������������� �� "����� ������� ��������� ��������������� ����������������� ����%�����
$�� ���������������������������������������������� ���������������� �� ������ � �������� ������������������������������������������������� �������������� �������������������� ������� ���������&�#���������������%����� ���������������� ������������� ���������������������� ���� ������������������ ������������������������������� ��������� ������������ ��������#��������������� �������������
'����� ��������� ���������������� �������� ������������� ����������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������� ���������� ������������ �������������������������(���������������������������� ����������"������)�$����������������������"���������������������� ��� � ������������ ������������������� �����������*�+�' ����������������� ���� �����������"� �����"�����)�$������������������������������� ��������
review: MacFreelance
,�������������-�
)�$�������
.����-�/011�11
,�����-�
���������# ����
������*
',�'�./'2�323&4�$/556'&25/�$�/�,575/'6�85'/,�&�9��3��'�����45��'� 2�.8� �$� )'29'/5�,� )'2$/556'&25� $/�)� .��5&3:� ,�$�9'/5�9�5&�3�,'9���5�./��;2��63,�5��3&���53/�2'�'6�4;5����58��;68�,5&��3�� ��/�;4��'&�� 3� 5'45/68� 3&,�'665�� 3�� ��� ,55� <;,��9�'�� ,�/���$�./��;2�373�8�(�&;,,5,�3���(55&�)3,,3&4��;���&��2�'3&5�����)8�.2+
Mac Action 29
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
Our rating 4/5
����������������������������������������������� ���������� ������������������������������
9�����������%������������������������������������������ �������������������%� �������� ��� �����������������=,���>��������������������������"�������� �������������������������������������=,��>�����������"������"����������������� ���������"�����? ��������=���#��>���������������������������� ��������������� ����������������������"����� ������������������� ���� �����)�$��������������������� ���������� ��������� �����������������"��������
���� ���������������" ������������������������ �����������%�����'�����������?�������������������"���� ������������������������� ��������������������� �������������� �%� ����������������" �����)�������������������������������������� ����������� �����������"���������������������������������� �������#�� � ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������� �������������������� � ������ ���������� ���������������%��� � �������������� �� �������������� ��������������������@����������" ��
(���������� ��������������������� ��������� ����������)��������������� ����"�������@����������� ����������������������#���������������� ��)�$����������� �?�� ������� �������� � �����������������������������3?���������������%� ���������������������� �������@�������� � �������������������,������=$�������>�� ���������"������������������������ ����=���������%������ � >�3��������������#������ � ������������"����������%� ��������������������������������)��A ��������� �������B��)�$��������������� ���������� ����������� ���3�?����������� �������������������������� ��������������������������� ��
,�����-��������������������� ���� ����������&������������������������������%������ � ����������"����=.�������>��� ���������������������������������������������������������
review: MacFreelance
Mac Action30
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
Our rating
4.5/5
Over the years, Toast has become
so much more than a straight
forward disc creation tool and
offers more and more with each
release. Version 1 now has so
many features that it would
almost be worth buying even if
you didn’t want to create discs.
The extract video clips feature
is particularly interesting.
Although it says “from any DVD”,
that isn’t strictly true. It won’t
rip commercial DVDs which
are encrypted. It does however
convert video from DVDs created
in your DVD recorder for example.
The great thing about this feature
is that you simply select what
device you want to convert for,
Apple TV or iPod for example and
it takes care of all the settings for
you. It even puts the converted
file straight into your iTunes
library. You can use the conversion
feature for files that are stored on
your hard drive as well.
Another new feature that should
prove popular is the Save Web
Video option. You can capture
video from a web site and save it
for offline viewing and, of course,
you can burn it to a disc. You can
also convert the file to another
format, again for your Apple TV or
iPod.
Videographers can archive AVCHD
video directly from the camcorder
onto a disc. Toast will also keep
a preview version of the clip on
your Mac. Fans of audio books will
appreciate being able to convert
audio book CDs into an iPhone or
iPod format with chapter markers
included. If you have ever needed
to synchronise the data in two
different folders, Toast can do
that for you as well. You can even
synchronise folders with different
computers on your network or
folders on an external hard drive.
The new features are great but
even without them, Toast is
still the best disc creation tool
available. It’s easy to use and
takes care of most settings for
you making it an easy, click and
go application. Of course, all the
settings can be manually tweaked
for all the control freaks out there.
The way Toast integrates with
your Media Browser is an added
bonus. It is just so easy to make a
disc of photos from your iPhoto
library or an Audio CD from your
iTunes library.
Toast Titanium 1 is one piece of
software that no Mac should be
without.
Summary: If you want to make
CDs and DVDs on your Mac, you
need Toast.
For more information go to www.
phoenixsoftware.co.za
news
ROXIO’S TOAST TITANIUM IS ESSENTIALLY AN APPLICATION FOR
BURNING CDS, DVDS AND NOW IN THIS VERSION, BLUE RAY DISCS.
TOAST HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A FEW YEARS NOW AND HAS
BECOME THE STANDARD DISC CREATION TOOL FOR MAC USERS.
SO MUCH SO THAT YOU VERY RARELY HEAR MAC USERS TALKING
ABOUT BURNING A DISC, THEY ALWAYS TOAST IT.
Review
Toast 1 Titanium
Price: R1299.99
Supplier:
www.phoenixsoftware.co.za
Mac Action 31
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
Mac Action32
how to?
33 IWEB
Part of the iLife 9 suite pre-installed
onto every new Mac, iWeb is a great Web
design and publishing solution pitched at
people who haven’t necessarily study HTML
programming. A design suite for designers.
We guide you through creating, building,
and publishing your very own Web site in
iWeb.
37 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
There are pages, and pages, and pages
of shortcuts on the Mac, just for the OS
let alone any apps you might be running.
This month we share some of the more
useful ones with you to help make your
Mac experience that bit smoother, faster,
and even more efficient.everywhere in
Internetland in no time at all.
40 IMAGE MANIPULATION
After touching on the image cataloguing
strengths of iPhoto last month, this month
Steve goes into more detail about actually
working with your enormous repository of
images, now that you have them organised
nicely, in this iLife 9 application.
Have you ever been somewhat
bewildered when it comes to doing
things, cool things, on your new Mac?
We know the feeling, but over the
years Steve has figured out a host of
brilliant applications and tools which
will help you along your way, and his
uncompromising nature allows him
to document detailed step-by-step
instructions to assist you in getting the
most from your Mac. Welcome to our
HowTos pages – we hope that there’s
something here that will help you out
whether you’re a Mac newbie or a
seasoned user.
Mac Action 33
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
Design for designers
So you’re quite interested in
design and, rightfully so, see the
Web as an excellent avenue for
exploring your as-yet nascent
talents and getting some honest
feedback on whether or not to
pursue your budding career any
further. You want to build your
own killer site, basically, which
is so slick, stunning, and chock-
full of kick-butt content that the
major players sit up and take
notice.
Perhaps you’ve even tried your
hand before, but been daunted
by the often highly technical Web
development environments out
there. While the free, online, drag-
and-drop solutions are just too
limited to really let your innate
creativity run free.
Luckily, if you have a Mac, there’s
an easy answer to your search. In
fact, if your Mac is relatively new,
this answer is already sitting there
on your applications dock just
waiting for you to take advantage
of it. Here’s our guide to getting
started in your endeavours with
iWeb 9, part of the iLife 9 suite
installed onto every new Mac
system since the package came
out.
Here’s a quick guide to get
you started with iWeb, and get
your digital presence designed,
uploaded, and live to the globe in
no time flat.
1 Open iWeb
It’ll be down there on your
dock, but if you’re struggling to
find it of course just go up to
Spotlight (the magnifying glass in
the top right of your screen), type
in iWeb and press enter.
2 Creating your site
When iWeb opens you’ll
be greeted with an information
window which asks if you want
to use a MobileMe account
with your project. MobileMe is a
separate matter altogether, if you
do have an account you’ll know
what it is already. It can be useful
for enabling certain functions,
like comments on your blog for
instance, but it isn’t at all essential,
so just decline.
Now open your iWeb File menu
and choose New Site, or just hit
Shift-Command
N. You’ll then
be presented
with a healthy
selection of
templates to
choose from,
which will
define your
basic look and
feel to a large
extent. Don’t
worry too
much about what you choose
how to? design a website
Mac Action34
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
right now, pick one you like and
start with the Welcome page that
comes up in the preview pane
to the right. You needn’t worry as
you’ll either use this template as
just a baseline or, if you’re happy
to go with the stock look, you can
change the theme at any time
and retain your actual objects, as
in the images and text your site is
built around.
The selected Welcome page will
appear, as well as a site structure
down the
left hand
side of the
main iWeb
window,
which
for now
includes
just your
welcome
page.
It’s a good
idea to
immediately
go to your
site name
(Site by default), double-click on it
and type your own name. This has
the secondary effect of bringing
up the site properties in the main
window, so you may as well go
ahead and fill these in. It’s just
important stuff like the contact
email, where you’ll be publishing
to (leave this to Local Folder for
now for development purposes),
and the URL where your site will
live.
You’re certainly going to need
more than just a welcome page
for the site to be at all useful, so
click the Add Page button in the
bottom iWeb toolbar, or just hit
Command N, go through the
same theme selection routine and
you’ll have expanded your site by
one page.
One of the beautiful, user-
friendly things about iWeb is
that it automatically creates a
navigation bar for you as you add
new pages. Double-click on and
change a page name, just like
you did when you first made your
site, also adjusts what’s displayed
on the sites own navigation
bar, with all links automatically
updated and working. That’s
usually a lot of wasted effort
in other Web development
environments.
3 Designing your site
Now it’s time to let those
creative juices flow. Even if
you choose to stick with the
themed pages exactly as they’re
provided, you’ll need to replace
the placeholder images with your
own visuals at the very least, and
generate some catchy text as well.
Just select the Photos tab at the
top of the right hand objects
window, and if you’re using
images already catalogued in
iPhoto choose
this application
as your image
source. A full
listing of pictures
in your catalogue
will appear in
the browser
portion of this
menu, find the
one you like, and
just drag it over
and drop it on
the placeholder.
No painstaking
image resizing is
necessary, iWeb
takes care of it all
for you, but if you want to fine-
tune it just click on the image. A
slider bar and “Edit Mask” button
will appear
beneath the
image box.
The slider
allows you to
zoom in on
specific areas
of the image,
while the
button will
let you set
exactly how
much of the
image you want to display.
You can add new photos, audio
or video clips, or Widgets,
Google Maps, AdSense, YouTube
elements, RSS feeds and the like)
how to? design a website
Mac Action 35
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
to your page by selecting the
appropriate button
alongside the Photos
button and dragging
your content onto
the page. For adding
other elements,
such as a PDF file for
instance, you need to
click Insert, Choose,
or hit Shift-Command
V, and then use the
browser window
which opens to find
your media.
Text is similarly straightforward,
and if you’re remotely capable
with a word processor you’ll
immediately get the hang of
adding and editing the words you
put on your site, no sweat.
There’s also a
useful HTML
Snippet
widget.
Admittedly,
iWeb is very
designer-
oriented so
there isn’t a
raw HTML
editor built-
in. But you
can add useful code snippets,
like Google Analytics for instance,
using this widget, so it’s not
too big of an issue. Hardcore
developers who still claim its best
to write HTML directly into a text
document won’t like it, but then
they’re pros who really
ought to shell out the five
grand for something like
Dreamweaver.
4 Tweaking
Click on any object
on the layout page and
the context of the editing
pane will automatically
display the section most
relevant to refining that
element. You can add
picture frames or line
borders around images, for
instance, manipulate the flow and
look and feel of the text (although
not the font, that’s a separate
issue, second-last icon in the
bottom row of the iWeb toolbar),
and set the URLs and general
behaviour of Hyperlinks.
One useful feature in the
Hyperlinks section, is the ability to
enable or disable hyperlinks while
working on
your site,
so you can
test them,
then disable
them again
so that
you aren’t
accidentally
opening
up multiple
instances of
Safari every
time you click on the element to
edit its properties.
This is really where the lion’s share
of the actual custom designing
resides, in this pane. You can
manipulate all aspects of the
blank page itself, as well as the
finer details of all your Website
elements here. And it all works
really easily too, you needn’t know
an HTML Tag from a JavaScript to
build sexy, functional websites
in iWeb and that is its deepest
appeal.
5 Publishing
Now you’re done actually
designing and laying out your
site, it’s time to get it up onto
your host’s server so that the
world can see what you’ve been
doing! Click on the top line site
name (in our case, FTMP) and the
editing window will be filled with
the Publishing options, which
you’ll recall we earlier set to Local
folder so that your site only ever
appeared on your
own Mac while in
development. Click
the drop-down menu
and change this to FTP
server now.
Several new options
will be presented
in the grey block
underneath. The
FTP URL and its
login credentials are
needed, of course, and you can
how to? design a website
Mac Action36
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
also specify the server path you
want to upload your content
to as well as choose to use
secure FTP protocols rather than
unencrypted data.
If you’re a Facebook user already,
there’s also a link beneath
the space for your URL to
automatically publish an update
to your Facebook profile when
you upload, effectively making
the site live. That’s a nice touch for
the social networking-aware, as
we’re all rapidly being forced to
become.
Now just open up Safari and
browse to your site yourself, not
the local version that you’ve
been working on but the live,
remotely hosted URL. Not only is
it gratifying to see the final result,
you should also re check every
link and element to ensure that
it’s translated faithfully online.
Then just sit back and watch the
hits come rolling in.
That’s really all there is to it with
iWeb. The application genuinely
brings Web design down to a
designer’s level - the user who
certainly knows how to create
what people will like to see but
gets lost trying to figure out the
difference between HTML and
XML. And iWeb makes every step
of Web publishing not only easy
and intuitive, but in fact a whole
lot of fun!
Hopefully this skeletal guide will
get you started on your own
projects with iWeb, so you can
find out for yourself just how
effective it is and how lame most
of the free online options actually
are. Best of all, as I said right at
the beginning, this functionality
comes free with every new Mac,
so what have you got to lose,
really?
how to? design a website
Mac Action 37
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
sponsored linkssponsored links
www.plutonic.co.zawww.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.zaapple.co.za
SPEAK TO A SEASONED
MAC USER AND THEY WILL
TELL YOU THAT THERE IS A
REASON THE MAC MOUSE
ONLY HAD ONE BUTTON
FOR YEARS. THE REASON
IS THAT MAC KEYBOARD
SHORTCUTS ARE SO GOOD
THAT USERS HAD ONE
HAND ON THE MOUSE
AND THE OTHER ON THE
KEYBOARD. JUST BECAUSE
THE MAC MOUSE NOW HAS
2 BUTTONS DOESN’T MEAN
THAT YOU SHOULD IGNORE
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS,
THEY CAN SAVE YOU A LOT
OF TIME.
There are so many keyboard
shortcuts that we obviously
can’t cover them all in this
article. Aperture, the Apple
photographer’s tool has 4 pages
of shortcuts. Once you start
working with applications like
Photoshop, you’ll find that there
are even more. Nevertheless,
let’s look at some of the more
common and most helpful
shortcuts.
Most keyboard shortcuts make
use of the key known as the Apple
key, which on older keyboards has
the Apple symbol on it. This key is
actually the Command key so I’ll
be using the abbreviation CMD
when describing this key. The
Option key is another one that’s a
little confusing since it’s labelled
alt on your keyboard.
Let’s start with the simple ones
that you will use almost every
day. Cut, copy and paste I’m
sure will be something that
every computer user does, and
frequently at that. Moving your
mouse to the menu bar, clicking
edit, before selecting “copy” is a
long drawn out process. Not to
mention that you have to repeat
the process in order to paste the
item. In order to cut, select the
item or text you want, hold down
the [CMD] key and the [X] key
how to? keyboard shortcut
ky brd shrtcts
Mac Action38
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
together. In order to copy, use
the [CMD] + [C] combination. You
can select where you would like
to paste your selection using the
mouse and then use the [CMD]
+ [V] keys to paste. Once you get
used to the key combinations,
you will wonder how you ever
managed the old way.
Every now and then, you do
something and immediately
think “Oops, I didn’t mean to do
that”, no problem hit [CMD] + [Z]
which is the “undo” shortcut. Don’t
bother dragging your mouse over
to the corner of the screen to use
Spotlight, [CMD] + [Spacebar]
and start
typing
whatever
you want
to search
for .
Copying files from one folder to
another is much easier when you
have multiple finder windows
open. The [CMD] + [N] shortcut
is the tool for the job. Once you
have the finder window open,
you might want to select all of
the files in the folder and that’s
where the [CMD]+[A] shortcut
comes in handy. You can also use
the [Option]+ [A] to deselect all of
the files. These two shortcuts work
in most applications to select
and deselect all. The [CMD] + [N]
shortcut also works in most other
applications to open something
new, be it a new document or
new window. Internet junkies
on the other hand don’t have to
open multiple windows these
days since the advent of tabbed
browsing. Firefox displays a little
tab for you to click on to open
a new one. Safari has no such
luxury. Don’t panic though, use
the [CMD] + [T] shortcut to open
another tab. - The same shortcut
also works when you are using
Firefox.
Mac users,
particularly
those new to
the platform,
often
bemoan
the absence of the Print Screen
key. Not only can you capture a
screen shot, you can even select
a specific area of the screen to
capture. The [CMD]+[Shift]+[3]
shortcut captures the entire
screen and places the
screenshot on your desktop. The
[CMD]+[SHIFT]+[4] shortcut will
change the mouse pointer into a
crosshair. Simply drag the mouse
to make your selection. As soon as
you let go of the mouse button,
the selection will be captured and
placed on the desktop. You will
hear the rather amusing sound of
a camera shutter being released
so that you can be sure that the
capture was successful.
There are some single key
shortcuts, which I find particularly
handy when I’m using a laptop
without an external mouse.
Expose, which tiles all open
windows, can be activated by
using the [F9] key . You can then
use the arrow keys to select the
window you want brought to the
front followed by the [CR] key.
You can hide all active windows
by using the [F11] so that you can
easily get to something on the
desktop. The actual keys that are
used have changed on some of
the new generation laptops but
they have icons on the ‘F’ keys to
show you what each of them do.
There are of course several more
shortcuts so take some time to
discover the ones most relevant
to you. Should you want to learn
more, click here. You will also find
that most applications display the
keyboard shortcut next to each
item on the menu.
how to? keyboard shortcut
Mac Action 39
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
The fact that there is a shortcut
for pretty much anything you
want to do is quite cool but what
happens if there isn’t a shortcut
or the existing one doesn’t suit
you? Well, no problem, you can
customise keyboard shortcuts
and, even better, create your own.
Click on the System Preferences
icon on the dock. Click on the
Keyboard and Mouse icon
and then select the Keyboard
Shortcuts button. Should you
decide that you want to change
a shortcut to suit yourself, double
click on the keys in the order you
want to use them for the shortcut.
Make sure you click on the actual
keystrokes on the right hand side.
Clicking on the description on
the left does nothing. If you make
a mistake, don’t worry; just click
on the Restore Defaults button at
the bottom of the screen and the
original shortcut will replace your
input.
Creating your own shortcut is
a simple process; click the [+]
button at the bottom of the
window. A new window will pop
up where you can chose the
application you would like the
shortcut to be used with. Click on
the drop down arrow next to All
Applications and then select the
specific application you want the
shortcut to work with. You can of
course leave the all applications
selected to create a global
shortcut, which is a shortcut
that works with all applications.
In the menu title box, enter the
exact text that appears on the
application’s drop down menu.
Click in the keyboard shortcut
box and then press the key
combination you want to use.
You will notice that there is a
checkbox next to each shortcut.
This is so you can deactivate and
reactivate any of the shortcuts,
including the ones you created
yourself. Deactivating a shortcut is
helpful if it interferes with a third
party application. Gamers find
this particularly useful as games
often have
non-standard
shortcuts.
There’s
nothing more
infuriating
than playing
a game
and having
your calendar
display an appointment for
example.
Keyboard shortcuts are
particularly handy so take some
time to learn them. Once you get
used to them, you’ll wonder how
you ever managed without.
how to? keyboard shortcut
Mac Action40
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.zahow to? work with images
How to -
Work with images
Mac Action 41
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
iPhoto uses non destructive
editing which means that every
time you work on an image, a
copy of the image, including your
changes, is made. Your original
files remain unchanged so you
don’t need to worry about ruining
your pictures. The down side
is that with all the copies, your
library can grow in size quite
quickly.
So, let’s get down to business, the
first thing you need to do is select
the image you want to work with.
Open an event and click once
on your chosen image. Click on
the Edit icon on the bottom of
the screen. If you would like to
start editing an image by double
clicking it, this can be set in
Preferences. Select Preferences
from the iPhoto menu and click
on the General tab. Click to select
Double-click photo – Edits photo.
The default is to edit in full screen
but if you would prefer, select the
drop down next to Edit photo and
select In the main window.
Assuming that you have chosen
full screen mode, the edit tools
will hide themselves so that you
can see the entire picture. Move
your mouse to the bottom of
the screen and the edit menu
will reappear. Move your mouse
to the top of the screen and a
filmstrip will appear showing all
of the photos in the event so you
can start work on another picture
by clicking on it.
So, let’s start from the left and
see what’s available. The Info icon
will open a small pop up with
various pieces
of information
about the
photo such as
file size and
format.
The Compare
icon opens up
the next image
in your event
so that you can
decide which
one to edit. I guess it assumes
that duplicates of an image would
live next to each other. It doesn’t
allow you to make changes
and compare your changes to
the original. As I said, this isn’t
Photoshop.
The rotate tool is fairly obvious,
if you took a picture in portrait
format and your camera doesn’t
have an orientation sensor, you
can rotate the image. This tool
prevents neck ache from trying
to edit the image with your head
tilted to the side.
The crop tool, as you might
expect, is used to crop the
picture. There is often something
distracting in the picture that you
didn’t notice when you took it.
Click the crop tool and
a crop frame appears
over your picture. You
can move the frame
and resize it until you
get only what you want
in the picture. It is a
good idea to click the
“Constrain” check box.
This will keep the aspect
ratio the same as the
original picture, most
important if you want to print
the picture and don’t want large
how to? work with images
IN LAST MONTH’S MAC ACTION, WE LOOKED AT STORING IMAGES IN IPHOTO. SOME USERS WILL HOWEVER WANT TO GO A STEP FURTHER AND START TRYING TO IMPROVE THEIR PICTURES. WHILE NOT A PROFESSIONAL APPLICATION IN THE LEAGUE OF PHOTOSHOP OR APERTURE, IPHOTO WILL BE MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR MOST AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS.
Mac Action42
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
empty borders. Once you are
happy with the crop, click on the
Apply button.
The straighten tool is used for
straightening the horizon if you
took the picture without the
camera being straight. It is not
used for correcting converging
verticals. You will need much
more expensive software and
a lot of skill to do that. Use the
straighten tool cautiously, I
find the image tends to loose
sharpness when this tool is used.
iPhoto will provide a grid to
assist you in getting the picture
perfectly straight. You straighten
the image by moving the slider
to the left or right until you are
happy with the result. Click the
cross to the left of the slider when
you are done.
The “Enhance” tool is always
available if you find the thought
of adjusting images yourself
too daunting. Its icon is a magic
wand because it is supposed to
magically correct everything that
might be wrong with an image.
Click on this tool and iPhoto will
try to make all the adjustments for
you. It may not be to your taste
but, again, any changes can be
undone. I do find that in most
instances, the Enhance tool works
remarkably well.
The “Red Eye” tool works very
effectively. Open an image where
your subject has red eyes, and
click on this tool. Click on the
eyes and iPhoto does the rest,
it’s almost like magic. On those
occasions where iPhoto gets it
slightly wrong, change the size to
manual and set the cursor size to
the size of the eyeball to achieve a
more precise result.
Dust on the sensor is a problem
that all digital SLR users are
familiar with. The “Retouch” tool
takes care of this problem to a
certain extent although there is
no substitute for sensor cleaning.
Click on the “Retouch “ tool and
change the size of the cursor to
the smallest size possible to just
cover the dust spot. The larger
the cursor, the more chance
there is of affecting other areas
of the image. The tool will try to
news
Mac Action 43
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
match the corrected area with the
surrounding pixels. The bigger the
selection, the more chance that
the surrounding pixels will be a
different colour. Click on the dust
spot and hey presto, you have a
clean picture. The retouch tool
can also be used like a paintbrush,
which is handy for removing
scratches from an image scanned
from film.
The “Effects” tool opens a pop up
window where you can select
various effects. It’s good for
changing a picture to black and
white or sepia. The other effects,
I find to be a bit gimmicky but
that’s just my opinion. Try some
of the effects yourself; you might
like them. The middle one is the
original image so you can click on
it for a comparison.
The “Adjust” tool also opens a pop
up window from which several
adjustments can be made. You
will need to know a little about
enhancing digital
images to use
the adjustments
to best effect.
This is however
where you will
have the greatest
creative control.
Don’t be afraid to
experiment, you
can always undo
any changes you
make.
The levels histogram at the top
is a mystery to most people but
a simple rule of thumb, move
the sliders to the edges of the
histogram if there are blank
areas on each side. The exposure
contrast and saturation sliders
will help with under and over
exposed images. Click the Avoid
saturating skin tones button if
you like punchy colours but don’t
want the people in the picture to
have orange faces.
The highlights and shadows
sliders help with overly contrasted
images such as pictures taken
into the sun. The highlights slider
will tone down burned out areas
of the picture and the shadow
slider will bring out detail in
underexposed areas. There is no
magic though, if the detail wasn’t
there in the first place, you can’t
get it back.
Most digital cameras produce
slightly soft images that benefit
from a small amount
of sharpening. The
sharpness slider will sort
that out for you. Again,
there’s no magic here,
you can’t make an out of
focus picture sharp. Use
this slider with caution,
over sharpened images
look quite blocky.
One last thing, and this is
important. On the right
of the editing toolbar is a cross.
Hold your mouse over it and the
tooltip will say Exit full screen.
This is the only way to save the
changes you have made. If you
exit full screen by pushing the
Escape key, all your changes will
be lost!
You may be wondering why
iPhoto doesn’t just ask you to
save your work when exiting full
screen. Well, if you hit escape,
it assumes that you didn’t want
to save your changes. If you
exit using the cross, it assumes
that you do want to save. It will
save without asking, safe in the
knowledge that your original
image file is still intact. Should
you decide at any time that you
prefer the original picture, click on
Revert to
Original
at the
bottom
of the
Photos
menu.
This takes
you back
to the file that was imported into
iPhoto, it won’t simply undo the
last change.
Experiment and have fun with
your photos, you can always
revert if you make a complete
pig’s ear of it. Don’t forget, if
there is any specific question you
have, not just about iPhoto but
anything Mac related, email us and we’ll answer it for you.
news
Mac Action44
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
gadgetsAll of the accessories featured this month can be found at
authorised Phoenix Software resellers. Visit their website,
www.phoenixsoftware.co.za, for more information.
gadgets
Exspect iPod Cube Clock RadioThat’s right, plug your iPod into this at night and at your desired
wake-up hour, you can be roused from your slumber by your own
iPod playlist! The Cube also charges your iPod and it’s own internal
battery while you sleep, and can be powered by battery alone
making it perfect for when you’re away from any wall sockets.
Exspect iPod Shuffle speakersThis little audio solution brings similar levels of widespread
enjoyment to the music stored on the babiest of iPods, the
Shuffle, as has been enjoyed on larger versions for some time
already. Available in either pink or silver, it also hides a USB
cable inside it’s housing so that you can update your Shuffle
playlist from your PC while the unit remains installed in this
compact speaker set.
Exspect Wii Illuminated Cooling standExspect also have a full range of accessories for other gaming
consoles, but this blue-light decorated stand, well, stood out
for us. It’s not just pretty either, with a built-in fan ensuring
that your Wii remains suitably chilled even during the hottest,
heaviest gaming sessions.
Mac Action 45
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac usgadgets
Elonex soundBAR i32Don’t let the contemporary aesthetic fool you, the soundBAR
also delivers genuinely powerful audio to your living room. It
features a side-mounted MP3 port as well as a fully motorised,
front-loading iPod dock as its main party tricks.
ElonexCUBE 3Remember those mini Hi Fis that were so popular back in the early 9s and have largely become the
norm for a�ordable consumer audio today? The Elonex CUBE 3 takes that idea a step further, also
incorporating a 7” 16:9 aspect ratio TV screen and supporting both digital and analogue video playback
as well as good old DVDs and MP video playback. When not in use, the screen doubles as a digital
photo frame, and the unit can also be hooked up to your presumable larger TV screen with Composite
video and digital audio outputs. For ultimate versatility, there are even a trio of games built-in!
Mac Action46
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
Mac Action46
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
Hi thereI just wanted to compliment you on your Mac-azine, I was quite impressed:) the design is simple, clean and easy to read (doing Mac justice) and your pictures are great.
I have been looking for a free video converter for ages, so THANK YOU for sharing Handbrake with us! Amazing!
One thing I wanted to mention though, that the “bold statement” that iPhoto is the best photo cataloguing software in the world bar none, is a very bold one, and I think you should take a look at Adobe Lightroom, which I find to be vastly superior. My main cringe with iPhoto is the way it eats hard drive space by creating copies of all your photos once you have done anything to them...Anyways, I’m just being a little picky... Haha. Well done again on a fine publication, looking forward to the next edition.
RegardsDevin Paisley
Thanks Devin, glad that you’re enjoying the
magazine. Let me clarify, I said that iPhoto is the
best image cataloguing application, not the best
image manipulation application.
Hi,I heard about your magazine via a DigiCape newsletter. The magazine is most welcome, as most Mac info is usually from a US/European source.
With regards to the magazine, is it possible to download and save a copy to my Mac? This does not seem to be possible from the Virtual Magazine platform. There is a download section on your website, but there is no files available for download. It is a bit difficult to read the magazine via Virtual Magazine, as the text is not that legible. Using the zoom facility does not provide for a smooth reading experience. It would be better if I could read a pdf version of the magazine. I would then also be able to read the magazine at any time, and not only while connected to the internet.Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and kind regards,Mohammed Yakoob
letters
�������
Mac Action 47
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
Hi thereWith regard to your MacAction magazine. The articles are very well-written and I think as a free publication it is a great offering. However, a few issues that border on the side of frustration need to be highlighted. Firstly - the only way to read the magazine is to zoom in on a page - then you have to drag the page around to read it properly (I’m using Safari 4.0) Secondly - to go to the next or prior page, you first have to zoom out again. Thirdly - there isn’t a way (as far as I’m aware of, anyway) to print the magazine as a whole. Instead one has to choose ‘print left page’ or ‘print right page’.
I feel if these three issues could be resolved, your magazine would be an even better one.I look forward to reading the rest of your issues and a big up to you guys for the work you do behind the scenes.
Kind regardsBradley Millar
Thanks for the comments Mohammed and
Bradley. I’m pleased that you are enjoying the
content. We have had several requests from
our readers for a downloadable copy of the
magazine. We have been working tirelessly this
month looking at various options, so that the
download will offer the best possible reader
experience. I hope that by the time you read this,
the downloadable will be available here, if not,
we will certainly have it for you next month.
Send us pictures of your
devotion and you could win
great prizes.
ilovemymac@macaction.co.za
ac
tio
n
MACTHE APPLE LOVER’S MAGAZINE
Love
your
Mac?
Mac Action48
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
win
Win a brand-new iPod Shuffle!We’ve had a request for a bit of an informal online Mac survey to be done. Just, simply, via
letters from any of you out there willing to share some insight. And you can score yourself a
brand-new iPod Shuffle 4GB if you do! That’s right, the tiniest and coolest portable music player
in the world, which now even talks to you, and so much more. Read a full review this month
right here.
So what do you need to do to get your hands on one of these babies? Well we’re giving away
one a month for the next six months, to short submissions to letters@macaction.co.za speaking
about the main reasons why, if you were a PC user before opening your eyes to the Mac, you
ultimately made the move. Was it a particular app that you regularly used that just worked
so much better, did you tire of random crashes and viscious virus attacks, or were you simply
smitten the first time you laid hands on a Mac and had to have one, for sheer lust of the thing?
Give us a few words on the subject and a sexy new Shuffle could be all yours. We’ll choose the
submission we like the best each month and this cool prize will be winging its way to your
door courtesy of MacAction and The Core Group.
Mac Action 49
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac usnews
iLoveMyMacWe’re in the process of securing some more cool goodies to give away to
you our good readers next month, and while we do the deals needed in the
background we’re putting the section on hold for this month, as we don’t
want to pick a winner this month making them ineligible for entry when
we’ve got something to give away next month – that just wouldn’t be fair!
So keep sending us your pictures of weird, wacky, or wonderful things
you’ve done to demonstrate your devotion to your Mac, or the Apple Way
in general, and you’ll be in line for taking our first goodie bag home next
month. You can send them through on Facebook or email ilovemymac.
Mac Action50
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
BACK IN THE LATE8S/EARLY9S, ANTHONY RODSETH BETTER KNOWN AS WOODY WAS
SEEING THE MARGINS IN HIS LINE OF WORK AS A DENTAL TECHNICIAN BEING RAPIDLY
SQUEEZED AWAY. PRICES WERE LARGELY SET BY MEDIAL AIDS OF COURSE, AS THEY STILL
ARE TODAY, AND SELDOM INCREASED, WHILE THE COSTS OF PROVIDING A QUALITY DENTAL
SERVICE GREW AND GREW. WOODY DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO FOLLOW THE HOBBY HE’D
BEEN PASSIONATE ABOUT HIS WHOLE LIFE, AND STRUCK OFF ON HIS OWN TO BECOME A
MOTORSPORT PHOTOGRAPHER!
Mac Action 51
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
In partnership with Frans Dely,
today a celebrated aviation
photographer, Woody’s photography
career got off to a slow but steady
start. “I owe Frans a lot, a lot of my
success has come from lessons he
taught me. Not only lessons in the
then-new art of digital photography,
but also what he taught me about
the Mac as a productivity tool. It took
me a while to follow his advice, but
when I moved over to Macs-only in
1998, I would never look back. I still
don’t go out and tell everyone I meet
they should be using a Mac though,
they’ll realise in time how I achieve
the productivity and end results I
deliver, and until then my Mac is
actually a key component of my
competitive advantage so...”
Today, Woody’s company Final
Image Digital, provides the highest-
quality motorsport photos available
to corporate and press customers,
but has capitalised on the chosen
working platform and diversified
into a lot of graphic design work.
Woody creates corporate brochures,
promotional materials, and basically
anything that needs to look Hot
Hot Hot for a wide range of major
corporate customers.
“It was really my motorsport roots
that got me the relationships with
these big clients,” he comments.
Today the stunning images Woody’s
well-practiced Nikons produce also
find their way onto his impressive
range of themed calendars, which
he produces at high quality and
in limited numbers for interested
customers looking for a reliable,
high-impact way of catching the
attention of existing and potential
customers alike.
His workstation is an impressive dual-
core Mac Pro, upgraded to 12 GB of
RAM and sporting a TB of internal
drive space and another TB of
external capacity. “I’ll never struggle
with a PC again. With the size of the
highly-detailed files I work with every
day, the PC just doesn’t cope. My Mac
Pro is just perfect, always stable, very
responsive.”
And including gargantuan desktop
real estate, with a gorgeous 3-inch
Apple Cinema LCD attached this Pro
has the display space to open and
manipulate four full A4-sized projects
at once. Woody elaborates; “You
don’t actually realise the productivity
benefits of a screen like this until you
get one. I used to run a pair of LCDs
on my setup, but this one 3” display
gives me all the space I need in
one screen. It’s also like looking at a
photo, and I can be focussed on it all
day long and not feel any eye-strain!”
Woody still owns every single
generation of Mac he’s ever worked
on, from the original 7 he
switched over to back in 1998,
through every generation of G4
and PowerBook up to his current
Pro workstation, as well as a pair of
MacBooks for those mobile jobs.
“I just don’t sell my Macs, although
I could, as they’re all still useable
machines. They all still work perfectly
well, a lot of people don’t understand
that about the benefits of a Mac.”
Just two things bother Woody
about his choice of technology
platform. The first, is the 1-year
warranty on their screens, which
just isn’t competitive any more.
As mainstream manufacturers like
Samsung offer more and more
competitive high-end digital displays
for similar or less money, topped
off by full 3-year warranty periods,
Woody believes that Apple should
follow suit. And the second facet of
Mac ownership he disapproves of,
are his experiences of poor service
levels from Core, Apple’s official SA
importer.
“The Mac is undoubtedly the best
platform for professionals. There’s
the stability, the performance, that
awesome OS. And the things I can
make it do for me definitely give me
a bit of a competitive edge, even
over the younger guys constantly
coming into my market. It gives me
the freedom to diversify my offering,
especially important in rough
economic conditions like today,
which the young bucks often aren’t
able to do,” concludes Woody.
Contact Final Image Digital on
12 361 6341 and talk to Woody
today if you re looking for
motorsport images of simply superb
quality. His shots of the recent WSBK
round held at Kyalami include some
breathtaking scenes, 12 of which
already form part of a striking new
calendar.
macs in action
Mac Action52
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
Mac Action52
Driving simulators are
designed for people
that fancy themselves
as racing drivers. They
are for those wannabes
that know they would
have been faster than
the pros, if only they’d
had the chance. So, that’s
just about all of the male
population then.
Driving simulators give us
the chance to show our
friends just how good we
really are. They give us a
chance to beat the pro
drivers, albeit software
simulated professionals.
All of that in the safety of
an office chair, without
the risk of damaging
an expensive car; or
ourselves. So look out
Seb Loeb, here I come!
Driving games fit into
two categories, there
are arcade games and
then there are simulation
games. Arcade games are
mindless fun with very
little in terms of realism.
Colin Mcrae Rally fits very
firmly into the simulation
category. In fact, some
have criticised it for being
too realistic - it’s really
not easy to drive a rally
car so the realism makes
it difficult to master. If
you’re prepared to take
the time needed to begin
to master it though there
is a very real sense of
satisfaction when you get
it remotely right.
Mac Action 53
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac us
There are four game play options
– starting with Challenges for
when you just want to dive in and
have a quick stage or two against
no one but yourself and the
clock. There is a Championship
option for those who have a bit
more time and want to gauge
their performance against the
computer opponents. There is of
course the seemingly obligatory
Career mode - start at the bottom
and work your way up through
the ranks driving several different
cars competing in events all
over the globe. Then there is the
Online mode so you can test
your skills against the world’s best
gamers.
Colin Mcrae Rally offers 3
different cars which have been
modelled to be as close to the
real thing as possible. There’s no
doubt that each car feels distinctly
different. Once you get the hang
of driving them, you can start to
tweak the set up by fiddling with
suspension, tyre choice and other
bits and pieces.
There are a total of 72 rally stages
that take place across 9 countries.
All of the stages are actual rally
stages although how accurate
they are I couldn’t say. Certainly,
the graphics give you a real feel
of being in the location. What I
found particularly amusing is that
if you choose random weather for
a British stage, it seems to always
rain.
The weather effects are first
class and it’s not just a case of
occasional rain. There is rain,
snow, ice on road surfaces, mud
and some spectacular sunsets.
The handling of the car is affected
by the nature of the road surface,
although when I drive, the car is
all over the place regardless of the
surface!
The graphics are not quite up to
the standards of a high definition
Playstation 3 game but they are
none the less quite good. You
shouldn’t have too much trouble
getting the detail you want to see;
even a modest spec Mac seems
to run the game without any
trouble.
I tested the game on an iMac
2.GHz and turned the detail up
to maximum, even though the
game itself suggested I turn the
dial down a bit. Not me, I want to
see all of the glorious graphics.
The gameplay was smooth even
at my higher detail level and
loading was fast enough not to be
of any consequence.
Unfortunately, I was forced to
play the game using keyboard
controls, which is less than ideal.
I have an old Thrustmaster wheel
lying around which I plugged
in, but although I don’t have any
drivers for it the game recognised
it. I thought all was well, it
calibrated fine but once I got to
the start line, the pedals were
inactive.
Overall, Colin Mcrae Rally is very
realistic except for a couple of
things. Firstly, if you go too far off
the track, a magic hand picks you
up and puts you back on. It also
happens if you take a wrong turn
even if you are in the process of
turning round. When you lose it
altogether and go driving through
the fields, the navigator just sits
calmly telling you what’s coming
up next. It would be a lot more
realistic if he said, “Where are you
going you idiot!”
I really enjoyed CMR, it appeals to
my nature as a petrol head. I like
the realism and I like the fact that
I can go and unlock all of the cars
manually without having to wait
until I’ve finished x number of
stages.
If you enjoy driving simulation,
this is the game for you. If you
want an arcade game, look
elsewhere.
macs in action
Mac Action54
navigate
contents page
mac action community
mac action facebook
www.macaction.co.za
Steve Allisons
MacBook
WELL, AFTER YEARS OF
BRAGGING TO WINDOWS
USERS THAT MACS DON’T
FAIL, DISASTER STRUCK.
WORST OF ALL, I WAS IN
THE U.K. WITHOUT MY TIME
MACHINE BACKUP.
The strange thing is that I wasn’t
doing anything that taxed the
processor; I had just plugged in
my iPhone so that I could charge
its ridiculously poor battery.
The mouse pointer froze and
the keyboard stopped working.
No problem, I thought. I held
the power button for 5 seconds
and switched off. I switched the
computer back on and all seemed
well, there was the normal boot
sequence and the desktop
reappeared. Ah, I thought,
problem solved but I was wrong.
The mouse pointer was stuck in
exactly the same place and the
keyboard was inactive. I plugged
in an external mouse but that
didn’t work either.
My heart sank, I might have
lost all of my data or be in for
an expensive repair if not both.
Using a friend’s computer, I got
onto Google and found, after a
long search, that only two other
people had experienced the same
problem and no solution had
been posted.
I managed to borrow an OS X disc
and slid it into the drive, which
was still working. Holding the
[ALT] key, I booted up onto the
operating system disc. Hey presto,
the keyboard and mouse worked
so the problem was obviously
software related. I spent the next
half hour trying to work out what
I had worked on and downloaded
since I left home where my Time
Machine backup had been left.
I DID FIND OUT HOWEVER
THAT YOU CAN TAKE YOUR
LAPTOP TO AN ISTORE AND
THEY WILL INSTALL THE
UPDATES FOR YOU.
Eventually, needing to use the
computer, I decided to re-install
OS X safe in the knowledge
that most of my work was on a
memory stick. I chose the Archive
and Install option, which I had
never used before. I clicked on
Preserve Users and Network
Settings and then held my breath.
I need not have worried, the
MacBook fired up and everything
was the same as before the
problem. My email accounts had
been preserved and all my data
was safe including my iTunes and
iPhoto libraries. iTunes wouldn’t
open complaining that the library
had been created in a newer
version of iPhoto. Still, all my
pictures were safe.
That really was the only problem,
reinstalling using the Archive and
Install, preserving user settings
option puts your computer back
the way it was but without all of
the updates.
In a normal country, that wouldn’t
be a problem but here, where
our national telecoms provider
perseveres with ridiculously low
data caps, downloading 8 odd
Megs of updates has quite an
impact. I did find out however
that you can take your laptop to
an iStore and they will install the
updates for you.
The old Mackbook is now working
perfectly again. Even when things
go wrong, you know why you’re
an Apple user. It could have been
so much worse. Still, it teaches
you the importance of regular
backups.
Steve
sta macs
Mac Action20
Mac Action 55
sponsored links
www.plutonic.co.za
apple.co.za
admin
advertising sales
contac usmacs in action
JohannesburgUnit 6, The Fire House , c/o Bath & Baker Street RosebankTel: (011) 442 0686Fax: 086 501 8006EMail: joey@plutonic.co.za
WWW.PLUTONIC.CO.ZA
top related