Apple – Refreshing the iMac Line-up

A recent report from French blog site, MacGeneration has revealed that Apple would very soon upgrade the iMac and will be refreshing the iMac line-up most probably by next week which will be accompanied with speed upgrades.

With four flavours of Apple’s ultra-thin all in one, the site has portrayed the potential upgrades such as: the $1,499 21.5 inch 2.9 GHz version which would see its CPU speed increase by a full 3 GHz while its Turbo Boost feature that automatically manages individual cores of the processor for improved power efficiency as well as performance would go up from 3.6 GHz to 3.7 GHz.

According to MacGeneration, the $1,299 inch 2.7 GHz would have no changes. While the $1,799 27 inch 3.2 GHz variant would be increasing its processor speed to 3.3 GHz together with a Turbo Speed bump from 3.6 GHz to 3.7 GHz, the $1,999 27 inch 3.4 GHz version would increase in CPU speed to 3.5 GHz and the Turbo Speed’s performance would grow from 3.8 GHz to 3.9GHz.

These speeds are for the basic models and buyers can upgrade the speed of both the processor and the Turbo Boost when configuring the unit by paying a small fee.

Improvements – Higher Resolution Retina Display

Since its last redesign in late 2012, the iMac has retained the same look and it has greatly benefited from minor upgrades during its processing power.

Though it is not known when Apple would be changing the design of the already thin looking all in one computer, users are hoping to get at least other improvements like a higher resolution Retina Display. Presuming the details of the report to be true, presently, it seems that with this latest upgrade to the iMac, it would not be offering a Retina Display option.

Rumours have been coming in for some time that Apple would be bringing the higher resolution Reina Display to the iMac and a 5,120 x 2,880 pixel wallpaper image which has been released by Apple somewhere last year had hinted that a Retina display would be destined for the iMac together with external monitors.

Apple to expand the Technology to iMac

Apple’s MacBook Pro line-up for long had been supporting a Retina Display like the iPhone and iPad and potential buyers are going through frustration since Apple has not yet expanded the technology to the iMac or the MacBook Air.

 From a recent clue from Appleinsider, it was suggested that this would be the year for the Retina Display iMac and a code discovered in the beta of Apple’s recently announced OS X 10.10 Yosemite OS shows higher resolution setting for an unknown computer which would be the iMac.

Soon Apple would be releasing the new iMac models as per insider sources and instead of fancy new Retina displays, the upgrade is expected to be little more than minor processor speed bumps. Moreover, according to some sources speaking with the France based MacG website, the processor speed upgrade may also come with an updated Thunderbolt 2 connector along with a little price drop

Best Must Have apps for Mac

In this post, I have discussed best must have tools for your Mac and they are given as follows;

1.Adium: Adium is a best app for communicating and it allows you to chat with your chat account in a single interface. For instance, you can add your messenger account with Facebook, Google chat, yahoo messengers, etc... You can easily modify the font style and also the color of the speech bubble.Adium is more compatible with all sorts of internet messaging services that are present all around the internet. Adium has a fantastic interface which is too smooth and lean; providing various features such as encrypted messaging and also tabbed browsing from the Adium itself. Depending of the services, you can send or receives files from the Adium during chatting. Even Adium comes with wide range of colors, themes and other extra features for your IM. In simple words, Adium can be used to connect with multiple services that are used for chatting and communications.

2.Kindle: Kindle is a reading app for your Mac and it syncs your reading progress of your various devices with Mac. Kindle also allows you to customize the app as your wish and Kindle turns your device into an e-reader.

3.Adobe Dreamweaver CS6: Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 is one of the world powerful web editor which let you to edit the webpages and other web contents.Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 has more powerful tool that makes you to edit the webpages as like you want. Even you can create your own webpages or any web contents by using the Adobe Dreamweaver CS6. Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 allows you to connect with an online server and you can modify the files remotely by using Adobe Dreamweaver CS6. Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 is one of my favorite tools for editing and modifying my web contents.

4.Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3: Apple Final Cut Pro X is a complete package which allows you to edit and modify videos. Apple Final Cut Pro X is a marvelous digital video package with various video editing tools that makes the designers to edit and modify their creations in simple steps. Apple Final Cut Pro X is more powerful and this application provides you a significant speed and enthusiasm. Apple Final Cut Pro X secured various level of ranking for the best video editor and digital video editing packages.

5.Skitch: Skitch is a lightweight tool that allows you to capture your screen and enables you to edit with picture editing tools. Skitch is incredibly awesome and it has options such as annotate, resize, adding objects such as lines, shapes, arrows and also supports of cropping the image. By using Skitch, you can even attach watermarks to your image by using this application. Skitch is especially made for quick and effective edits and it doesn’t have options like Adobe Photoshop CS6. But it has simple tools that are necessary. Skitch is cool, effective and extremely well in its performance.

How to sync an Android device to your Mac

Syncing an Android device with OS X is not at all easy. You have to be thankful to Google own Cloud services which makes this very simple. Here are the steps to sync your Android phone to Mac.
Contacts
To do this, first you have to make your phone to sync with you Google account. If it is already sync means check whether it is sync by going to settings > Accounts > Google and tab your email address on the top of the screen. After this you can confirm that you are sync with the contact box.
After that go to Address book app on your Mac and then go to Address book > Preferences > Accounts, and then choose on my Mac. In that you will see two boxes. In that one will says “Synchronize to Yahoo” and another one says “synchronize to Google”. Select which one you want and then press Accept button in the pop up box and then enter your email address and password when it is prompted. Choose sync now from the drop down menu.
Calendar
To sync your android/Google calendar with your iCal, you have to open the iCal app in your Mac and then navigate to iCal > Preferences > Accounts. Now, press plus (+) button or symbol in the lower left corner to add a calendar to your iCal. In that choose Account type to Automatic and then enter your email address and password and then click create.
In case if you have so many several Google accounts connected with your accounts means then you have to choose which one you want to make to show in iCal by selecting iCal > preferences > Accounts. And also you can check the apt boxes.
Media
The easiest way to sync your media which includes music, videos, photos and podcasts by double twist, which is the free android app and is commonly known as iTunes for android. Through USB cable or via Wi-Fi you can sync your media with Double twist. Jelly bean version of android or later versions can support only USB MTP mode but not USB MSC mode. As a result, in anticipation of Double twist updates its app to support the USB MTP mode, these android devices can sync only through Wi-FI that is Air sync.
If you want to use the Double twist app, first you have to download and install the Double twist app on your Mac. When you open the program for the first time, the app scans your iTunes and scans all your media like music, videos and photos. But it won’t automatically scan you have to manually import them automatically import the files by check the box next to “Automatically import iTunes playlist changes”.
After that download the free Double twist app to your Android phone; After that use a USB cable to connect your phone to your Mac; After that follow the instructions which are given below on the screen to mount your phone to the computer .Click on the sync options in your device when your phone is mount. On one occasion you can sync all your media such as photos, music, videos. Another method is dropping i.e., by the method of drag and drop you can sync on your device.

Files
It is trouble-free for you to sync your non media files such as documents and spreadsheet, between your android and Mac. This is because of Cloud storage services. For your easy understanding, I use Drop box, but you can use any services that appeals in the direction of you like Box, Google drive, Sky drive or Sugar.
First you have to download the Drop box app for your Android and the next step is you have to register to Drop box with your account information. After these steps if you place any file in your Drop box, it will automatically sync between your Android and Mac automatically. As on the iPhone, it is available to choose to have without human intervention it will save and sync the photos which are taken by your Android device. If you permit this option it will give an extra 500 MB storage space. This option is very useful in case if you lose your mobile.
Everything
One of the easiest ways to sync everything to your Mac from your Android device is to make use of Google’s own app for email, calendaring, contacts and also photos. If you carry out, you can make possible syncing from your web based Google account to your Android device. You can do this by going to Settings > Accounts > Google and then tap your Google account.
With the help of this menu, you can hook and eye syncing of various Google services. The Google services includes Google chrome, Photos, Google Play magazines, Google play music, Google + and Picasa web album. With the help of this you can on or off these options. An out of the ordinary feature is you can also choose to sync the internet, which syncs the Google search results across devices.

How and why to clone your Mac Hard drive

A clone is a bootable backup of your Mac’s hard drive which provides idleness for both your data and the Macintosh Operating system. The cloning process is used to save the important data and files which you never want to lose. If you have any important personal data and you want to take back up for that file, cloning is used. You can keep your backup in various forms like Image, clone etc.., in case of system crash or if you lose any data, clone helps you roll back your Mac OS X installation.

Cloning requirements

The main requirement is that if you create clone, then the size of the destination should be larger or equal. This cloning process erases all the data in the destination drive where you want to backup your data and then copies the entire file from the source file, and then makes the clone drive bootable. You can use both internal and external drive for clone. Intel Macs can boot from external FireWire or by USB drives.

Cloning with stellar drive clone 

To clone your Mac’s drive there are so many utilities available. In that the oldest and most popular one is Stellar Drive Clone. If you want to clone your Mac safely then the best method is cloning with Stellar drive clone. This clones your Mac hard disk with the help of some advanced and highly reliable mechanism which protect your data safely. This software allows you to clone the entire hard disk to another disk or particular folder to another folder, or files. You can create an exact sector by sector image of your Mac and saves this image at any desired location.

Features: 

1. This creates an exact mirror image of your Mac hard drive to another drive.

2. The clone drives will be formatted with MBR (Master Boot Record) partition map scheme.

3. It supports solid state drives and exFAT formatted drives.

4. Clone your volume to another volume and also folder, files etc..,

Most of the people want to keep their backups in time machine. Time machine arrives is unbootable but it contains multiple versions of your files. The most common issues with the time machines are listed below.

 Issues with time machine:

1. Backup is not bootable: Even though time machines backup all the data and files on your disk. In case of internal HD fails, then you can’t boot directly from your time machine backups

2. It doesn’t keep data forever: time machine generally doesn’t saves it’s changed or deleted files ever. It doesn’t show even the notification when the files it’s containing is deleted.

3. Doesn’t compress files: since it doesn’t store duplicate copies of file, it does not compress the Mac files.

Things to be done before defragmenting Mac

Generally all devices will go down or becoming slower when they are used for a long time. This case is similar for Mac also; often usage of you Mac will lead to decrease in the performance of the process. If you were noticing the above thing in your Mac, then you should take necessary actions to improve the health condition of your Mac. The primary step involves is the defragmentation of your Hard Drive; this allows you to speed up the performance of the Mac. Defragmentation process involves organizing your files on your hard drive in linear memory locations. The files are stored in a scattered way in your hard drive when you were using it for a certain period of time. It causes the processor to take extra effort while performing the tasks and it decreases the performance of the processor. The process of defragmentation allows you to arrange those scattered data in a linear and continuous allocation in your hard drive.  When the data segments are arranged in a continuous way, then the processor can access the data very quicker than the scattered.

The various precautions before defragmenting your Mac are given below:

1 Backup your data: Before performing the defragmentation, the primary step is to backup your data on the external backup devices. Back up all of your files by using Time machine application in your Mac before performing defragmentation. It will reduce the chance of losing your data while defragmenting your Mac.

2. Perform the process during night time: Since the full process will go for more than 8 hours, defragmentation process will eat your time when you’re performing it during day time. So it is always preferred to perform it during night time.

3.  Your hard drive should have at least 20 percentage of the free space so that files will be moved from various locations and allocated in continuous manner. Once the process of defragmentation gets completed, the processor will work very smoothly.

How to Defrag in Mac: Mac support third party defragmentation tool to perform defragmentation. Stellar Drive Defrag is a recommended tool to perform defragmentation in Mac. This tool is recommended by the Mac Experts and you can use this tool to reduce the amount of temporary files found in your Mac. This tool supports various advanced algorithms to perform defragmentation process and you can also create a bootable DVD to perform defragmentation on the Mac Boot volume. Stellar Drive Defrag tool is simple and it is totally safe; the Stellar Drive Defrag has dedicated mechanism to fix various defragmentation problem and issues on your Mac.

Various features of Stellar Drive Defrag are:

1.       Defrag your Mac Hard Drive and enhances the Performance of your Mac

2.       Can Defrag various volumes and optimizes free space on Mac Hard Drives

3.       Defrag heavily fragmented Disk Volumes and also locates all the fragmented files

4.       Defrag one or more selected fragmented files.

Parallels Access: a new way to access your Mac via Tablet

The Russian publisher has announced the release of a new iPhone application. Parallels Access; which offers a whole new way to control your Mac or PC from your tablet! There are several points which according to his publisher make particularly attractive application. The first is that it allows you to use gestures to which we are accustomed to on the iPad on its software for Mac / PC. Thus, the copy and paste works like any application from the App Store. The clipboard can also be common to both environments. Every effort has been made to "applifier" software you use on your computer. Also to make it more convenient for everyday use, the software includes App Launcher to launch very quickly any application on your computer. It also offers a special view to simply switch from one application to another. Parallels Access is an application available for free download on the App Store. Its use is not provided. The software has a demo version of 14 days. Then you must take a one-year subscription offered € 69.99. The app needs an agent that you must install on your Mac or PC of your choice. This agent requires at least Mac Lion and Windows 7 PC. In terms of connection, the editor indicates that the application works in both 3G/4G wireless

Mac with Lightworks Editing Software soon!

Lightworks editing software is used for years by many TV channels, companies and film studios whhich are producing documentaries and movies. Editors who use Light work is most often appreciate it and they entering into a most passionate relationship with it. Some refuse to work with other softwares of Non Linear Editing unlike many editors who work on other editing software and go without a second thought from one to the other depending on the project or customers. Lightworks is renowned for the speed of assembly it provides and the freedom it gives. Lightworks publisher also present as "NLE designed by editors for editors," emphasizing that the development strategy particularly based on listening and collaboration established with an active community of editors.


Among these include Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese's film editor, awarded two Oscars for The Aviator and The Departed, Tariq Anwar with The King's Speech as well as many talented editors have assembled with the software success in Hollywood for example Pulp Fiction, Mission Impossible, Batman, Braveheart.  Lightworks has had a checkered career, changing hands several times between its inception in 1989, while its main competitor was Avid, which was acquired in 2009 by its current owner Editshare. EditShare has developed modern versions of Lightworks. First of all,It was proposed in May 2012 after 18 months of beta Windows version with 4000 beta testers. Version 11.1 is scheduled for this late April.



EditShare also offers a Linux version, which came in alpha stage in October with more than 6 months of delay on its original schedule release, which should go into beta on April 30. Linux users, especially in academic and research activities are welcomed with joy the arrival of Lightworks on their OS, seeing it as an alternative to professional level based on OS X or Windows often more costly solutions. In 2010, EditShare has also announced its intention to propose open source code software, but it has not been done because the various developments and developers who have worked on previous versions make complicated it with its legal part. Last week, during the NAB, the "High Mass" of video professionals who stood in Las Vegas, EditShare has given more details about the Mac version of Lightworks, which was announced a bit early (in 2010, EditShare spoke of the end of 2011). In a few weeks, a small group of editors will put in place, using a pre-alpha version (or "closed alpha"), for a few months will help the publisher to develop the true alpha. This alpha "open" will be available to the public around the IBC 2013 to be held in Amsterdam in September. And development will continue with a beta of Lightworks for Mac later.


To facilitate the transition to Lightworks assemblers from other apps mounting Lightworks has a series of shortcuts similar to those of the major NLE and allowing a smoother transition keyboard. The publisher has announced that it will take time because the platform is the most competitive for mounting solutions-all major publishers (Avid, Adobe, Apple) offering a Mac version of their NLE-, EditShare will not miss entering the Mac market with this new version of Lightworks. The Mac version of Lightworks, Does it up to its promises? Until we have a Mac OS X a little advanced, we can only watch that offer Linux and especially Windows, currently the most successful versions. The software has many strengths: it is fast, and allows real-time for special effects, to compositing, performing primary color corrections of the entire image or secondary on a selection of the image, to make masks ... The software offers a large number of "containers" (AVI, QT, MXF etc) and codecs (including Avid DNxHD, AVC-Intra, DVCPRO HD, DPX, H. 264, XDCAM EX / HD and ProRes 422 and RED R3D read only etc). This allows you to mount videos shot with different formats without having to transcode clips. Some of these codecs are still reserved for the Pro version. Indeed, Lightworks exists in two versions: one free but with limited functions and codecs. And other professional, is sold € 50 per year and includes additional features (titration, 3D stereoscopic editing, several collaborative real-time editing, options for multiple licenses and compatibility with hardwares and card manufacturers like Blackmagic / AJA etc and a series of professional codecs.



TimeLine is independent of the resolution, codec or framerate clips that we place. It automatically handles video formats and speeds of standard images. In addition, Lightworks has an advanced Trim function, which allows for a single operation, which demand more in another NLE. An Autosave function keeps not only backs-up incremental project, but all the keys pressed, the actions taken and changes made in the project. EditShare developers have designed a data sharing solution for mounting several projects in Media Composer or Final Cut Pro some time ago. This experience has helped to develop a collaborative solution for sharing media and get real-time multiple editors, each with read access and write access to the project. Lightworks offers advanced Multicam function: it allows you to mount images from multiple cameras with a synchronization and choice of angles in real time.  The number of cameras is unlimited and video formats and resolutions can be different. EditShare also offers a "console" hardware, which emulates a table mounting rotating prism KEM (Keller-Elektro-Mechanik) or Steenbeck type and allows you to save time editors limiting their use keyboard. Always at the strengths, it should be noted that a project can be taken on different versions of Lightworks instantly, allowing editors on Windows, Linux and Mac soon, to exchange files freely. However Lightworks stalled over the competition in specific plug-ins. They are now few and online store offers only EditShare Boris Red and Boris Graffiti. Lightworks is however expected to benefit from a certain compatibility with Red Giant Looks and plug-ins for After Effects and Eyeon Digital Fusion.

Intel announces Thunderbolt to 20Gbps with 4K transfer in parallel!

The new Thunderbolt has arrived! Intel has given more details about the new version of its high-speed interface, launched only two years ago on the first Mac to benefit. Bidirectional flow passes 10Gbps to 20Gbps now and still works without fiber optics. Another new size, the Thunderbolt can now broadcast a signal 4K in parallel, will allow instructors to connect new generation. Good news, the interface will remain the same and will be backwards compatible with current catches.

Everything is planned for 2014, and the controller should land in the next generation of chips "Core", but only those who embark four separate cores (this will be certainly the norm by then). For the record, the demo was done on PC this time. During the first presentation, Intel demonstrated performance "Lightpeak," the former name of Thunderbolt from an Apple machine. Then came the Mac, the first to adopt the connections well before the Wintel world.

Ebizcuss: RPOs are closed and employees laid off soon

The worst case scenario came true for the chain of Apple Premium Resellers eBizcuss / ICLG. The sign had been placed in receivership in early June and he left the service was delivered last Thursday at 18h by the Commercial Court. This concerns the French group, while the Belgian Line with Mac does not follow the same schedule and the outcome would be potentially more favorable.

Mountain Lion OS X: Mac compatible and the other

Distribution to developers Monday night in a golden master versions of Mountain Lion are the opportunity to know exactly which Mac will benefit. The list was reduced compared to that of Leo. It is good, while the OS arrives by the end of the month (it will cost € 15.99 on the Mac App Store), to repeat a point.

OS X 10.7 Mac had as a prerequisite a 64-bit, so have at least an Intel Core 2 Duo. Plus, 2 GB of RAM and 7 GB available on the storage medium (in addition there were other requirements, for example to use Airdrop).

New MacBook Pro and iOS 6: Apple smiles - II

Mountain Lion ready to roar

The installed base of OS X has reached 66 million users - is better than ever, but today is a drop in the ocean compared to IOS devices. 26 million of them went to Lion in nine months: the time has come for Mountain Lion. icloud, which has 125 million users, is an integral part of Mountain Lion.

Ebooks: Apple, Penguin and Macmillan eloquent the investigation of the Department of Justice

Macmillan, Penguin and Apple each have contested the allegations of the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), which is investigating an alleged collusion between Apple and publishers to fix prices of electronic books. Unlike four of their peers, both publishers have so far refused to sign an amicable agreement with the DoJ.

Penguin, in its response [PDF] explains that the principle of agency model (where the sale price to readers is set by the publisher, not the distributor) was proposed by Apple, and it was to take or leave it.

Thunderbolt: II FireWire, Fibre Channel VIII or ePCIe or II? - II

To believe a majority dissatisfied on the forums, which lack most current Mac is USB 3. And most superfluous on the same Mac, this is the port Thunderbolt. Both interfaces are not the same vocation, but the absence of a utility and yet on the other have reconciled. The fee for professionals rather adds to the resentment of a population which, in fact, has yet to use a port to such performance. But is it simply a matter of performance?

EBook: monopolies cross

What a tangled situation for American justice! By launching a procedure for cartel against Apple and five publishers, the Justice Department puts his finger on an insoluble problem: if we look closer, it appears that justice will have to choose sides between two dominant positions opposite, on two different levels of the market.

WWDC 2012: June 11 to 15 [Update]

WWDC 2012 will take place from June 11 to 15, 2012 in San Francisco. The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference will be held as usual at Moscone West, which means it will host just under 5,000 people. Many developers still watching this ad for several weeks.

Interview: Flashback and the mechanics of a malware

The recent return of the malware in the news Flashback handed in before the security issues around the Mac. 

But there are other interesting aspects in this issue: how to operate this type of software, what are the methods used by publishers to analyze them and how can we explain some variation in the numbers of reported infections. 

Questions were answered Philip Devallois, Senior Security Analyst at Intego, and as such responsible for their laboratory.

Apples, coal and hydrogen

It would however be wrong to make a shortcut and assume that the data centers of these companies are perfectly dirty: they are not unique, but the reality is somewhat more nuanced. While Greenpeace tackles specifically to Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, and the case study that we know best, that of Apple.

Greenpeace

Is the title of a Greenpeace report on an important but often overlooked: the energy consumption of data centers. This problem is even more important today that we are witnessing a shift of resources to the cloud: the environmentalist NGO is particularly interested in leading this area, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. Greenpeace ready nevertheless open to criticism based again only on the declarative: it tackles thought Apple is Apple who finally tackled.

Aiptek MobileCinema i15: test of a pico-projector for iPhone

Although their use remains limited pico-projectors are currently in vogue. While several manufacturers integrate these tiny projectors directly into their phones, Aiptek has introduced several accessories to add to the iPhone. The Taiwanese manufacturer is not its first pico projector, but it is not known for the quality of its products. What about MobileCinema i15? The response in our test!

What do we want in iOS 6? - I

Nothing is known so far iOS 6, the successor of the mobile team that currently Apple's mobile devices. There is no doubt that its development is well underway at Apple and the next major upgrade of IOS will certainly be presented soon.

Pending further information, it is not forbidden to dream: we list our wishes for iOS 6 and those of our readers asked on our Twitter, more reasonable wishes of the wildest ...