The official journal of the Wellington Macintosh Society Inc Volume 27.6 – June 2010
Come to one of our meetings Apple Redesigns the Mac Mini
Wellington Apple has released a major redesign The new Mac Mini has an HDMI Monday, 28 June of the Mac Mini. It now has an connector (replacing Mini DVI on 7.10pm – 9.30pm aluminium body which is lower earlier models). This allows it to be profile but somewhat wider and connected directly to a modern flat- Subject: “Taking the Terror out of TradeMe” deeper than the previous model (same screen TV with a standard HDMI footprint as a Time Capsule or Apple cable, rather than requiring multiple TV). The power supply is now cables or additional adapters. The Kapiti integrated into the computer, using a HDMI connector can deliver both Monday, 5 July standard “figure 8” power connector. video and sound to the TV. This 7.10pm – 9.30pm Counting the lack of separate power increases the appeal of using a Mac Subject: “Taking the adapter, the new model is 20% smaller Mini as a media computer attached to Terror out of TradeMe” in volume than the previous one. your TV. Power consumption is reduced: less Mac Basics* than 10 Watts when idle, up to 85 Continued on page 7 Monday, 12 July Watts under heavy load. 7pm – 9.30pm Subject: The Internet
Final Cut Studio Monday, 19 July Turnbull House
Help Desk* Saturday 17 July, from 1 pm to 4 pm, at the Kapiti Uniting Parish
See page 2 for more details of meetings Where to find us Unless otherwise indicated, all meetings are held at *Please register by emailing Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street, Wellington. Kapiti meetings are held at [email protected] the Kapiti Uniting Church, Raumati Road, Raumati.
President writes p2 PDF2Office for iWork v1.0: INSIDE Apple Extends Safari 5 with Reader, Converting to Editable HTML5, Performance p4 Text p6
CAPITAL APPLE – JUNE 2010 PAGE 1 The president writes ...
If you would like to receive e- will need to be organised into mail announcements about groups of two or three. upcoming Kapiti meetings, Attendance is free for WelMac please contact Hamish Turnbull members, but advance
CAPITAL APPLE – JUNE 2010 PAGE 2 The president writes ...
browser and not coping with a GB or 32 GB of storage. Apple is Bluetooth keyboard, and version change, so it may be up continuing to sell an 8 GB iPhone wallpaper on the home screen). to the web site to fix the problem 3GS, and you may be able to find The multitasking feature at their end. a bargain on the 16 GB and 32 GB allows specially written If you have already installed iPhone 3GS while stocks last, or applications a limited capability Safari 5 and discover that an get one second hand from people of running in the background important web site you use is no upgrading to the new model. while the user is doing longer operating correctly, try The iPhone 4 has a redesigned something else. Some examples running a different web browser body with flat glass back, slightly are continuing a file download, such as Firefox. I also know of a thinner overall. The screen has and playing music from sources way to install a copy of Safari 4 double the resolution of previous other than the iPod/Music and its support files alongside models: the pixels are so small application. Safari 5, which could be useful as that they cannot be seen by If you have lots of a temporary measure. Contact someone with normal eyesight. applications, you can now me for details. It also has a better camera with organise them into folders on the flash and support for HD video home screen. Mac OS X 10.6.4 recording, adds a forward facing Apple’s free iBooks application The 10.6.4 update for Snow camera for video chats, and has is available (requires iOS 4), Leopard is available. Download improved performance and which is a very nice book and size ranges from about 350 MB to battery life. PDF reader for the iPhone. There 920 MB depending on which Mac The included FaceTime is a good selection of free books model you have and which software for video chats is available for it, but paid selection previous updates have been currently limited to use on WiFi are likely to be limited in New installed. The main changes are networks and to another iPhone Zealand until local licensing and bug fixes and security fixes. 4, but more options should open distribution issues are resolved. Note that the Mac OS X 10.6.4 up quickly. There are many security fixes update will also install Safari 5. included in iOS 4, and it will be There is a corresponding iOS 4 required by some new or Security Update 2010-004 for The new operating system for updated applications, so it is a Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), which the iPhone and iPod Touch has good idea to install it. The update is 233 MB. been released, and is now is up to 390 MB. Apple has stopped releasing officially called “iOS”. I expect Apple will release a security updates for Tiger (10.4), It is a free update for most similar sized 3.1.4 update shortly but is still releasing Tiger updates devices, but is not supported on for older devices which fixes for Safari (which fix some the original iPhone (which was bugs and security issues. security issues) and iTunes. not officially available in New Note that iOS 4 is not yet Zealand), nor the first generation available for the iPad. The iPad iPhone 4 iPod Touch (September 2007 to version is due in September. The next iPhone model has September 2008). been released in the US and will If you have an iPhone 3G or That’s all, folks! be available in New Zealand by second generation iPod Touch David Empson September. New Zealand pricing (September 2008 to September is unknown at this point but I’m 2009, including the current 8 GB If you wish to contact me, it’s best to estimating it will be slightly more iPod Touch), it will be able to run email [email protected]. I’m expensive than the iPhone 3GS. iOS 4 but some features are not out quite a lot these days, but you can Available configurations are available (notably multitasking of ring me at home (976 9755) and leave black and white models with 16 third party applications, a message.
CAPITAL APPLE – JUNE 2010 PAGE 3 Apple Extends Safari 5 with Reader, HTML5, Performance
by Adam C. Engst Also, the Reader button in the address bar replaces the RSS button, leaving one to wonder how you’d In a WWDC keynote dominated by subscribe to a site’s RSS feed if Safari Reader is active. the iPhone 4 and iOS 4, Steve Jobs The answer is to click and hold on the Reader button, didn’t so much as mention Apple’s which reveals the normal RSS menu for various feeds. other major release of the day: Safari 5 for both Mac and Unfortunately, the visible control for sending the Windows. In step with the version page via email uses the Mail Contents of This Page number, Apple is focusing on five command, rather than Mail Link to This Page new features of Safari 5: Safari (Command-Shift-I). If you want the latter, invoke it Reader, more support for HTML5, manually from the File menu or keyboard shortcut. better performance, support for Bing in the search bar, Happily, though, if you invoke Print (in any way) and a Safari Developer Program that enables while Safari Reader is showing, the resulting printout developers to create extensions. reflects the much cleaner Reader display rather than the normal Web site layout. Safari Reader The primary user-focused feature in Safari 5 is Safari Reader will undoubtedly prove controversial Reader, which extracts the text from recognized articles in some circles because it will reduce the click-through and displays it without ads, site graphics, or other rate on ads even further, especially for sites that break visual distractions. Plus, on sites that break longer long articles into multiple pages - each with their own stories into multiple pages, such as the New York set of ads. Even beyond the advertising issue, it’s Times, Safari Reader automatically follows the somewhat distressing to see Apple deciding for a necessary links to present the entire story on one long publication what content is and is not relevant. On the scrolling page. A translucent pop-up at the bottom of TidBITS site, for instance, we consider our reader the screen provides controls for changing text size, comments highly relevant, along with related articles sending the page via email as a Web archive, and that link to the article being read, but Safari Reader printing the page. hides all of that and more. I’d like to see Apple publicize how Safari Reader works so publications You invoke Safari Reader by clicking the Reader could choose what parts of their content would be button in the address bar (or choosing Edit > Enter recognized, and how. Reader [Command-Shift-R]), and it displays the page in what looks like a JavaScript-driven lightbox - sort of All that said, Safari Reader is notable mostly a Web-based dialog where the rest of the page is because it has been built into one of the main Web darkened and the Reader display is inset within it. The browsers by default. There have been numerous ways controls for changing text size, sending email, and of focusing on the text of an article on a Web page over printing aren’t new - the standard menu commands the years; the most impressive ones I’ve seen are and their associated keyboard shortcuts have existed Readability (on which Safari Reader was based) and for quite some time. (They are: View > Zoom In Readable, both of which operate via JavaScript-based [Command-+], View > Zoom Out [Command--], File > bookmarklets. Both should work in any modern Mail Contents of This Page [Command-I], and File > browser. Print [Command-P].) Improved HTML5 Support There are some interesting quirks related to Safari Apple is now making a very big deal about how the Reader. Most notably, there’s no way to know which iOS supports two platforms, native iOS apps and sites it supports, or, more to the point, which HTML HTML5-based Web apps. As a result, it’s not surprising tags it uses to identify articles within a site. For that Safari 5 on the Mac now boasts greater HTML5 instance, Safari Reader doesn’t work on the TidBITS support, with things like full-screen video, closed home page, but does work on TidBITS articles. And it captioning for video, location services, and much more. does work on the Take Control home page, but not on Take Control News posts. On the sites I tried, including HTML5 support is one of those chicken-and-egg TidBITS, Safari Reader considers reader comments to situations at the moment, since Web developers can’t be “visual distractions” and doesn’t display them. rely heavily on it until it’s well-supported in most browsers, and browser makers may not have significant incentive to support it well until it has wide
CAPITAL APPLE – JUNE 2010 PAGE 4 adoption. (For useful information showing what tags Of course, the inclusion of Yahoo Search sort of are likely safe to use for different browser versions, see already did that, but since July 2009, Yahoo Search has the When Can I Use... site.) So it’s good to see Safari 5 been powered by Bing. Oddly, the databases or trumpeting its HTML5 support, since that will raise algorithms must be slightly different, since Yahoo the bar for other browser makers. Using the HTML5 Search and Bing don’t present quite the same results to Test site (which could be biased in some way), I found the same searches. that Safari 5 is indeed the most-compliant HTML5 browser around, edging out Google Chrome. Safari Extensions Better Performance The last of Apple’s marquee features in Safari 5 is support for Safari Extensions, something that has been Apple claims better performance in Safari 5 on three needed for a long time. Developers have resorted to all fronts: the Nitro JavaScript engine, DNS prefetching, sorts of ugly hacks to modify Safari’s behavior in the and improved page caching. Although Apple has past, and hopefully the new extensions will enable some charts showing Safari to be the fastest browser developers to extend Safari in interesting ways while available, it’s hard to translate benchmarks into real- playing within the rules. Extensions are managed in a world performance. new Extensions pane in Safari’s preferences, which For instance, although Apple says that Safari 5’s implies that automatic updating of extensions will be Nitro JavaScript engine is 30 percent faster than Safari available. (The Extensions pane appears only once 4’s, 3 percent faster than Chrome, and twice as fast as you’ve installed an extension, or if you enable the Firefox 3.6, it was hard to see the difference on Develop menu from the Advanced pane, and then JavaScript-intensive sites I use. Part of the problem is choose Develop > Enable Extensions.) that many such sites are using AJAX, so although A new Extension Builder application helps JavaScript is being used to present an interface to the developers create Safari Extensions, which can put user, there’s also a bunch of back-end work happening buttons on the toolbar, change the way Web content that isn’t always quick. appears, add controls to Web pages, and more. Safari DNS prefetching is quite neat - if you’re on a page Extensions rely on HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, so containing links to other sites, Safari 5 automatically they should be more accessible to Web developers than looks up those addresses so when you click on one, it would an extension model that requires Cocoa already knows the site’s address, reducing the time programming in Xcode. necessary to load the page. Apparently, this feature has Although it’s hard to determine the specifics, it existed in Google Chrome for some time; thanks to looks as though Apple may be evaluating Safari commenter Glenn Rempe for the tip. Extensions in some way. All Safari Extensions must be Page caching is the final feature that Apple claims to signed with an Apple-provided digital certificate that have improved in Safari 5, though Apple says only comes free with membership in the Safari Developer that additional types of Web pages are now cached, Program. The certificate ensures that Safari Extensions without giving any specifics. aren’t tampered with and come from the developer they say they do, which is good, and they use Bing Search Engine sandboxing to increase security. Plus, Safari Extensions Also new in Safari 5 is the addition of Bing to the can be submitted to the Safari Extensions Gallery, search engine options in Safari 5’s General preferences; opening in a few months, where users can find and it joins Google and Yahoo. Apple also added Bing to download extensions. It’s unclear if there will be any the search engine options in iOS 4, and it’s hard to vetting of Safari Extensions along the lines of iOS apps. know quite what to make of the addition. More Features According to the Stat Owl site, Google dominates There are a number of other changes in Safari 5 that the search engine world with 86 percent of the market. are smaller, but some will be extremely welcome. For Bing is second with 6 percent, and Yahoo third with details on these, visit
CAPITAL APPLE – JUNE 2010 PAGE 5 PDF2Office for iWork v1.0: Converting to Editable Text
a review by Tom Piper graphics took only 7 seconds (and this is typical)! It will even convert passworded documents into We live in a wonderful many languages beyond English. world of interchangeable PDF2Office for iWork will work on a wide range information that is of Macs from the PowerPC G4 processor of at least conveniently transmitted 800 MHz up through the most modern Intel unit. via Portable Document Mac Operating Systems supported range from OS Format (PDF) files that have X 10.4.11 (Panther) up through the latest 10.6.x become a standard for (Snow Leopard). iWorks ’08 or ’09 are needed to multi-platform document dissemination. With the view and edit Keynote and Pages files. It couldn’t introduction of Mac OS X, the ability to “print to be easier. PDF” has been just a click away, and we’ve been able Various configurations of PDF2Office for iWork to share our creations with almost anyone. But, are available including an individual license, when we need to edit these documents, what do we Family Pack license, and SmalłHome Office do? Business. If you want to try before you buy, a trial I have long known about a great program known version is easily downloadable at as PDF2Office which would convert PDFs files into www.recosoft.com. I fully endorse this product Microsoft Words files. Recently, they released a new without hesitation, based on past and current version which makes conversion to iWork ‘08/ ‘09 experience, and the reputation of Recosoft files for the Macintosh. What GREAT version, Corporation which has accomplished over ten because this is the environment I work in every day, years of successful Mac development. and an incredible tool for everyday use. As their website describes, PDF2Office for iWork converts PDF documents into editable Keynote and Pages files by recreating the intended construction and layout of the document; forming paragraphs; applying styles; regrouping independent graphic elements; extracting images; creating tables; all automatically without any manual intervention. It also provides detailed options for fine-tuning the conversion process such as substitution of fonts and conversion of the entire PDF file or a range of pages. This powerful utility is simple, fast and accurate. No training or extensive reading is necessary because you can add the PDF, click on Convert to either Pages or Keynote, select any options desired, and have a new files literally in seconds. My first 5-page PDF conversion with mixed text and
CAPITAL APPLE – JUNE 2010 PAGE 6 Apple redesigns the Mac Mini Continued from front page
If you want to connect a computer monitor and speakers to the Mac Mini, it includes an adapter to convert the HDMI port to DVI and still has opticał analog audio input and output. There is also a Mini DisplayPort connector, which can be converted to DVI or VGA via an adapter. The Mac Mini can support two displays at once. Other external changes include the addition of an access panel to change the memory (but replacing the hard drive still requires servicing through official channels), an SD card slot, and one fewer USB port (it still has 4). It retains the Firewire 800 port but loses the security cable socket. All the connectors are on the back, which should be taken into consideration if you intend to use the SD card slot or need access to the other ports. A remote control is via DVD/CD Sharing). The new server model also not included but is still supported and can be gains a faster CPU and graphics controller. purchased separately. As with previous models, the Mac Mini does not Inside the box it has a slightly faster 2.4 GHz Core include a keyboard or mouse. If you don’t have 2 Duo CPU, better integrated NVIDIA graphic spares you will need to buy them as well as the controller, higher capacity hard drive (320 GB) and 2 computer, and you may need to buy a display. The GB of memory. The official limit on memory is now 8 Mini is ideal if you want a physically small Mac to GB (which was unofficially supported in the plug into an existing display, or want a Mac for as previous model), but getting more than 4 GB of low a price as possible. memory is still unreasonably expensive. The price has gone up somewhat: the cheapest Mac Mini model is now $1299. There is no longer a higher priced standard configuration: custom build is required if you want a faster CPU, more memory, or bigger hard drive. Given the difficulty of accessing the hard drive, you should consider a custom build with a 500 GB hard drive if you think you will need it, but it is expensive, 320 GB is plenty for most people, and an external hard drive can be added. Memory can easily be upgraded later. A custom build with faster CPU would give at best a 10% performance increase and is expensive. At the top end is the Mac Mini Server (now $1848), which includes the server edition of Mac OS X and has two 500 GB hard drives (now 7200 RPM in the server model) but no optical drive (you can connect an external optical drive if needed, or if you have a second Mac you can access its optical drive
CAPITAL APPLE – JUNE 2010 PAGE 7 PO Box 6642, Marion Square, Wellington, New Zealand
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The Wellington Macintosh Society Incorporated is a non-profit editor or the Wellington Macintosh Society Inc. Copyright of trade- organisation formed in April 1984 with the following objectives: marks and trade names used remains with the owners at all times. • To exchange and disseminate information among the members Advertising rates: $35 full page, $20 half-page (members); $50 full concerning the computer arts and sciences. page, $35 half-page (non-members). For details, contact the editor. • To publish books, newsletters, magazines and periodicals for the benefit and education of members and the public. • To conduct and sponsor seminars, lectures and courses relating to Home phone the computer arts and sciences. Patron Steve Wozniak • To provide technical assistance to members of the group. President David Empson 976 9755 • To seek privileges and discounts for members. Vice-president Shane Gordine 970 1730 Subscriptions: $30 a year from date of joining. Secretary Gabrielle Appleton N/A Website: http://www.welmac.org.nz Treasurer Peter Kirby 478 5386 Email: [email protected] (email addresses for committee Journal editor Graeme Moffatt (04)-905 6321 members are available on the website) Information officer Trevor Nixon 237-0603 Membership secretary Shane Gordine 970 1730 Please contact the information officer for all enquiries regarding Committee Joseph Booth 526 5141 meetings and other activities. Membership enquiries should be Graeme Moffatt (04)-905 6321 directed to the membership secretary. Nick Jennings N/A TheCAPITAL views expressed APPLE in this – journal JUNE are 2010not necessarily those of the Trevor Nixon 237-0603 PAGE 8