SAN FRANCISCO – Apple’s Safari may be the most commonly used browser among users of Mac OS X, but that’s not for any lack of alternatives. As in the Windows and Linux worlds, there are numerous other contenders out there–it’s just that many users often never hear about them.
One such competitor is Camino, an open source offering that just got a major upgrade on Tuesday. Optimized from the ground up for Mac OS X, Camino 2.1 is related to Firefox and offers a wide array of compelling features.
Available in six languages for Mac OS X 10.4 and later, Camino 2.1 can now be downloaded for free from the project’s site. If you use a Mac, here are a few reasons you should consider checking it out.
1. It’s a Firefox Cousin

Camino 2.1 displays web pages with Gecko 1.9.2, the same rendering engine that’s used by Firefox 3.6. Along with that fact comes a boost in compatibility with web standards and the benefit of numerous security fixes and Gecko improvements. It’s also really easy to migrate from Firefox to Camino as a result of their close underpinnings, and the Camino project has created a page dedicated to showing you how to move your Firefox profile over, including bookmarks, preferences, keyboard shortcuts, and more.
2. It’s Optimized for Macs

Whereas desktop Firefox uses an XUL-based user interface, Camino uses Mac-native Cocoa for the best integration with the Mac experience. It uses the Mac OS X Aqua interface, and it integrates a number of Mac OS X features and services, so Mac users will feel right at home.
3. It’s Packed with Features

Camino 2.1 offers a wide array of powerful features, including tabbed browsing, annoyance blocking, keychain support, location bar autocomplete, tab overview, and phishing and malware detection. That’s on top of more standard features like AppleScript support, full content zoom, session saving, feed detection, and more.
4. It’s a Universal Application

Camino 2.1 is a universal binary and so runs natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs, making sure no one is left out.

5. It’s Open Source

Last but certainly not least, Camino is open source software, which brings a raft of benefits for business and individual users alike. Security, customizability, interoperability, and freedom from vendor lock-in are just a few of the ones I’d name off the top of my head.
As noted in the software’s release notes, Camino 2.1 was more than a year in the making.

While it’s easier to manage a single Mac, it’s still possible to have control over multiple Macs within your home. Not only can you remotely configure parental controls on another computer, you can also monitor what your kids do with their Macs, limit the hours they have Internet access, and share media between the computers within your home.

Controlling parental controls remotely

You’re familiar with what you can do with a parental-controlled account. What you may not know is that once you’ve created such an account, you can change its options from another Mac.

When you first launch the Parental Controls system preference on a Mac you’re managing you see a Manage Parental Controls From Another Computer option. Enable this option and proceed to configure the parental controls for that account.

When you move to your Mac and launch Parental Controls, under the Other Computers heading within the Parental Controls window, you’ll spy the names of any Macs for which you’ve configured controlled accounts and enabled remote management. Click the Lock icon at the bottom of the window and enter your administrator’s password. Then select a computer whose controls you wish to configure. You’ll be prompted for an administrator’s name and password for that Mac (not for your own Mac). Enter each and click OK. All the controlled accounts on that remote Mac will appear. Select an account and you’ll find that you can adjust the account’s controls just as if you were sitting in front of that Mac. Additionally you can view that account’s log files.

The advantages of this remote control should be obvious. First, it allows you to modify a Mac’s limitations even when a pouting minor has locked himself in his room. And you can do it very remotely. While on the road you could, for example, screen share to your Mac using Back To My Mac, open Parental Controls on your home computer, and then adjust another Mac’s controls. This needn’t be to “punish” your child. You may need to allow a particular application or website so your kid can get her homework done.

Another operation you can perform remotely is approving the people your child communicates with. You can configure the People tab within Parental Controls so that whenever the user of the account attempts to send an email message or chat with someone not on the approved list, an email notification is sent to an account of your choosing. As long as you open that notification message with Apple’s Mail (it doesn’t work with other email clients) you can click an Always Allow button that then adds that address to the list of approved correspondents.

Keeping an eye out

If you and your child have separate Macs, you can watch his screen via OS X’s Screen Sharing feature. First, while sitting down in front of his Mac, log on to that Mac as an administrator and switch on Screen Sharing in the Sharing preference pane. In Allow Access For, select Only These Users, click on the plus-sign button, and choose Administrators.

To observe, go back to your Mac, open a Finder window, locate the Shared entry in the sidebar, and look for the Mac your child is using. Select it and click the Share Screen button.You can now see what he’s doing on his Mac–and even control it. Your child can try to cut you off (by choosing Disconnect, and then your Mac’s IP address, from the Screen Sharing menu in the menu bar), but your Mac will immediately reconnect.

Screen Sharing with a child can be a delicate matter. No one likes to be spied on, but it can help keep your kid on the up-and-up if he or she understands that you have the option, at any time, to see what they’re doing.

Limiting the Internet

Parental Controls can do only so much. While you can employ it to keep your kids from using the computer at all during certain hours, it can’t be configured to block only their Internet access. For this kind of thing you must turn to your router and limit access via MAC address (the unique identifier address that all computers and iOS devices have). It’s done this way with an AirPort Extreme Base Station:

Launch AirPort Utility, select your base station, and click the Manual Setup button. Select the AirPort tab at the top of the window and click the Access Control tab. From the MAC Address Access Control pop-up menu choose Timed Access. This is where you begin setting up limits.

Click the Plus button at the bottom of the pane, and in the sheet that appears enter the MAC address for the devices you want to limit (see “Blocking via MAC Address”). On an iOS device you’ll find this address by choosing Settings -> General -> About and locating the Wi-Fi Address Entry. On a Mac, hold down the Option key and select System Profiler (Snow Leopard) or System Information (Lion) from the Apple menu. When System Profiler appears, select Network and then in the Active Services column to the right, select the device used to connect to the Internet (AirPort or Ethernet). Search for the MAC Address entry in the results below.

Once you’ve entered the MAC Address, type in a description (Curt’s iPhone, for example). Now configure the pop-up menus below. Here you can choose limits of No Access, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Weekdays, and Weekends. Click the Plus (+) button in this sheet and you can add more entries–you can, for example, include two entries for each weekday. Click Done and update the AirPort Extreme and the router will block access except during those hours allowed.

Limiting online activities

Social networking sites such as Facebook are attractive for kids. It’s a place where they can establish an identity and hang out with their friends. But there’s the much-touted dark side: Kids often share too much, come in contact with strangers, and don’t know how to configure deliberately-opaque privacy settings.

Parental Controls can help by allowing you to completely block Facebook and similar sites, but that’s a tough call with older kids. This is one situation where your best bet is parental involvement. If you’re going to let your kids have a Facebook account (Facebook’s rules require that users be 13 or older to have an account), learn how to configure its privacy settings so the least amount of information is shared (this includes blocking photos that your child appears in). Demand that your child “friends” you on Facebook so that you can keep an eye on their wall. And, without scaring them, let them know why they should be careful about sharing.

You should also be very careful about providing a child with the means for spending money on the Internet. They should absolutely not have your credit card number or an iTunes ID tied to a credit card. If you want to allow your child to spend money on iTunes, set up an iTunes allowance within the iTunes Store or give them a gift card.

Sharing media between multiple Macs

Thanks to the file sharing capabilities built into OS X and Lion’s new AirDrop technology, it’s not difficult to move files between Macs on a local network. It is, however, trickier to create a single repository for music, video, and image files that can be shared between these same Macs.

Apple’s solution is the sharing options found in iTunes and iPhoto. To switch sharing on in iTunes, open the application’s preferences, click on the Sharing tab, and enable the Share My Library On My Local Network option (see “Legal Music Sharing”). Do this and you can choose to share your entire music library or just selected playlists. To share your iTunes library with iOS devices, choose Turn On Home Sharing in iTunes’ Advanced menu. When you do you’ll be prompted for your Apple ID and password. Your iTunes library will now be playable from an iOS device that is connected to your local network.

iPhoto has a similar sharing feature. From its preferences window, choose Sharing and enable both Look For Shared Photos and Share My Photos. Similar to iTunes, you can share all your photos or just select albums. Once you’ve switched on iPhoto sharing, others will be able to see your shared albums under iPhoto’s Shared heading on their Macs.

Apple’s solution doesn’t solve the central repository problem, however, as each Mac has its own iPhoto and iTunes library–the family’s collection of media isn’t located in just one place. There are options for making it available, however.

One option is to set up a Mac as a media server–a Mac mini, for example, or an older Mac you’re no longer using. When you want to add media to the family collection, you place it on this computer and then access that media via iTunes’ and iPhoto’s sharing areas. If a dedicated Mac is unavailable or too much for the family budget, you could obtain a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. Many of today’s NAS devices include features for sharing an iTunes and iPhoto library. Simply attach the NAS to your network, copy your media to its drive, and access that media from iTunes and iPhoto much as you’d access any other shared media in these applications.

It’s also possible that you already own the means for sharing iTunes media over the network–a recent AirPort Extreme Base Station or Time Capsule. Start by copying media to a hard drive attached to your AirPort Extreme (or the Time Capsule’s internal hard drive). For each computer you want to share media with open iTunes’ preferences, choose the Advanced tab, and disable the Copy Files To iTunes Media Folder When Adding To Library option. Within iTunes choose File -> Add To Library and navigate to the folder on the drive shared from your base station or Time Capsule. iTunes will add the names of the audio and video files it finds to the Mac’s iTunes library without actually copying the files to each Mac. Each connected Mac will be able to play media within that folder and more than one Mac can play that folder’s media at the same time. (Playing different movies simultaneously on multiple Macs will be challenging unless you use a wired gigabit ethernet network.)

Backing it all up

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: It’s not a question of if your hard drive will die, but when. Each Mac in your home must be backed up if you care about your data. With Time Machine, individual Macs can be easily backed up to hard drives attached to those Macs. But that could mean purchasing multiple hard drives to outfit your herd of computers.

The better solution is this instance is a network backup–a scheme where each Mac is backed up to a single device. Apple’s Time Capsule was built with exactly this in mind. Available in capacities of 2TB and 3TB (priced at $299 and $499 respectively), a Time Capsule is an easy-to-set-up solution, though not ideal if you have a lot of data to back up.

Another, more flexible option is an old Mac configured as a backup server (perhaps the same one you’ll use to store and stream your iTunes content). With an old Mac you can not only add exactly as much storage as you need in the form of internal and external hard drives, but you can choose to use software other than Time Machine–a program such as Econ Technologies’ $40 ChronoSync, for example. When used in league with the $10 ChronoAgent on each Mac, backing up multiple computers to a single Mac is a relative snap.

Online backup is another option. Though slow-going due to the time it takes to upload a lot of data, storing your most important files online offers the protection of an off-site backup. Although each user can upload files to a service such as Dropbox or a MobileMe iDisk (at least until June 2012, when MobileMe and iDisk cease to exist), dedicated services such as CrashPlan provide automatic in-the-background backup and can provide plans that allow you to upload an unlimited amount of data from up to 10 computers for as little a $6 a month, depending on the plan you commit to.

It’s manageable

At one time managing multiple accounts or, worse yet, multiple computers took the patience of a saint and the smarts and experience of an IT professional. That’s no longer the case. While it’s not yet the kind of thing you can do with your eyes closed, with some familiarity with the Mac OS and the hints you now have in hand, you too can control a home full of Macs.

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)

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 – Smartphones and tablets are becoming the PCs of our time, and there are two major players in the game. Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android dominate smartphones, with RIM and Microsoft being niche players.

It all feels very familiar, harking back to the Mac vs. PC battle–and analyst Jack Brown suggests the outcome will be the same, with Android dominating by 2014. What can you learn from the past when choosing, using, and managing mobile platforms in the workplace?
Mac vs. PC

In the early days of personal computers in the 1980s, Apple developed the Mac, which allowed the average person to use a computer. It was easy to use, and much better for graphics work than anything else available, so software companies wrote for it, and publishers and graphic artists used it exclusively.

Microsoft released Windows not long after Apple’s introduction of the Mac, and as it improved, more software became available for the PC. Until there was parity, you could get most of the popular software on either Mac or PC. Since there was more competition in the PC market due to Windows being available through multiple hardware vendors, prices dropped, and sales grew.

Today, Microsoft owns the personal computer market, with Apple dominating only a few niches that tend to focus on creative arts like publishing, music and video. Finding your favorite software on the Mac is a challenge since coding for both platforms can be expensive, and most businesses release their software on the more dominant Windows platform.

iOS vs. Android

Many consider Apple’s iPhone, released in 2007, to be the first real smartphone, making it easy for the average person to have the power of a computer in their pocket. As the slogan suggests, “There’s an app for that,” meaning you could do almost anything with these elegant and easy-to-use devices. People flocked to the iPhone, developers wrote apps for iOS, and the competition took note.

Then Google released Android in 2008, and as hardware became available and units started selling, developers started releasing apps for it. Android could be licensed by any manufacturer, so many adopted it, and the variety of Android hardware spanned all price points. The Android Market matured and is on pace to overtake Apple’s App Store within months. And Android hardware outsells Apple‘s by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a recent Nielsen report.
Innovator vs. Mainstream Player

The two stories are similar, pitting the innovator Apple against a mainstream player–either Microsoft or Google–and a single-vendor system against a multi-vendor one. The innovative, single-vendor system sets the tone and gets early adopters, but the mainstream player with multiple vendors wins in the end due to lower costs and greater variety of options. In the tablet market, Apple currently dominates, with Android’s slow start to enter, yet analysts are predicting that in two to three years time, Apple will be the second-place contender.

The Lesson

So how does all of this affect small businesses using these platforms? In the past, many businesses started with Macs, supported a mixed environment of Macs and PCs for a while, and eventually went all-PC. The extra costs involved in managing two platforms on top of compatibility issues and software availability made the migration inevitable.
The same considerations apply now to businesses that must deal with mobile devices. Smartphones can do many tasks, but tablets are more capable for most business needs and are likely to play a part in most business strategies. Should you build your IT plan around iPads since they currently dominate the market? Or, do you wait a bit longer and design your plan around Android tablets, knowing they’re more likely to be the long-term platform in the end?

With today’s virtualization, remote access options, and cloud computing, compatibility is less of an issue, but managing hardware still is. In the end, waiting for Android tablets is the safe bet. The overall tablet market will be more mature, app and hardware availability will be better, and managing and integrating the devices in a business environment will be easier. It’s for these reasons that Android will become the standard for business, just like Windows did. What’s your take?

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/running-windows-on-a-mac-part-3-the-complete-how-to/ http://pcworld.com.ph/running-windows-on-a-mac-part-3-the-complete-how-to/#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2011 23:00:05 +0000 Fei http://pcworld.com.ph/?p=13052

FRAMINGHAM – This third installment of my series “Running Windows on a Mac” doesn’t focus on performance issues or what you can expect anymore, it’s all about how to get Windows 7 running on your Mac. And since Windows 8 Developer Preview was just released a few weeks ago, it made sense to include this as well to spare you the early adopter pains I had.

Running Windows on a Mac, part 1: Lion vs. Win7 performance shootout
Running Windows on a Mac, part 2): The good, the bad and the ugly

This guide helps you to…
- Create a Windows partition
- Download the necessary Boot Camp drivers
- Install Windows 7/8 from a DVD
- Install Windows 7/8 from a USB thumb drive and install rEFIt to boot from USB
- Deal with serious driver issues on Windows 8 Developer Preview
- Configure Windows and Boot Camp 4.0 properly
- Update the most common Mac drivers
- Enable AHCI
- Backup Mac OS X + Windows partition with one tool

Step 1: Setting up your Boot Camp partition

The first step requires you to shrink the Mac OS X volume and create a separate NTFS partition for Windows. I’ll describe these steps using Lion, though the procedure in Snow Leopard doesn’t differ a lot (except for the fact that Windows XP and Vista won’t work in Lion — yeah, Apple ditched “legacy” support entirely with Boot Camp 4 and Lion).

So how does this work? First, start Mac OS X Lion and head over to Go/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant. On a Mac with an optical drive, the first dialogue box gives you the option to download the “Windows support software” (i.e. Boot Camp 4.0, which includes all the necessary Windows drivers).

Macs without the Superdrive give you the additional choice of creating a bootable USB thumb drive from an ISO.

If you want to (or can) install Windows using your Setup-DVD, just pop it in and hit “Continue”.

If you’d rather install Windows using a USB thumb drive, read the steps below first and then move on. At any rate, make sure that “Download the Windows support software for this Mac” is checked, which starts a download assistant that puts the Boot Camp 4.0 drivers on your desktop, on a separate USB drive or burns it onto a blank CD/DVD.

On the next screen, you’re going to face a tough choice: How much disk space do you really need for each operating system?

Windows needs at least 20GB to work properly (system files, page file, hibernation file, system restore points, etc.). This is the absolute minimum. Depending on how much data you want to carry around with you and how many programs you need, you’ll likely need a lot more than that.

Choose the disk size wisely. Only a handful of disk partitioning tools are capable of handling both HFS and NTFS partitions reliably (I have personally tested Paragon CampTune, which works great, but there are a handful of alternatives).

Decided your size? Then let’s hit “Start Installation” and start the installer. Next, reboot your system and hold down the “option” key while doing so. Jump to Step 4!

Hint: Deleting the Mac OS X partition is a bad idea
I know some of you are playing with the idea of getting rid of Mac OS X entirely to save money and have a “clean” system (I get that a lot). I strongly advise against it. Mac OS X is literally the only way to get firmware updates for your Mac hardware (EFI, Bluetooth, SuperDrive, Wi-Fi, SSD, etc.) — in many cases, such updates have proven to be a live saver when it comes to performance and stability.

Step 2: Create a bootable Windows 7/8 USB thumb drive

Whether you’ve got a MacBook Air/Mini (2011) or any other Mac with an optical drive, installing Windows from a USB drive is just the more comfortable option: first, the setup is done in half the time, second, this thumb drive is also a more portable Windows Recovery Environment. It doesn’t scratch and fits easily into your travel bag — if your system gets messed up, plug it in and run the repair options. Here are a couple of ways to create a bootable key (remember, you’re going to need at least a 4GB stick):

Create a bootable Windows Setup USB using Boot Camp Assistant (MacBook Air/MacBook Mini only): Launch the Boot Camp Assistant, check “Create a Windows 7 install disk” and hit “Continue”.

Make sure that the proper USB drive is selected and hit “Continue”. Et Voilà! The ISO gets “burned” to a bootable Flash drive. Now, read the rest of the instructions given in Step 1 above (“Setting up your Boot Camp partition”).

Create a bootable Windows Setup USB using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (All Macs): The easiest way to create a bootable Windows 7/8 Setup USB Drive is with Microsoft’s own “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool“. Download it, select an ISO and the target USB drive — and you’re done!

(Hint: If the USB thumb drive isn’t recognized by your Mac bootloader or rEFIT, try creating the installer using USB Creator — and if all fails, the manual route should definitely work).

Create a bootable Windows Setup USB using Terminal commands (All Macs): If no PC is in visible range, the USB/DVD Download Tool won’t do you much good – in that case, you’ll have to work your way to the command line:

1. Open a Terminal window and run “diskutil list”. Determine which device node matches your USB thumb drive (e.g. this could be “/dev/disk4″).

2. Unmount this disk by typing in “diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX” (where X stands for the number of your USB drive — in our example, it would be “diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk4″).

3. Type in “sudo dd if=/PATH/Windows7or8.iso of=/dev/diskX bs=1m”. Make sure to replace the “/PATH/Windows7or8.iso” with the correct path of your Windows 7 or 8 ISO file and, again, replace the X with the drive number.

4. Done! Once the operation is complete, run the “diskutil eject /dev/diskX” command to eject the flash drive!

Step 3: No USB boot? Install rEFIt!

Not all Macs support booting from a Windows-formatted USB thumb drive. So if you don’t see an image like the one to the right after plugging in your Windows USB key you’re going to need to equip your Mac with rEFIt, which enhances the standard EFI with a few options such as a terminal command line or our much-needed USB boot option. And it’s not as complicated as it sounds: Just head over to http://refit.sourceforge.net/ and get the 6.5 MB DMG file. Install rEFIt and restart your machine. Note: It might take a restart or two until the rEFIT option shows up, so be patient.

Step 4: The Windows 7/8 Setup

Once you’ve booted from USB or DVD, you’ve basically survived the most “difficult” part. I won’t bore you with the details of how to install Windows on your machine — it’s the same old procedure as ever. Both Windows 7 and Windows 8′s setup steps are fairly simple — just make sure to select the “Boot Camp” drive during setup and let it run its course.

Note for Windows 8 early adopters
The Intel HD 3000 Graphics on the 2011 MacBook Airs and Mac Minis have some problems with the built-in Windows 8 drivers; which makes the lower half of the display flicker and indistinguishable right from the setup. As you might imagine, that makes it kind of hard to work with or even finish the setup! The easiest solution is to plug in an external display, which shouldn’t be affected by the glitch. If that’s not an option, you need to use your mouse and/or touchpad to guess where to click next on the Windows 8 installer.

Once you’ve gotten past that small hurdle, download the latest Intel HD 3000 Graphics drivers for Windows 7 and unzip the file, because you’re going to need to do a bit of driver tinkering in order to get your graphics to work: Open up the subfolder “Graphics” and look out for the “igdlh.inf” (32-Bit) or “igdlh64.inf” (64-Bit) file. Open it and replace the line “no install on Win8″ with the entire paragraph you see under the line “[IntelGfx.NTamd64.6.0]“.

Save it! First, run the Boot Camp 4.0 driver installer in order to install all the basic drivers (see below for more) and then run the “setup.exe” found in the Intel drivers folder — if that fails, try running it using compatibility mode and with admin rights. This should make the Intel drivers install correctly and get rid of the annoying display bug!

Step 5: The 4 Most Important Settings for Running Windows on the Mac

After installing Windows, there are a couple of necessary (and optional) steps that make the Windows on a Mac experience just better:

Install Boot Camp: Without the boot camp driver, your Mac is next to unusable — Windows doesn’t provide drivers for most of your Mac’s hardware! Here’s how to fix that. Insert the Boot Camp 4.0 CD, DVD or USB drive that you downloaded earlier and simply run “Setup.msi”. Windows 8 users, again, need to perform some tinkering (which I describe below).

Done? Reboot! Now your Wi-Fi adapter, LAN, the graphics card, Bluetooth, the iSight camera, the sound chip and the trackpad should work properly.

Make Windows your default OS: You’re going full Mac on Win? Then let’s make Windows 7 or 8 the default operating system, so you don’t need to hold down the option key on your Mac to enter Windows: Right-click on the Boot Camp icon in your tray, select “Boot Camp Control Panel” and just click on “BOOTCAMP – Windows”. Hit “Apply”.

Enable Tap to Click: If you’re using a MacBook and just can’t stand to press down on the trackpad, just select “Tap to Click” from the Boot Camp options menu. To further improve the trackpad, go back to part 2 in this series and download Trackpad++!

Sound volume: Here’s a weird bug that I’ve encountered on literally ALL my Macs under Windows and that still persists on my latest purchase, the 2011 MacBook Air. By default, the sound volume of all movies (iTunes, DVD, AVI, MKV, etc.) is way too low — both coming from the speakers and the headphone jack. The solution: Go to “Control Panel”, click on “Hardware and Sound”, head over to “Sound” and right-click on your sound chip.

Jump to the “Enhancements” tab and check “Loudness Equalization”. As weird as it sounds, this actually boosts the volume of all your movies noticeably.

Note: Installing Boot Camp 4.0 on Windows 8
The latest Boot Camp drivers won’t work properly with the Windows Developer Preview, since the built-in OS check detects that you’re running Windows 8 (NT 6.2) instead of Windows 7 (NT 6.1) — the compatibility assistant is no solution. You are stuck with “Boot Camp requires that your computer is running Windows 7″!

Here’s the solution: First, download and install Microsoft’s ORCA MSI editor. Fire up Orca and use it to pen the “BootCamp.msi” (32-Bit) or the “BootCamp64.msi” (64-Bit) installer files, which are located under the “\Drivers\Apple” folder in your Boot Camp directory (make sure to create a backup of the original file, just in case).

Under the “Tables” section, you’ll find a category called “LaunchCondition.”

Right-click on this entry and select “Drop Table”. Save the MSI file and try to launch either the BootCamp.msi/Bootcamp64.msi or — if that doesn’t work — the setup.exe found in the root folder. This should get all your Boot Camp drivers installed!

Step 6: Update your drivers!

Since Apple uses standard hardware components (mostly), you won’t have a tough time finding suitable drivers, though some of them require a bit of searching and tinkering.

This is why I only recommend hunting down and downloading (and in some cases even modifying) drivers if you’ve got problems with games running unusually slow on your graphics card or when the Wi-Fi connection starts acting up.

The list of potential drivers for all the variety of Macs (Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, iMac) goes on and on, so I’ll just compile the most popular here:

Intel chipset drivers: Basic chipset drivers which include the latest IDE/SATA/AHCI drivers, sound drivers and other enhancements.

Intel HD Graphics (onboard GPU) Drivers: These drivers are updated every couple of weeks, which quickly made the Boot Camp 4.0′s drivers (dated early 2011) obsolete.

NVIDIA GeForce (discrete) Graphics Drivers: It’s likely that the official NVIDIA drivers won’t work on your NVIDIA-based Macs (though it’s worth a try), so you will likely have to resort to a bit of driver modification to get the latest drivers to work. It sounds worse than it actually is. Simply head over to the LaptopVideo2Go forums and choose the latest GeForce driver series category.

These forums host literally all Nvidia drivers that are released through various channels (e.g., OEMs, developers, etc.). If you’re getting any of these, watch out for the “MS WHQL Certificate” tag and read the forum comments carefully to avoid potentially buggy drivers. First, you need to click on “Download Driver”, download the package and extract it. Then, right-click on “INF Modified” and save the INF file under the “Display.Driver” directory found inside your driver folder.

That’s it! This will remove all hardware checks and will allow you to install NVIDIA drivers on your Mac.

Broadcom Wi-Fi Drivers: The broadcom chip is present in most recent MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Minis. Station-Drivers.com has the latest drivers. Scroll down to the “Broadcom Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n controller” section and get the latest drivers for your OS.

Realtek HD Audio: The Realtek audio chipset is also very commonly found in Macs. Unfortunately, again, the installation requires you to do some tinkering: Go to Guru3D and download the latest Realtek HD Audio drivers. Make sure not to get the MSI installer, we need the extractable ZIP/EXE format — you’ll see why. Download and extract the file. Go to “Device Manager”, double-click on “Sound, video and game controllers” and then “Realtek High Definition Audio”. Go to the “Driver” tab, click “Update Driver” and point it to your downloaded directory. Hit “OK” to install these drivers! If you don’t follow these steps and just go with the regular installer, you’ll hear no audio out of your speakers — it’s likely one of those weird little Windows on a Mac issues.

Step 7: Enable AHCI or not?

I’ve talked about the missing AHCI drivers before. Thanks to a crippled BIOS emulation and some weird decisions on Apple’s part, the storage controller runs with legacy IDE drivers instead of AHCI drivers, which makes for a noticeable loss in performance.

I’ve read pretty much everything there is to read on this issue and tested all the hacks that help you enable AHCI on your Mac or MacBook. Be warned:

• While, yes, AHCI can be enabled, it’s a dirty hack that changes the Master Boot Record. If anything goes wrong, you’ll spend a couple of hours reinstalling both Mac OS X Lion and Windows so be sure to create a complete image, before you do this.

• All hacks out there work only on Macs with Intel chipsets. Nvidia Chipsets are not supported.

• There’s a good chance that you’ll be stuck with a longer shutdown time (1-2 minutes) and with a non-functional sleep mode! Hibernation continues to work fine.

If these (possible) issues don’t bother you or are less important than the possible performance gain, I’d suggest you give it a go. Obviously, I don’t have to remind you to create an image of both your Mac OS X and Windows partition (see below) first, before you move ahead with changing the master boot record (MBR).

Start Windows 7 and fire up “regedit”. Go to the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_ System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci”. Double-click on “Start” and change the value from whatever it is to “0″. Repeat this step with the following keys (if present):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor

This will make Windows 7 look for the AHCI controller during the next boot! Restart your machine, hold down your option key and boot directly into Mac OS X Lion — NOT into Windows!

Download the AHCI Enabler (you have to register with the InsanelyMac forums before downloading) and start it. This tool automates the MBR edits necessary to enable AHCI under Windows and works with a variety of Intel chipsets (ICH7, ICH8, ESB63xx, ICH10, 5 Series). Next, select the appropriate volume and wait for the AHCI Enabler to detect the chipset. Then, make a backup of your MBR by clicking on “File” and “Save Backup MBR to File”, and finally click on “Modifiy”.

If you see this error, you’ll either have an NVIDIA or an unsupported Intel chipset (Sandy Bridge).

My MacBook Air 2011 has an Intel Series 6 chipset, which is not yet supported by AHCI Enabler. If all works out for you, jump directly to step 8. If it didn’t work and if you’ve got a Sandy Bridge 2011 MacBook Pro or Air, read further.

So the AHCI Enabler didn’t work out for you? Well, here comes the complicated part:

Download the patched MBR file from OCZTechnologyForums, put the “patchedboot.bin” on an external USB drive and follow the instructions given on their forums in detail. These instructions require you to boot from your OS X Lion Setup DVD (or USB key or most bootable Linux distributions such as Ubuntu or Damn Small Linux) and replace the Master Boot Record with the patchedboot.bin.

Step 8: Backup Mac OS X and Windows partitions

Creating a complete image of your Mac (both Mac OS X Lion and Windows) isn’t straightforward: Time Machine has some trouble with Windows partitions and Windows 7/8′s image feature isn’t designed to work with HFS+, either. I tried a couple of backup tools, but stuck with CloneZilla in the end, thanks to its fantastic file system support (Hint: Try out Clonezilla Live to burn a bootable CD/DVD or USB Flash disk to restore an unbootable Mac system).

Questions?

This marks the end of this series, for now! If you’re struggling with some serious Windows+Mac issues, let me know.

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 Lex Friedman
September 12, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO – The kids are back in school. Football season is underway. That can only mean one thing: We haven’t found ourselves stuck in a frozen timeless vortex of agony and despair. Let’s celebrate our good fortune with another edition of the Weekly Wrap, wherein we look back at Macworld’s best stories from the past week.

Soft wherewithal
Intuit released a new version of QuickBooks for Mac, and said it wasn’t aiming for feature parity with its Windows counterpart. In his first look at QuickBooks 2012, contributor Jeffery Battersby reassures us that, fortunately, the software doesn’t appear to be a feature parody of its Windows counterpart, either.

1Password went Lion- and Mac App Store-only. A few disgruntled customers who have chosen to stick with Snow Leopard threatened a boycott, before realizing the futility of such a plan mere seconds later. Meanwhile, Adobe launched Carousel, a cloud-based photo app that seemingly competes with iCloud’s photo syncing services. Though Carousel is available and iCloud isn’t yet, I suppose you could call them both vaporware.

We covered plenty of iOS apps this week, too:

o Agendas–which we reviewed without any hidden ones,
o MadPad–from the creators of I Am T-Pain, which may or may not be a compliment,
o Facebook–a small social-networking startup working on improving its privacy controls,
o The Civil War Today–an app about which we felt internally conflicted,
o Three comic-style photo editors–which take your snaps and add POPs,
o Tiny Tower–a game as fun as it is alliterative, and
o Two iOS take-out apps–only one of which should itself be taken out–in the sense of “put out of its misery.”

We can’t hide our Lion pride
Senior editor Chris Breen can help you avoid triggering unintended multitouch gestures, which ideally means you won’t be showing your Mac any unkind gestures of your own. His fellow senior editor, Dan Frakes, wrote up an app that helps you make various Lion tweaks; the app is creatively named Lion Tweaks.
Contributor Sharon Zardetto revealed the secrets of Lion’s Spotlight menu, at which point they promptly stopped being secrets, and her otherwise excellent feature suddenly became a paradox. Mr. Breen jumped on the Spotlight bandwagon with advice for folks whose Spotlight seems suddenly forgetful, if I remember correctly.
We also offered up a hint about monitoring Wi-Fi with Lion’s hidden tool. When real Lions start hiding tools, that’s when I’ll panic.
Speaking of panic…
Don’t, yet. But do read up an ongoing iTunes gift credit theft we’re calling the Towson Hack; it’s written by one of my all-time favorite Macworld writers. If you prefer your lengthy articles in audio form, senior associate editor Dan Moren and I recorded a Towson Hack podcast, too.
Meanwhile, if you want to ensure you’re browsing the Web safely–and you should–make sure you fire up Software Update.
Some serious hardware
We love software–who doesn’t? But we love hardware, too. We reviewed the WaterField Designs MacBook Air Smart Case, rounded up another week’s worth of iPhone Cases, and, of course, a slew of iOS accessories, too.

SAN FRANCISCO – Unlike previous versions of Mac OS X, Lion (OS X 10.7) doesn’t ship on a bootable disc–it’s available only as an installer app downloadable from the Mac App Store, and that installer doesn’t require a bootable installation disc. Indeed, this lack of physical media is perhaps the biggest complaint about Lion’s App Store-only distribution, as there are a good number of reasons you might want a bootable Lion installer, whether it be a DVD, a thumb drive, or an external hard drive.

For example, if you want to install Lion on multiple Macs, a bootable installer drive can be more convenient than downloading or copying the entire Lion installer to each computer. Also, if your Mac is experiencing problems, a bootable installer drive makes a handy emergency disk. (Lion features a new recovery mode (also called Lion Recovery), but not all installations of Lion get it–and if your Mac’s drive is itself having trouble, recovery mode may not even be available. Also, if you need to reinstall Lion, recovery mode requires you to download the entire 4GB Lion installer again.) Finally, a bootable installer drive makes it easier to install Lion over Leopard (assuming you have the license to do so).

Thankfully, it’s easy to create a bootable Lion-install volume from the Lion installer. Here’s how:

Part 1: For all types of media

1. Once you’ve purchased Lion, find the Lion installer on your Mac. It’s called Install Mac OS X Lion.app and it should have been downloaded to /Applications.
2. Right-click (or Control+click) the installer, and choose Show Package Contents from the resulting contextual menu.
3. In the folder that appears, open Contents, then open Shared Support; you’ll see a disk-image file called InstallESD.dmg.
4. Launch Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities).
5. Drag the InstallESD.dmg disk image into Disk Utility’s left-hand sidebar.

The next steps depend on whether you want to create a bootable hard drive or flash drive, or a bootable DVD.

Part 2a: To create a bootable hard drive or flash drive

1. In Disk Utility, select InstallESD.dmg in the sidebar, then click the Restore button in the main part of the window.
2. Drag the InstallESD.dmg icon into the Source field on the right.
3. Connect to your Mac the hard drive or flash drive you want to use for your bootable Lion installer.
4. In Disk Utility, find this destination drive in the sidebar and then drag it into the Destination field on the right. Warning: The next step will erase the destination drive, so make sure it doesn’t contain any valuable data.
5. Click Restore and, if prompted, enter an admin-level username and password.

Part 2b: To create a bootable DVD

1. In Disk Utility, select InstallESD.dmg in the sidebar

2. Click the Burn button in the toolbar.

3. When prompted, insert a blank DVD (a single-layer disc should work, although you can use a dual-layer disc instead), choose your burn options, and click Burn.

You can now boot any Lion-compatible Mac from this drive or DVD and install Lion. You can also use any of the Lion installer’s special recovery and restore features–in fact, when you boot from this drive or DVD, you’ll see the same Mac OS X Utilities screen you get when you boot into restore mode.

Note: As explained in our main Lion-installation article, if you leave the Lion installer in its default location (in /Applications) and use it to install Lion on your Mac’s startup drive, the installer will be automatically deleted after the installation finishes. So if you plan to use that installer on other Macs, or to create a bootable disc or drive as explained here, be sure to copy the installer to another drive–or at least move it out of the Applications folder–before you install. If you don’t, you’ll have to re-download the entire thing from the Mac App Store.