SAN FRANCISCO- If you own a Thunderbolt Display with an overactive fan, Apple has an update for you. The company on Monday released version 1.1 of its Thunderbolt Display firmware, which specifically addresses fan noise affecting a number of displays and improves overall stability.

The 942 KB download is available via Software Update and on Apple’s support download site. The update is available for Snow Leopard Macs running OS X 10.6.8, and Lion Macs running OS X 10.7.2 or later.

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple iPhone 4S users can easily annoy people around them by talking to their handset when using the built-in assistant feature known as Siri.

The nuisance can be even more of a problem than listening to someone have a regular phone conversation. That’s because when using Siri, you often need to speak unnaturally — adding punctuation, for example, when sending messages.
The New York Times recently highlighted a slew of examples of people engaging in annoying behavior using the 4S.
But fear not. You can enjoy Siri and practice good etiquette at the same time. Here are five tips.

Hold the phone up to your ear. While YouTube is littered with people playing around with Siri using speakerphone, they do it because of recording for video. In real life, you don’t need to use the speaker to talk to Siri.

Use the standard 10-foot rule. Don’t talk to your phone if you’re within 10 feet of strangers in a quieter locale such as a restaurant or standing in line. This is the same for a regular cell phone conversation. Obviously, if you’re in Grand Central Station nobody’s going to care what you’re doing. Once you sit down in the train, however, it’s a different story.

Be mindful of your audience when playing around with Siri. The 10-foot rule flies out the window if you’re in the company of friends who want to hear what your awesome new phone can do, or hear some of its funny quips. Ask it how much wood a wood chuck could chuck, for example, and it’ll respond, “42 cords of wood, to be exact. Everyone knows that.” So, yes, Siri can be fun. Maybe just don’t play around like this while alone in your cube at work to the distraction of co-workers.

SAN FRANCISCO – Planning to buy a new Mac for someone on your holiday shopping list? Such a thoughtful and generous gift is going to make someone very, very happy.

Now comes the hard part: Which Mac should you buy? That’s where we come in. We’ve tested every standard-configuration Mac model currently in Apple’s lineup, and we know each model inside and out. We’re happy to help you make a decision.

This buying guide explains all the Mac models available and how they’ve changed from their predecessors. To read the full review for each Mac, click on the “Read our complete review” links. You can also get more details on how each Mac did in our benchmark tests. And we’ve provided links to help you find the best prices.
MacBook Air
The MacBook Air has become Apple’s marquee laptop. Its thin, lightweight design makes it an ideal portable computer, and you no longer have to accept the features compromises that older MacBook Air models required. As Macworld’s editorial director Jason Snell said in his review of the MacBook Air, “You get the distinct impression that it’s only a matter of time before all Mac laptops look like the Air.”

The 2011 MacBook Air line uses Intel dual-core Core i5 processors, a vast improvement over the Core 2 Duo processors used in previous models. Macworld Lab found that the 2011 MacBook Air models are at least 1.5 times as fast as last year’s 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor. With some older games, however, the current models may suffer a hit in graphics performance.

The 2011 models’ key new feature is the Thunderbolt port. Past MacBook Air models had only USB 2.0 connectivity; Thunderbolt gives the 2011 MacBook Air a high-speed connector, and widens the range of peripherals you can use. You can either get the proper adapters to connect FireWire, eSATA, USB 3.0, or other devices to the Thunderbolt port, or you can get Apple’s Thunderbolt Display, which serves as a connectivity dock for the laptop.
When Apple discontinued the MacBook in July, the company thrust the MacBook Air into a new role. Apple’s lowest-priced laptop is now the 11-inch 1.6GHz Core i5 MacBook Air ( Macworld rated 5 out of 5 mice ) with 64GB of flash storage. (You may be able to find a refurbished MacBook at the online Apple Store, if you really want one.)
Configurations: There are four MacBook Airs: two 11-inch models and two 13-inch models. All come with flash storage and Intel HD Graphics 3000.

The entry-level 11-inch MacBook Air has a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of flash storage for $999. (Get best current price.) The other 11-inch MacBook Air has the same processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of flash storage for $1199. (Get best current price.) Both 11-inch models feature a high-resolution LED backlit glossy display with a 1366-by-768-native resolution.
The only difference between the two 13-inch MacBook Air models is the amount of flash storage. Both 13-inch models feature a 1.7GHz Core i5 processor, but the $1299 13-inch MacBook Air (get best current price) has 128GB of flash storage, while the $1599 13-inch MacBook Air (get best current price) has 256GB.
Performance: The MacBook Air is quite capable of handling everyday tasks, such as emailing, Web browsing, using office applications, and more. You can even use it for editing short videos, and working with JPEGs from your iPhone or point-and-shoot camera.

The 11-inch MacBook Air is the slowest Mac in Apple’s lineup, but it’s no slouch. It’s much faster than last year’s 13-inch MacBook Air. Also, the 11-inch MacBook Air, thanks to its flash storage, is about as fast overall as the $1199 13-inch MacBook Pro with a dual-core 2.4GHz Core i5 processor and a 5400-rpm 500GB hard drive. The 2011 13-inch MacBook Air is about 28 percent faster overall than the last year’s 13-inch MacBook Air.

Macworld’s buying advice: Previous MacBook Air generations were thought of as niche laptops. But now, the 2011 MacBook Air is the ideal laptop for most Mac users. It’s a great combination of performance and portability.

Read our complete review of the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models (mid-2011)
MacBook Pro
The MacBook Pro was actually updated twice in 2011. The first update was in February, and the most recent MacBook Pro line was released in October. The MacBook Pro continues to sport the aluminum unibody design that was introduced in 2008, but it has more features and processing power than the MacBook Air. Consider the MacBook Pro a possible replacement for an older desktop Mac.
The current models feature Core i5 and Core i7 processors that are slightly faster than the models released in February. The speed differences are bigger if you compare the current MacBook Pro line to the models released in 2010; most notably, the 2010 13-inch MacBook Pros used slower Core 2 Duo processors. The new 13-inch MacBook Pros still use only an integrated graphics processor, the Intel HD Graphics 3000. The 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros have both the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 and a discrete graphics chip.

Configurations: There are five standard configurations of the MacBook Pro.

The entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, with a dual-core 2.4GHz Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive, costs $1199. (Get best current price.) The 13-inch MacBook Pro with a dual-core 2.8GHz Core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 750GB hard drive costs $1499. (Get best current price.)
There are two 15-inch models. For $1799, you get a quad-core 2.2GHz Core i7 processor, a 500GB hard drive, and a 512MB AMD Radeon HD 6750M discrete graphics chip along with the integrated Intel graphics. (Get best current price.) The next model up (at $1999) has a quad-core 2.4GHz Core i7 processor, a 750GB hard drive, and a 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6770M discrete graphics chip along with the integrated Intel graphics.
The 17-inch MacBook Pro is the same as the $1999 15-inch model but with a larger screen. It has a quad-core 2.4GHz Core i7 processor, a 750GB hard drive, a 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6770M discrete graphics chip, and the integrated Intel graphics. It costs $2499. (Get best current price.)
The 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros are the only laptops in Apple’s lineup that offer a high-resolution antiglare screen option. It costs an extra $150 for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, and an extra $50 for the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

Performance: The $1999 15-inch MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Core i7 was the fastest laptop in our Speedmark 7 testing. The $1199, 13-inch 2.4GHz Core i5 MacBook Pro offers performance that’s similar to that of the $999 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor and 64GB of flash storage, but the MacBook Pro has features the MacBook Air lacks, including FireWire 800 and a bigger screen.
Macworld’s buying advice: The MacBook Pro combines the performance of a desktop computer with the portability of a laptop. If you want the fastest MacBook Pro, the 15-inch 2.4GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro is the one to get. If you primarily want a device for travel and are trying to decide between a MacBook Air and a 13-inch MacBook Pro, go for the MacBook Air, unless you really need the processing power for heavy-duty tasks or you want a computer with FireWire built in.

Read our complete review of the 13-, 15-, and 17-inch MacBook Pros (late-2011)
Mac mini
Designwise, the 2011 Mac mini hasn’t changed much compared with its predecessor. It’s still a small aluminum square that sits modestly on your desk.

The change that does stand out—and may influence your buying decision—is that the Mac mini no longer has a SuperDrive. If you want to burn music CDs or DVDs, or read data from an optical disc, you need to get an external optical burner, which costs $60 to $100. If you absolutely want an internal SuperDrive in your Mac, opt for a laptop or an iMac.

The 2011 Mac mini has a Thunderbolt port, which replaces the Mini DisplayPort in the older model. The Mac mini also has an HDMI port, a FireWire 800 port, four USB 2.0 ports, a gigabit ethernet port, an SDXC Card slot, and analog/optical-digital audio input and output minijacks. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are built-in.

Configurations: The $599 Mac mini has a dual-core 2.3GHz Core i5 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics. (Get best current price.) The $799 Mac mini has a dual-core 2.5GHz Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and AMD Radeon HD 6630M discrete graphics. (Get best current price.) You supply your own keyboard, mouse, and display.
Performance: In 2010, Apple released only one nonserver Mac mini model, which had a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and Nvidia GeForce 320M integrated graphics. The 2011 Mac minis are significantly faster than the older model: The $599 Mac mini is 32 percent faster, and the $799 Mac mini is 61 percent faster.

The Mac minis still lag signifcantly behind the iMacs, but for general-purpose use and editing of moderate-size videos, the Mac mini will do fine.

Macworld’s buying advice: The Mac mini continues to be a nice, affordable computer for new Mac users and shoppers on a budget. It has enough power for everyone except professionals who demand top performance. Be sure to shop around for an external disc burner if you really need an optical drive.

Read our complete review of the $599 and $799 Mac minis (mid-2011)

iMac
Apple hasn’t changed the design of its aluminum all-in-one desktop computer for a few years now, because it’s a design that works. It elegantly fits the components and display into an iconic form.

The company updated the line in May with new processors and graphics chips. The iMacs are available with 21.5- and 27-inch widescreen 16:9 displays.

Macworld’s buying advice: The Mac Pro is ideal for the most demanding user, one who uses high-end applications and wants hardware expandability. Yes, the machines are expensive, but they’re well worth it for professionals, and they’ll still be very usable four or five years from now. If you don’t need expandability but still need speed, consider a 27-inch iMac with a quad-core 3.1GHz Core i5 processor.

SAN FRANCISCO – Email providers such as Gmail and iCloud make it easy to store your old messages by the thousands, but finding one of those messages in your desktop email program is sometimes tricky. The Lion version of Apple Mail includes useful new search features, but also adds complexity and confusion to the process of finding messages. You can locate the messages you want, quickly and easily, by following some simple steps and learning a few pro tricks.

The easiest way to find something is to type one or more words in the Search box and see what shows up in the message list–you need not even press Return. By default, Mail looks for whatever you typed in the contents of all your messages. However, you can narrow down your searches in several ways.

Suggestions, tokens, and scope

The first thing you may notice is that as you type in the Search field, Mail displays a list of suggestions–things it guesses you might be searching for. You’re free to ignore these, but if you see what you’re searching for in this list, you can select it (with your mouse, or by pressing the arrow keys followed by Return) to quickly narrow the search.

Let Mail help For example, if you type a portion of someone’s name or email address, Mail may display the full name under a “People” heading. Select that name and Mail encapsulates it in a blue bubble it calls a search token, which enables you to read it or change its attributes more easily and with fewer errors than using old-fashioned search terms such as from:name@example.com. Similarly, if you type something resembling a date (such as October 2011 or yesterday,), Mail offers to create a token that matches messages from that date.

By default, tokens match your search term in message headers or metadata, such as To, From, Subject, Date, Status (for example, unread or flagged), Attachments, or a mailbox name–whichever seems the most likely match. If you want to search in a different location, click the arrow next to the token’s category and choose a different one from the pop-up menu. For example, if you select a person and the token says From:Dan Frakes, you can click From and change it to To. One of the options on this menu is always Entire Message, which expands the search to include the contents of messages, in addition to their headers and metadata.

Narrow your search Your search isn’t limited to just one token. If you use two or more in combination, Mail looks for messages that match all of them–for example: messages from a single sender about a particular topic (From:John Smith Subject:Curling); messages in a date range with some attribute (Date:January 2006 Status:Flagged); or unread messages with attachments containing a certain word (Status:Unread Attach.:grapefruit). Your search can also include plain text in addition to one or more tokens, allowing you to search for things like From:Dan Frakes, Date:Last Week, Subject:Mac gems, and utility all at once. If you change your mind about a part of your search, select it and press Delete.

Choose where to search In addition to determining which part(s) of a message to search, you can determine which mailbox(es) to search. As soon as you begin typing your search term, Mail displays additional options on the left of the Favorites bar (below the toolbar), which contains shortcuts to frequently accessed mailboxes.

The first option is All, meaning all mailboxes, in all accounts; that’s followed by either the name of the currently selected mailbox, if any, or Selected Mailboxes, if more than one mailbox is selected. So, to specify which mailboxes Mail should search, click All or one of the other options in the Favorites bar.

Be aware of Mail’s logic The suggestions Mail offers for creating search tokens depends on the search scope you choose. For example, if you’re searching for a person’s name, but your search currently includes only your Inbox and you don’t happen to have any email from that person in your Inbox, the name won’t be suggested as a token. But if you click All, suddenly Mail has a broader scope in which to search for the person’s name, and it’s much more likely to show up as a suggestion.

Mail tries to be clever when matching names. If I use From:Dan Frakes as my search token and my Address Book or Previous Recipients List has more than one address for Dan (say, a work and home address), Mail displays matches from any of those addresses. In fact, that’s true even if I expressly search for dfrakes@macworld.com–regardless of the fact that the search token shows a specific address, Mail actually returns messages from any of Dan’s addresses! (This may or may not be the behavior you want, but to avoid frustration, it’s best to be aware of how Mail works.)

Advanced search tips

Although simple searches can get you pretty far, you can perform more sophisticated searches if you know a few tips:

Take advantage of defaults If you choose All as the scope for a search, Mail defaults to All next time too. If you search in a single mailbox, Mail defaults to searching the selected mailbox next time.

Put phrases in quotes To search for a phrase, put it in quotation marks. A search for “apple pie” will find that entire phrase, but not messages with just “apple” or “pie” independently.

Adjust search terms according to scope When you search in headers (To, From, Subject, Date), Mail matches the strings you type anywhere in a word. For example, a search for cat matches “bobcat” as well as “catch.” However, when you search message contents using the Entire Message option, Mail matches only the beginnings of words–cat matches “catch” but not “scat.” This applies to multiple words, too: In a header, press ring will match a message whose subject is “exploring impressionism” whereas a search of message contents would only match if the message contains words beginning with both “press” and “ring.”

Try Boolean searches for message contents The Lion version of Mail now supports Boolean searches for message contents (though not for headers). You can use the terms AND, OR, and NOT, along with parentheses, to search for combinations of terms within a message body. For example, if the Search field says pineapple AND (peppers OR broccoli), Mail returns messages that contain the word “pineapple” along with either the word “peppers” or “broccoli” (or both)–omitting messages with “pineapple” but not one of the other words. Be sure to put the words AND, OR, and NOT in all caps so they’re not treated as ordinary words; you can use a hyphen (-), with no following space, as a shortcut for NOT, as in pineapple -eggs.

Specify date ranges You can search for messages from a range of dates as long as you enter the dates in the form “M/D/Y-M/D/Y” (as in 3/28/11-4/14/11). Ranges don’t create tokens, however, which means you must enter them carefully; a small typo can throw off everything.

You can’t search invisible headers Whether you search in headers or Entire Message, you can’t search headers that are ordinarily invisible (such as Content-Type, Message-ID, or Return-Path). That’s inconvenient when you want to look for messages sent by a certain email program, that have been processed by a server-based spam filter, or that have other special attributes that aren’t part of the message headers and body.

Save a search as a Smart Mailbox You can click the Save button below the Search field to save any search as a Smart Mailbox (Mailbox -> New Smart Mailbox), which then appears in Mail’s sidebar. This is a good idea when you have a search you perform frequently, especially if it’s a complex one. Smart mailboxes are updated dynamically as messages are added, deleted, and moved. To edit a smart mailbox, double-click it; you can modify it just as you would a Mail rule. (See “Use Mail’s smarts” for more information.) ]]> http://pcworld.com.ph/how-to-find-mail-messages-in-lion/feed/ 0 http://pcworld.com.ph/apples-siri-vs-androids-voice-actions-feature-showdown/ http://pcworld.com.ph/apples-siri-vs-androids-voice-actions-feature-showdown/#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:00:09 +0000 Fei http://pcworld.com.ph/?p=13044

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple’s new voice input-based digital assistant, Siri for the iPhone 4S pits the iPhone against Android’s Voice Actions, a popular feature for Android phones running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or higher. Both Siri and Voice Actions promise to make your life easier by letting you speak–rather than type–your messages, web searches, notes, and navigation.

SAN FRANCISCO – Reader Harlan Lachman finds his Mac too cluttered for his liking. He writes:

Is there any application auto hider (something that always automatically invokes “Hide Others”) that works with Mac OSX Lion?

I will indicate the waffling nature of the following answer with the addition of several consonants and an ellipsis. Yyyyyes….

I waffle for a couple of reasons. The first is that Lion has a built-in method for doing this, but you’re going to have to rethink the way you use your Mac. The other is that full-screen applications can make things more complicated. Let’s take these in order.

The built-in method is Mission Control. If you want to hide one application while working in another, invoke Mission Control, move your cursor to the top-right of the screen, click on the plus (+) button to create a new desktop environment, switch to that environment, and open the application you want to work with. Repeat for other environments and applications. When you’re ready to move to another application, just switch environments.

Another option is to use the Dock and when switching applications, hold down the Option key while clicking on the application you want to launch or switch to. When you do this, the previous application is hidden. However, it doesn’t hide all other applications if some are open. To do this, press Command-Option-H.

Now, about those full-screen applications. When you make an application run in full screen, the Dock is no longer available to you nor do the Hide commands work. Lion demands that the application is everything and it does this by placing that full-screen application in an environment all its own. If you want to switch applications, you must use the Command-Tab shortcut to bring up the application switcher, use Mission Control, or pull the application out of full-screen mode and switch as you normally would. Of course you could simply avoid throwing applications into full-screen mode. Photo Booth launches in that view by default, but other applications launch in the normal view.

I’m quite keen on auto-hiding applications I’m not actively working with, but I find Mission Control cumbersome. You have a few options here. My colleague Dan Frakes recommended Ben Willmore’s Isolator ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ) to me and it’s very slick. With it you can automatically hide inactive applications as well as completely hide the Desktop. Ben requests a donation for his work.

By John P. Mello Jr.
October 11, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO – Among the features of the new iPhone 4S, which should start reaching consumers’ hands this week, is a baked-in personal assistant app called Siri. The software uses speech recognition, artificial intelligence, and tight integration to the phone’s built-in apps to create a “personal assistant” to perform a multitude of tasks for you. As powerful as Siri is, however, a speech recognition product made by a company called Sensory, Inc. may outshine Apple’s offering in the long run.

By Jared Newman
October 5, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple’s iPhone event on Tuesday is about more than just new hardware. The company is at a crossroads, with Steve Jobs out as CEO and with big changes coming to iOS via iCloud. Apple watchers will want to pay close attention, because whatever happens on Tuesday will have greater implications beyond the iPhone 5.

Here’s what to look for as Apple reveals its next iPhone:

Tim Cook as Pitchman

New CEO Tim Cook is rumored to lead the iPhone event on Tuesday, filling the role of pitchman for which Steve Jobs was famous.
Jobs has a knack for making new features seem revolutionary, even when the competition got there first. Cook hasn’t led a major product keynote before — in Jobs’ absence, that role has previously gone to Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller — but this is his company now. It’s his job to capture some of Jobs’ charisma.

Hardware vs. Software

For the last four years, Apple has announced its new iPhone hardware and the next version of its iOS software at the same time.

This year was different, with iOS 5 revealed in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
With rumors conflicting on whether the iPhone 5 will be a major update or a minor refresh, and iOS 5 already revealed, it’ll be interesting to see how Apple spends its time on Tuesday. The company may have some new software features up its sleeve that’ll make up much of its presentation.

Facebook Friendship

Tech pundit Robert Scoble says Apple will announce a “deal with Facebook that will be stunning in its depth.”
The two companies have a rough history, with Facebook reportedly yanked out of Apple’s Ping social network for iTunes at the last minute. But sooner or later, the world’s biggest social network and most profitable smartphone maker were bound to resolve their differences. A rumored iPad app could be the start of a beautiful friendship that sees Facebook woven into iOS.

The Importance of iCloud

Although Apple demonstrated iCloud in June, the company needs to remind users why this service is important. Expect Apple to make iCloud a big part of whatever products it demonstrates on Tuesday.

The Fate of the iPod

By breaking the tradition of announcing new portable music players in September, Apple left tech pundits wondering about the fate of the iPod. Apple could use the iPhone event to address the matter, or the company could let its silence do all the talking. ]]> http://pcworld.com.ph/apples-iphone-event-5-things-to-watch-for/feed/ 0