September ’13 Contents Testing Google’s Chromecast for Apple Users
Colorado Springs Metro Area September ’13 Volume 29 Issue 9 Contents SIG News Club News Door Prize Winners Joy of Tech iPhone, iPod, & iPad Jeff’s Journal Puzzle MacTips Reviews SEE Finance CrazyTalk (for iOS) Tokyo ReAnimator 2 3 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 15 17 MacFamily Tree 7 & MobileFamilyTree 7 18 FunBITS 24 SPONSORING MEMBER Voelker Research Authorized Apple Sales and Service A Publication of the Silicon Mountain Macintosh User Group Testing Google’s Chromecast for Apple Users by Josh Centers he Apple TV is Apple’s most underrated device, and I would argue, one of the most important for the company’s future direction. For many of us, the small black box is what ties the Apple ecosystem together — turning an iPhone into a home entertainment powerhouse while simultaneously encouraging investment in proprietary iTunes content. That’s why I was so intrigued when T Google announced the Chromecast last is a power light, a button that resets the device to week. Unlike the company’s previous Google TV efforts, which were expensive, complicated, and kludgy, the Chromecast is a $35 HDMI dongle that does nothing on its own. Instead, it relies on the Chrome Web browser and compatible apps to “cast” content to it — a bit like Apple’s AirPlay. I was fascinated by the device and ordered one immediately. Good thing, too, as it quickly sold out, and the included three months of Netflix that Google touted as an indefinite deal was yanked the next day due to the overwhelming response. Full credit to Google, they upheld their promise and sent me the Netflix promo code. The packaging for the Chromecast is remarkably Apple-like. Once you slide the box out of its blue and white sleeve, it folds open to reveal the device; underneath is an HDMI extension cable, a micro USB cable, and a USB power adapter. 5026 N Academy Blvd. Colo Spgs, CO 80918 528-5596 Next Meeting: ursday September 5th The Chromecast itself is tiny, measuring less than 3 inches (7.6 cm) long. On one side is the HDMI plug, which you insert into your TV. On the other factory defaults if held down for 25 seconds, and a micro USB port that’s necessary for power. You plug the included micro USB cable into the Chromecast, and then into either a powered USB port on the TV, if one exists, or into the included USB power adapter. My Sharp television didn’t provide power on the USB port, so I had to use the power adapter. One port that is notably absent is optical audio. So if you’re like me and own an older home theater receiver without HDMI, you’re stuck with whatever audio is available from your TV. Also, unlike the Apple TV, which can send audio to any AirPlay-enabled receiver, the Chromecast can’t wirelessly send audio to another device. Once you have the Chromecast plugged in and powered, switch your TV to the correct input to start setup. Visit the Chromecast Setup page on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to begin. I recommend Continued on page 4 2! ! ! ! Silicon Summit is a monthly publication of the Silicon Mountain Macintosh User Group, Inc. Newsletter Editor L. Davenport Web Masters Jeff Jensen, Ralph Woodard Apple Ambassador Mark Griffith Contributions to the newsletter should be in text or RTF with graphics provided in PNG, TIFF, or JPG format. e editor reserves the right to edit articles to best fit the newsletter. © All material in this newsletter is Copyright 2012 by the Silicon Mountain Macintosh User Group, Inc. (SMMUG, Inc.). Silicon Summit is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. e Mac and Mac OS logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., used under license. Views and opinions expressed in Silicon Summit are those of the authors and not of SMMUG. OFFICERS ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit ! SIG NEWS MEETING DATES e Saturday Mac Special Interest Group (SIG) will meet from 10:00 AM to 12:00 Noon, Saturday, 7 September, 2013, at the Colorado Springs Senior Center, 1514 North Hancock, in Colorado Springs, CO. e meeting will be divided in to two parts. Our regular monthly meetings are on the FIRST Thursday of every month. Upcoming meeting dates are as follows: e first part starting at 10:00 will focus on iOS, helping everyone become both comfortable and proficient with their devices. Starting at 11:00 we will focus on Apple’s Time Machine. New users are especially encourage to attend. Bring your tips and tricks, questions and suggestions. September 5, 2013 October 3, 2013 November 7, 2013 December 5, 2013 January 2, 2014 February 6, 2014 March 6, 2014 April 3, 2014 May 1, 2014 June 5, 2104 July 3, 2014 August 7, 2014 For more information about Special Interest Groups (SIGs), go to the SMMUG website. President Kit Harras 593-8192 [email protected] Vice President Mark Griffith [email protected] Treasurer Jim Johnson 266-9075 [email protected] Secretary Jean Marsh 358-1212 [email protected] Directors at Large Jeff Jensen [email protected] Mike Marus [email protected] Doug McNutt [email protected] Skip Mundy [email protected] Mark Pedri [email protected] Ralph Woodard [email protected] Joe Staten [email protected] MISSED AN ISSUE? Scan this QR code to be taken to our SMMUG web site ADVERTISING You can advertise your business through the Silicon Summit. RATES Per inch Quarter page Half page Full page Insert You can find the previous issues of the Silicon Summit posted in PDF format at the SMMUG website in the Members Only section. or service $10 $15 $25 $50 $15 A 10% discount is applied for ads that run two or more months, except for inserts. Sponsoring Memberships are also available to merchants who want to see their business name and address listed on the front page. Sponsoring Memberships are $100 for one year. THIS MONTH AT SMMUG September 5th, 2013 6:00 6:45 7:00 8:30 Q&A Session Networking Break Gadgets and Widgets Adjourn 3! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit Club News Announcements September meeting Topic will be: Gadgets and Widgets. As we anxiously await the next new thing from Apple, other companies have been moving ahead with products for the Mac and our iOS devices. Come join us as we demo some cool gadgets and widgets including a new way to interact with your Mac -- the Leap Controller. e Leap Controller uses hand motion to perform tasks and play games on your Mac. Other cool widgets and gadgets will also be demoed. SMMUG Door Prizes for the September 2013 Meeting: Ion Audio iLP Turntable and Converter. Digital Conversion Turntable for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch Camkix Universal 3 in 1 Camera Lens Kit for Smart phones, iPads & laptops with cameras Plug-able USB 2.0 Flash Memory Card Reader Amazon Basic Black Portable Fold-Up Travel Stand for iPads, iPhones or other devices like a Kindle Rabalder - Ikea cable management system Cocoon GRID-IT! Organizer 7" x 9" 4! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit Continued from Page 1 setting it up via the Mac, as Google has provided a native Mac application (click the Download button) that makes setup practically automatic — it can even pull your Wi-Fi password from your Mac’s keychain. I originally set mine up with an iPhone, which was also fairly painless, though I had to disconnect from my AirPort base station and manually connect to the Chromecast over Wi-Fi. Don’t panic, as this step is only temporary. Just open the Settings app, tap Wi-Fi, and select the Chromecast network. After setup is complete, go back into Settings > Wi-Fi and reconnect to your current network, which should take only a few taps. With the Chromecast set up, it’s ready to receive video from compatible applications, which so far include only Chrome on the Mac, Windows, or Chrome OS; Netflix for iOS; and YouTube for iOS. You cannot currently cast tabs from Chrome for iOS. However, Pandora, Vimeo, and HBO GO are reportedly working on Chromecast support, and any developer can use the Google Cast software development kit to add support to an app. Certain Web apps, such as YouTube, also include direct Chromecast support. If you own an Android device, you can also cast Google Play content to the Chromecast. In any Chromecast-enabled app, you just have to tap the Chromecast button, which is a rectangle with curved lines in the lower-right corner, to send content to the TV. To enable this in Chrome on the Mac, you must first install the Google Cast extension, a step that Google seems to have glossed over in the instructions. 5! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit I should note here that the Chromecast’s “casting” is different in a key way from AirPlay. While AirPlay sends audio and video directly from your device to the Apple TV, Chromecast-enabled apps send only a URL, which the Chromecast loads through its own built-in Web browser. Also, unlike the Apple TV, the Chromecast does not have a hardware remote. You control the audio or video directly on your device, including volume. The Netflix iOS app even activates a remote mode when it sends video to the Chromecast. This simplified approach has advantages and disadvantages when compared to Apple’s method. It does eliminate some confusion. When using AirPlay, it can be difficult to predict what will happen if you send the app to the background, put the device to sleep, or try to control your content with the remote control. On the Chromecast, you don’t have to worry about switching away from the Netflix app, because the Chromecast is processing the video independent of the device. However, if you need to pause or stop the video, or turn down the volume, you might find yourself fumbling to get back to the app, instead of just picking up a remote. The other big disadvantage is that video looks worse on Chromecast than on Apple TV. It often takes longer to load, appears fuzzy for a bit, and then sharpens into HD quality. But even at its best, the video quality looks hazy, like a fine film of petroleum jelly has been smeared over it. Audio quality also sounds poor compared to Apple TV, but since I can’t use the Chromecast with my home theater speakers, it could just be my TV’s lousy speakers. While I didn’t notice any sort of burn-in protection on the Chromecast, TidBITS reader Garrett White made a time-lapse video, spanning the course of 20 minutes, showing how the Chromecast slowly shifts screen elements to prevent burn-in. Despite improvements in screen technologies, burn-in, where a fixed image becomes permanently etched into the screen, is still a problem on many displays. Google Chromecast burn-in protection video The nice thing about the Chromecast is that with the Google Cast Chrome extension, you can send any browser tab to your TV. Even if you switch between apps and tabs on your Mac, the same tab remains on the TV. In some ways, this is better than OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion’s desktop mirroring, since you can continue to work on your Mac while you stream content to the TV. If you like to watch content from Flashbased Web sites, the Chromecast could be a great addition to your home entertainment system. Also, you can view Hulu content on your TV without a Hulu Plus subscription, but since each video opens in a new tab, prepare for lots of micromanagement. Curious to push the Chromecast to its limits, I decided to try to play a game of Roll It, Google Chrome’s experimental skee ball game (for more on that, see “FunBITS: Motion Control Games on Your iPhone,” 26 July 2013), on the Chromecast. Since it was released days before the Chromecast, I figured it was meant to be played on a TV. Unfortunately, there is about two seconds of lag between what happens in Chrome and what appears on your TV screen, making gaming nigh impossible. In comparison, AirPlay-enabled games usually work quite well on the Apple TV. Considering that the Chromecast’s $35 price is roughly a third of the Apple TV’s $99 cost, you get what you pay for. I can say that for me, the Chromecast will not be a fixture in my living room. The lack of optical audio kills it for me, as well as the current paucity of apps and crippling lag for games. However, if you own Android devices or are curious about digital content on your TV, the Chromecast is an inexpensive way to dive in — once Google has more in stock. If you’re in business or education, you might be tempted by the Chromecast for presentations, but I would recommend the Apple TV instead. While you can password-protect AirPlay on an Apple TV, there is no such capability on the Chromecast. For a high school teacher, the Chromecast is wide open to a potentially career-limiting prank. While the Chromecast is not currently a threat to the Apple TV, Apple would be foolish to ignore it. Google is working hard to bring content providers on board, and I suspect they will join at a breakneck pace. Just as I think the Apple TV is key to Apple’s future, the Chromecast might, in the long run, prove equivalently important to Google’s. Report iMessage Spam to Apple by Josh Centers If you’ve ever been plagued by unwanted messages sent via iMessage, then be sure to check out this new Apple support document detailing how to report iMessage spam to Apple. Thanks to Twitter user Beau Giles and Federico Viticci of MacStories for discovering and publicizing it. While iOS 7 will enable you to block unwanted text messages and phone calls (see “Apple Unveils Completely Redesigned iOS 7,” 10 June 2013), until it ships, you can report unwanted iMessages to Apple by sending email to [email protected]. This is only for iMessagebased spam messages, which are colored blue in iOS 6, and not for unwanted SMS messages, which are colored green and should be reported to your carrier (for instructions that should work with all carriers, see “Report Text Message Spam to AT&T,” 20 April 2012). Include a screenshot of the message (in iOS, press the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously; use Command-Shift-4 in Mac OS X), the email address or phone number from which you received the message, and the date and time the message arrived. Apple says nothing about what will be done with the reports, although it’s conceivable that the offending accounts could be investigated and terminated. No mention of iMessage spam is made in Apple’s iCloud Terms and Conditions. What’s interesting is that Apple is accepting reports at an iCloud email address, instead of building a Web form or adding the functionality to Messages. That might indicate that the company sees this as a stopgap measure until most users are on iOS 7. This iMessage spam reporting system could be in response to a recent wave of denial of service attacks carried out over iMessage, in which pranksters send enough messages in rapid succession to render an iOS device inoperable. 6! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! DOOR PRIZE WINNERS For e August 1st 2013 Meeting iPod Shuffle winner! Silicon Summit 7! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit Can’t wait for the next newsletter to see what the guys and gals at Joy of Tech are up to? en simply go on over to their website and see past and current cartoons and other things 8! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit iPhone, iPod, & iPad Work Around a Broken iPhone Button with AssistiveTouch by Josh Centers My brother-in-law came over the other night because the Sleep/Wake button on his iPhone 4S was jammed. There wasn’t much I could do other than help him set up a Genius Bar appointment, but he had already discovered a little-known feature that let him put his iPhone to sleep manually, rather than waiting for Auto-Lock to kick in: AssistiveTouch. AssistiveTouch lets you access system functions that may be difficult if you have some sort of physical impairment, like arthritis, a hurt or missing finger, or, in this case, a broken button. To enable AssistiveTouch, open the Settings app, navigate to General > Accessibility, and then scroll down and tap AssistiveTouch. When you turn AssistiveTouch on, a white dot appears on your screen, and you can move it around the edges of the screen as you wish. The dot remains visible from then on, and you can continue to move it around, should it obscure something else you need to see. Tap the dot, and you’re presented with a popover menu that lets you activate Siri, press the Home button, and access other device buttons. Tap Device, and another popover appears with buttons that enable you to lock the screen, adjust volume and mute sounds, rotate the screen, access the multitasking bar, take a screenshot, virtually shake the phone, and make multi-finger gestures. The Favorites button in the main popover lets you simulate gestures. The included example is Pinch, which you can use to zoom in on Web pages and maps without actually pinching the screen. You can add other gestures by tapping the white AssistiveTouch dot, then Favorites, and then one of the empty buttons with a plus in the middle. Once there, draw the gesture you want and tap Save when you’re finished. Give the gesture a name, and you can then access it at any time from the Favorites menu. You can also make and delete custom gestures in Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch. Apple has long been dedicated to accessibility, but those who don’t need such features just to interact with their Macs or iOS devices often don’t even realize they exist. And that’s a shame, since many people who don’t regularly rely on accessibility features could use them on occasion. So do yourself a favor and scan through iOS’s Accessibility options, and see if any might be useful to you. 9! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit Bugshot Brings iOS 7-Style Image Annotation to the iPhone and iPad by Josh Centers Developer Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper and The Magazine, has released a new $0.99 iOS app called Bugshot. It’s designed to help users report visual issues, like bugs, typos, and design problems. Even if you don’t need those capabilities often, you may be interested in it for its visual look alone. Arment designed Bugshot to mimic the design language used in iOS 7, even if you use iOS 6. As such, it lacks visual chrome, relying instead on thin orange lines on a white background. Even the share button emulates the one used in iOS 7. Bugshot couldn’t be simpler. When you launch the app, it asks to access your Camera Roll. It then displays all the images that it determines are screenshots, so you don’t have to filter through every image in your camera roll. Once you pick an image, you can annotate it with either an orange arrow or box. Click the appropriate button at the top of the screen and draw with your finger. The longer the arrow you draw, the larger it grows. Unfortunately, there’s no text annotation. However, as of the Bugshot 1.1 update, released 22 July 2013, the app also features a Blur tool to pixelate private information. If you need to resize one of your arrows or boxes, just pinch it with two fingers. If you need to delete one, doubletap it. Once you’ve annotated your image, click the share button to send the image to Mail, Twitter, Facebook, the Camera Roll, or a printer, or just copy the image. As of the 1.1 update, you can also open your Bugshot drawings in any other app that supports images. Bugshot won’t change the world, but it’s a fun and useful visual communication tool. And if you’ve been dying to get a feel for iOS 7’s interface without becoming a developer or potentially bricking a device, Bugshot is a cheap way to do so. Apple Taking Back ird-Party USB Power Adapters by Josh Centers From 16 August 2013 through 18 October 2013, Apple will be accepting and recycling third-party USB power adapters for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod at Apple retail stores and authorized service providers. Apple will also replace the third-party adapters, which usually cost at least $19, for $10 (or the equivalent in other countries). However, you must bring in the associated device, and Apple will replace only one adapter per device. Apple’s Web site shows examples of what official Apple adapters look like. The trade-in program comes after a couple of distressing news reports from China. A 23-year-old Chinese woman was killed via an electric shock after answering her plugged-in iPhone 5, and separately, a 30-year-old Chinese man was put into a coma after being shocked by a charging iPhone 4. In both cases, the victims were using unauthorized power adapters. While these stories are alarming, U.S. readers shouldn’t panic. The power outlets into which you’d plug a USB power adapter in the United States are only 120 volts, while Chinese outlets are 220 volts. In the United States, 220-volt outlets are usually reserved for major appliances and industrial equipment. Speaking from personal experience, a 120-volt shock is distressing, but usually not lethal — although any electric shock under the right circumstances can be fatal. If you own an unauthorized and potentially dangerous USB power adapter, it’s worth $10 and a trip to an Apple Store to trade it in for an Apple power adapter. ExtraBITS The Case for a Low-end Plastic iPhone -- It’s looking increasingly likely that Apple is readying a cheaper iPhone with a plastic case instead of the glass-and-aluminum case of the current line. But why not just sell the iPhone 5 at a discount once the presumed iPhone 5S appears? Josh Centers digs into the numbers to explain why. 10! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit Jeff’s Journal iTouch - the iPod Touch 4th Generation Story By Jeff Jensen I have to change my recommendation on the iPod Touch 4. The very next day after I said what a great deal an iPod Touch 4 is at $155, Macworld arrives in my mailbox (the metal one out by the curb), and explains that iOS 7 (the next Apple mobile operating system) will not run on an iPod Touch 4. So if you buy a Touch 4, it won’t have any new features this fall when iOS 7 comes out. So, lets take a quick look at iPod Touch 5, which will run iOS 7. The 16GB Touch 5 model, at $229, has no rear facing camera, so you will not be able to take photos with it. Even though I have a point-and-shoot pocket camera, and a very nice Pentax K200 DSLR camera, I use the photo feature of my Touch 4 often. I don’t always have one of my other cameras with me. Going to get my hair cut, I see a funny sign. I use my Touch 4 to take a photo, the Aviary app, and the photos is on Facebook zippy quick. So, I have to say no to the 16 GB $229 iPod Touch 5. The next one up, at $299, is the 32 GB Touch 5. If I needed an iPod Touch today, that is what I would buy. But, depending on what you plan to use the Touch for, the next mobile device in Apple’s lineup is the 16 GB $329 iPad Mini. Very nice. But a mini will not fit in my pocket, so I wouldn’t buy one instead of the iPod Touch 5. But you might. I have to admit that my plan now is to wait till iOS 7 comes out before I buy any more Apple mobile devices. There might be a iPod Touch 6. And maybe a new iPad Mini too? Based on Apple history, any new mobile devices will not be any less expensive than ones out now, but the next generation of devices will have new chips and new features. But. as usual, Apple is not saying what new hardware is planned for release. So, if you’re traveling soon, or are itching to tryout being mobile, go buy that iPod Touch 5. It’s a good deal, and nice looking too. AFTERWORD: Remember PDAs? People are starting to use iTouch to refer to the iPod Touch since the Touch is an excellent Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). And a Touch really is a hand held computer too. A Touch is not just a device that plays tunes. A Touch can do pretty much everything an iPhone can do except make phone calls. Anyway, I bought a PDA way back when PDAs were a hot item. I wanted to use my PDA for business travel. I bought a keyboard to go with the PDA too. I got my PDA working with the keyboard and a text app that would send text into MS Word on my Windows PC at work. This PDA thing was going great. Until the first business trip to LA. The X-ray at the airport security completely erased everything on my poor PDA. My whole PDA tryout was a complete loss. Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. 11! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit ! THIS MONTH’S PUZZLE Slitherlink 2 1 1 2 1 0 2 0 1 3 3 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 2 3 2 3 3 3 1 0 1 2 1 1 0 1 3 1 2 3 1 3 2 1 2 “To solve a SlitherLink puzzle, join selected dots with horizontal and vertical lines so that a single loop is formed which does not cross over itself. If a cell contains a number, then that number of sides of the cell must be included within the loop. Example 12! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit ! Mac Tips Trackpad Gestures ough this was created for Mac OS X Lion, it works just fine with my Mountain Lion trackpad. Guide to Mac OS X Lion Gestures v1.0 Visit MacMost.com for Mac and iPhone video tutorials, news, reviews and commentary. MacBook Trackpad Magic Trackpad Secondary click (right click) View Mission Control Scroll the web page, document or window Switch between spaces and full screen apps Move between web or document pages Show all windows in current app Zoom out on a web page or document Bring up Launch Pad Zoom in on a web page or document + Smart zoom to a part of a web page or document (double tap two fingers) Clear windows to reveal desktop Rotate image Grab top of a window and drag Magic Mouse + Switch between spaces Smart zoom to a part of a web page or document (double tap one finger) Move between web or document pages + View Mission Control (double tap two fingers) Gestures can be disabled or customized in the System Preferences. Many gestures have alternatives, like switching between spaces can be done with three fingers instead of four. Check your System Preferences, Trackpad or Mouse settings to see how you have it set up on your Mac. See http://macmost.com/j-keyshort for a printable page of keyboard shortcuts! [Reprinted with permission from MacMost’s Gary Rosenzweig] Copyright © 2011 MacMost 13! ! ! ! ! ! Reviews ! ! ! Silicon Summit SEE Finance 0.9.14 by Joe Staten By way of introduction let me say, I began this review with one objective in mind – to determine if SEE Finance was suitable for me as a replacement for Quicken for Windows (QFW). I did not intend to build a new file and try all of the options of SEE Finance but rather to import my QFW data file and compare features, functionality, responsiveness, user interface, and especially ease of use. Furthermore, I am not evaluating financial programs to replace QFW because it no longer suits my needs but simply because it is not an OS X application. As a result it is somewhat less responsive under Parallels than on a PC. Additionally, I did not expect SEE Finance to be a clone of QFW and as with any new program, I fully expected some “learning curve” on my part. I have been using Quicken for Windows since its introduction. Before that I used a product (I don’t remember the name) from Parson’s Technology. When Intuit bought Parson’s I believe that program eventually morphed into QFW. Other than a browser and my mail application, QFW is probably the most used program on my computer. Through the years of using QFW I have become comfortable with it and other Intuit products – some more than others. However, through all of the upgrades; the “new and improved” features and especially the user interface have never changed so drastically as to have me searching for a different product. That is until I became a Mac user. When I became a Mac user some six years ago the first application I purchased was Quicken for Mac 2007. I quickly discovered it was pretty much useless except as a simple check register. It would not import my Quicken for Windows data file without massive modifications to the file structures, file names and even the individual transactions in various accounts. Since the file included several years’ of transactions it wasn’t worthwhile to try and make all the changes. Before installing WINDOWS under Parallels on my MAC, I kept a PC on the desk beside the Mac for Quicken and a couple of other programs. I then began trying evaluation copies of several OS X financial programs and discovered that the evaluation copies of all the programs I tried were always limited in their functionality. Although all said they would import a Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) file, none of the “free trials” would allow me to SEE Finance can track your banking, investments, loans, assets, liability, credit cards, cash, and income accounts. import my entire .QIF file to see how the program would work for me. That brings me to SEE Finance. To their credit they offer a fully functional download. If you can ignore the repetitive “nag” screens asking you to buy or register the product, you can probably use it forever. Once installed you can start from scratch and set up new accounts, connect to your financial institution and download account info or, as in my case, import a QIF file. After registering the application (license provided to SMMUG for this review) and importing my .QIF file (which took most of an hour) I began to use the two products in parallel. I continued to use QFW as my primary program but entered or downloaded duplicate transactions into SEE Finance. The first thing I noticed was it took longer to start up SEE Finance than QFW when Parallels and WINDOWS were already loaded – my 14! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit normal configuration. I also tried loading SEE Finance when Parallels/WINDOWS was not running and could detect not difference in load times. There are three areas where I found SEE Finance to be less than optimal for my use. First, I will describe my experience with the “Downloads from a financial organization” function. QFW allows me to define multiple financial accounts I want to download from and when I login to my financial institution, it automatically downloads all the accounts at one time. See Finance also has a “Download Transactions” function that lists the multiple accounts in the drop-down menu below the “All Accounts” option. However, if “All Accounts” was selected, it would not allow me to type anything in the “ID/User Name”, “PIN/ SEE Finance can create reports for investments, payees, balances, Password”, or “Account Number” fields. categories, etc. Therefore, I had to open the drop-down menu under “All Accounts” and download each account separately by repeatedly reentering my logon ID, password and account numbers. A second area is in entering transactions. QFW retains the data from the last transaction for a given payee or security. See Finance, unless you are entering multiple transactions for one date, it requires you to reenter everything except the date for a given transaction. And, even if the dates are the same it requires multiple tab keys or a mouse click just to move from the data field to another field. You can redefine the sequence that the cursor moves through the fields but still have to tab through or mouse click into the fields, type in the new data and then click a button to begin a new transaction. Finally, the way in which See Finance handles split transactions is not very efficient. When you type “split” into the category field and enter the transaction total, you must manually enter additional transactions for each portion of the “split”. For example, if you have entered the “Type” as “Charge” or “Debit”, the total amount will be entered as a negative e Download Transactions window lets you number. However, when you create a new transaction for each of the portions of the split you must remember to enter the amount of each split download your accounts from financial institutions. as a negative number although the “Type” is carried through as a “Charge” or “Debit”. e Skinny Evaluation: Having pointed out the issues I believe SEE Finance to be a very capable financial application. It has most of the capabilities I was looking for. For me however, the fact it is a native OS X application does not outweigh the issues listed above or the complexity of the user interface. But I think it could be a very good app for someone not trying to switch from another product. Requires: Intel or PowerPC Processor, Mac OS X 10.5 or Higher, Mountain Lion Compatible Company: Scimonoce Software LLC Price: $29.99 Available trial copy 15! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit CrazyTalk (for iOS) by Kit Harras CrazyTalk is a free iOS App by Reallusion Inc. that will introduce you to the amazing world of Facial Animation. Reallusion created the fun and free Crazytalk App for your iDevices. I believe it was designed to meet two major goals. First is to offer a fun way to use your iPad or iPhone to experience, play with & share customizable computer animated faces with your voice and message. The second goal is to introduce iOS users to the power of their rather extensive and respected computer animation software packages for Desktop users of Mac or Windows machines. Rather than just offering a video of their capability, this app offers a very nice bite sized snack version of their Desktop offerings. While it might just meet your curiosity or immediate need, make no mistake, it is designed to leave you hungering for more. From a technical standpoint, the free App is a pretty substantial package that introduces you to their animation approach with helpful free tutorials. Starting with a couple of basic predefined characters you can play with them like a puppet by physically interacting with them via your iDevice. Use the supplied audio clips or record your own 30 sec audio clip and have the character sing or speak your words. Unlike some of the "speaking" character Apps out there, this App is not designed to simply echo your speech. It creates an audio clip by pre-recording it via the App and then plays it back through the unique characteristics of your chosen character. Create a sound clip you like, see if you like the way the actor works with your "speech" and share it with others via all the usual social media. Fun. If you want to play more with the Actor as a puppet you can add additional animation by shaking or moving the iPad or iPhone. Watch eyes roll and heads sway. A user will also find a variety of common gestures will change the characters facial movements to show moods and even make the Actor blink. Changing the tone or volume of your voice will also make a significant difference in the way the Actor emotes. It will not only lip-syncing but add all sorts of facial animation to emphasis the mood the speaker projected. The App has the basics from the far more sophisticated Desktop version. Even though it is a very small subset from the Desktop versions, Reallusion carried down all sort of subtle aspects. Once you have a character on your screen you will notice it will start acting in it's own way as a bored listener. It will look around, gently move & even blinks politely while waiting for input. Almost unnerving. The free version of the iOS App includes 2 Actors. One is a very expressive professor type (reminded me of the wild actor, Hans Conried) and the other is a rather passive cat. You can upgrade for $1 to acquire more predefined Actors, including my favorite, a Robot. On a personal note, I found the predefined humans Actors to be highly caricatured and their sample audio tracks pretty unappealing to downright scary. The animals and other non-human ones were far mellower. There is a much better way to acquired better actors to manipulate on your iOS device. Therein lies one of the big reasons I suspect this App was created for. You can create your own Actors via the vendor's Desktop products from photos, images, or even buy them via Reallusion's Marketplace. Once you have an actor defined, by simply sending an invite to someone they can download the Actor you created and then use it themselves in the App as a custom Actor. This approach is actively being encouraged in the education marketplace. I could see a group of friends or classmates passing a unique talking head between them for fun. Hopefully Reallusion will start to make more predefined Actors available via in-App purchases for those who don't have access to the Desktop products. When someone does send you a link to an Actor that they have placed in their Reallusion's personal gallery, the fun can really happen. You can download it for your 16! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit gallery and even add your own recorded voice. Then forward it, post it or even save it to your Camera Roll. If you have gotten this far I would highly recommend you spring for the other $1 Features upgrade, The Features upgrade allows you to manipulate the expressions on the Actor and save them for inclusion in your project to share. Also, the same upgrade allows you to add some simple audio filters to your sound recording. While far from the wildly more sophisticated editing available on the full product these upgrades will allow you to personalize your actor on the iOS device. You can run this iOS App strictly as a fun way to send messages using the predefined Actors and your own voice creativity but I suspect the real fun is when you can start collecting or creating additional Actors with their Desktop versions. Reallusion is considered one of the real leaders in the world on 2D and 3D animation and learning what you can do with even this little free App will open all sorts of possibilities. The Reallusion site has a wonderful collection of tools and tutorials to introduce you to the fast growing craft. The desktop versions of Crazytalk7 and Crazytalk7 Pro are available from the Apple App Store for Macs and from the Reallusion site. Reallusion also offers a number of other Digital Content creation software packages. Visit their website at http://www.reallusion.com for more information. e skinny Evaluation: If you are interested in the techniques used in the exploding market of Facial Animation and other Digital Content this would be a good place to start to learn. Requires: Crazytalk App runs on most currently supported iPad and iPhone devices and requires iOS 6.0 or later . Company: Reallusion Inc. Price: Free In-App-Purchases: Full version: $0.99, Extra Actors: $0.99 - available from the Apple iTunes store 17! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit Tokyo ReAnimator by L. Davenport It probably has happened at least once to everyone (whether you are an amateur or a pro) who has taken video movies - the dreaded speck or lint on your lens or a dead pixel in your camera that creates a blemish on your “once in a lifetime” shot. Grrrrr!. The shot’s ruined. What to do? Well, if you own Final Cut Pro X, you could buy Tokyo Productions LTD’s ReAnimator plug-in and use it to fix the problem. ReAnimator is a suite of tools that you can use to remove these unwanted dead pixels, sensor dust, lens dirt and other artifacts. The user interface is pretty straightforward and easy to use. Here is a quick listing of the steps you need to follow to remove the blemish: 1. Purchase and install the Tokyo ReAnimator plug-in in your Final Cut Pro X application. 2. Go to Final Cut Pro’s Effects Browser and drag the Tokyo ReAnimator plug-in onto your video clip. 3. One of ReAnimator’s on-screen controls appears (a circle target). Drag the circle over the blemish to identify the problem area. 4. Go to the Parameters and turn on ReAnimator’s HUD (Head’s Up Display). When the on-screen interface appears, the problem area is automatically zoomed and paned, and a red box (a Mask) surrounds the blemish. 5. Use the HUD’s on-screen sliders (that sit to the right and left of the problem area) or use the corresponding Parameter ReAnimator’s HUD zooms into the blemish (the black dot controls (that sit in the Final Cut Pro’s Inspector), to fine tune behind the red Mask box). Slider controls appear on both sides the Mask so that it completely covers the blemish but nothing of the HUD. else. 6. Use the X and Y Offset sliders to adjust the Mask until the blemish disappears. Basically what it is doing is dragging pixels (or a sample) from the surrounding area to cover the blemish. Of course there are additional parameters that can be modified along the way, but this gives you an idea on how this plug-in works. If you move your camera or your subject moves during the course of the video, the original off-set settings (that looked fine at first) may not work or appear correctly a few seconds and minutes further into the video, such as if the sample area is lighter or darker than the area you want it to replace. In these instances you can use Key-framing to change the parameter settings as the video progresses. If you are interested in the ReAnimator plug-in, I suggest you watch the YouTube video: “Final Cut Pro X Dead Pixel ReAnimator Tutorial” to see it being used. e Skinny Evaluation: I must admit that I did have a few bumps along the way when I first started using ReAnimator, e.g. the plug-in worked fine on my 16:9 footage, but when I applied it to my old 4:3 footage, the slider controls on the right and left sides of the HUD were cut off. So I sent an email to Tokyo Productions to ask if there was a minimum dpi or aspect ratio for the plug-in or was I doing something wrong? They quickly replied: “The Interface has been optimized for 16:9 aspect ratio source material which means it will not display correctly with source images that are a different aspect ratio. To get around this it is recommended that you create a compound clip before applying the effect. (Note that the effect will only work with 16:9 timelines, and not legacy 4:3.)”. My second problem was occasionally not being able to center the blemish in the HUD. I was told that it wasn’t mandatory to have it centered, but I was given several ideas on how to overcome that problem too. He also said: “...there could be more latitude in the adjustment provided and I will work on an update today that provides this”. I thought that was nice of him and applaud him for his quick response to problems. So after overcoming my initial HUD problems, I found ReAnimator fairly easy to use and a nice plug-in to add to my video correction tools. Requires: Final Cut Pro X, Noise Industries (free) FxFactory Company: Tokyo Productions LTD Distributer: Noise Industries Price: $49 Available trial copy 18! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! MacFamilyTree 7 & ! Silicon Summit MobileFamilyTree 7 by Kit Harras Looking for the perfect Mac or iPad Application to help you start collecting your genealogy information? There has never been a better time to do just that with your Mac or iOS device like an iPad. There are a wide range of family tree and genealogy search tools available, in both functions and price, but many of them are not native to the Mac world. Synium Software GmbH offers MacFamily Tree 7 and the iOS version, MobileFamily Tree 7 to meet your needs. They are available via Apple's App Store and the iTunes Stores and have a long lineage in the world of Apple. Synium Software has a fascinating little family history itself on their web site. New to the world of genealogical tools, I did a bit of digging to find what is available in the Mac and iOS market and how well they would help someone getting started or incorporating others' work with their own. There appear to be a huge number of tools out there and virtually all of them interface with the genealogy standard of database record interchange, GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunication). GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, sometimes referred to as Mormons) and has evolved and This is the Start Screen on the Mac version. Note that the Import, iCloud and other database options are easily available. mutated from their original religious roots. If you really want to understand the history, definitions, future and details check out the Wikipedia article on GEDCOM. This exchange standard is critical to any product you might want to use if you want to share or merge data with others. It also took a bit of research to understand the relationship between your own creation of a personal family tree, the GEDCOM exchange schema, and the web based services, like LDS' Familysearch.org and Ancestry.com that can aggregate and sift through thousands of data sources. There are applications like MacFamily Tree 7 (often called MFT7) and MobileFamily Tree 7(since it is functionally equivalent except for complex database editing, it is also often referred to as MFT7) that focus and help you enter data and also act as A Genogram for a single user on the iPad. Identical on Mac version. Color and other a local repository of your data. visual elements can be personalized. Note the selection and other menu items on the left. Synium's MFT7 applications also offer 19! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit you a way to search the free services of FamilySearch.org from within the application. A free signup with FamilySearch.org is all that is needed to access their data. Unlike some other applications, Synium has not taken the approach to tie their packages to any one genealogy service. FamilySearch.org is linked from within the application only as a starting point for free research, not as a mandatory service. While the web based LDS site, FamilySearch.org does have it's own web based family tree creator, it is independent of any vendor's product and nowhere near as nice of Synium's offerings. Nevertheless, FamilySearch.org remains free and does offer a great deal of very helpful tools and even assistance through web and even with real people through their LDS (Mormon) church centers. If you get stuck in your genealogical searching, these of good A simple Ancestor Chart as displayed on the iPad. Identical on the Mac. people to know. One of the things I really like about Synium's approach is that I can share my personal Family Trees between my machines through iCloud just like Apple's own iWork applications. iCloud support was tied to the move to the Apple Application Store with Version 7 of MFT. While their database is based on GEDCOM, Synium has taken that information and gone beyond the normal output to create some really nice data visualization displays and reports. It is also quite easy to exchange your MTF7 database or GEDCOM version 5.5.1 files not only through iCloud, but also through other means, such as DropBox. Another feature I consider a big plus is that you can do almost anything totally independently on your iOS device. The iOS version and the Mac Desktop versions of MFT7 visually appear almost identical. With the iCloud synchronization it is trivially easy to do work on your Mac, pick up you iPad or even iPhone, and continue the work wherever you go. Marvelous for researching on the go. You are not locked to a Desktop version, Mac or PC, or even a paid subscription service. A really nice way to get started. Both MFT7s take advantage of every graphical and user interface feature available and appropriate in the current computer environment leaving a lot of other clunky looking and behaving applications in the digital dust. However, the one major element that is minimized on the iOS version is the ability to do more sophisticated database editing, merging, selective exporting and other related functions. While these features are nicely supported on the Desktop, they are stripped down to basic whole tree GEDCOM Exporting and Importing on the iOS device. Even the documented process of importing a .ged file to the iPad still goes through the iTunes App file management approach, feels a bit awkward. The Desktop version does allow you to do selective Importing, Exporting, merging and appending easily from the menu, but be aware you may have to do some cleanup to avoid duplicates. Most current genealogical users today are familiar with the quirks of GEDCOM. What that means is Customizable Fan Chart report on the iPad. Identical on the Mac. 20! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit that you can start with pretty much any package and export to other more complex packages that offer unique and proprietary data elements that may not export. There are a number of web sites, like TopTenReview that have collected and reviewed web based search services you might find helpful. For the most part these aggregation services may be just the thing for your searching needs. TopTenReview also offers a nice collection of commercial Mac genealogy applications. If you are an old hand at this you may already have strong feelings about your favorite package that use these services. Some of them are very barebones on presentation but that may be fine for you. Synium does offer a limited demo directly from their site but this review is based on a purchased copy. After purchasing MFT7 from Apple's App store, I loaded the sample database and chose to save to iCloud, a nice touch since I will be working on it from multiple devices. I also An easy to use Interactive Family Tree on the iPad. There are higher noted that a number of preferences allow you to recognize the reality of today's world with complex quality graphics and interactions on the Mac. This is an excellent place to relationships. There are a number of similar nods to the start a discussion with other family members. non-standard way people really live. Helpful. After loading the sample database (based on John F. Kennedy) I was blown away with the amazing charts and reports available. 3D, virtual trees, rings, maps, globes, even the ability to create a web site, and just about anyway you might want to look at the data in addition to the more traditional reports. This application takes Data Visualization of genealogical data up to a whole new level. That is important when you want to create something to share and discuss with a wide range of non-technical people, namely your family. I tend to glaze over when confronted with typical eye numbing classic family tree charts. This will wake anybody up. After playing with the sample (virtually all packages use this same sample file if you want to do comparisons) I started a new family tree. As most people do, I started with what I know, my own immediate family. While dates and locations were not precise, I was able to get started entering basic information with relationships. I tried this on both the Mac on iPad and found I liked using the iPad while rummaging around the house digging up info. As I went, the application helpfully showed placeholders for additional information and relationships without cluttering up the view with unneeded boxes. It beckoned me without intimidating demands for information I did not have. This data entry aspect can be done off-line since you are working with a local version of the your database, created there or downloaded from iCloud. Handy when working in i friendly spaces. When I came to a stopping place (this can be quite addictive), I selected the FamilySearch.org icon on the sidebar and after a painless, free sign up process, I could login and ask to look for Person Matches and Update, Search for a single person or display my own record created when I This is the Integrated Search gateway to the FamilySearch.org web site. Note the selections on the left. They are the same on both the iPad and Mac versions. 21! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit signed up. Look for comparisons, and a list of possible duplicates will appear. Select a likely person and inconsistencies between your local record and the one on FamilySearch will be presented with a series of action you can optionally take to address the differences. While this process is not exactly intuitive, a click on the omnipresent "?" lead to a helpful suggestion and reference to the full on-line manual. As a great grandchild of immigrants, I found the Map reports that show key events by geocoded locations on a globe and date in the Mac version to be especially fascinating. The iOS version is a map an a little less sexy but still fun. The more life events you enter, the more precise the paths become. It is almost better than a game. FamilySearch.org is handy but pretty sparse for my family. It also has a lot of poor quality entries that got me a bit frustrated. I could have Exported a GEDCOM (.ged) file at that point to upload into a service like Ancestry.com but I decided to tackle it from scratch. I took the big step and signed up for a free trial on Ancestry.com. I learned a lot in a hurry. By going only to the Web version of the site I was able to find an absolutely incredible collection of data with obviously some very smart software behind it. But there is a price to pay for this ease besides their subscription costs. If you want to keep your work you need to download it via GEDCOM Export from Ancestry.com to a local application such as MFT7. Not all data transfers work perfectly so you This is a display of a matching record from FamilySearch really need to look at the log reports to catch any issues. It works but the from within the iPad or Mac application. real kicker is that Ancestry.com will not allow you to update your Trees on their site through a merge function. There isn't one. You can create a new GEDCOM file from MFT7 (or any other similar application) and create yet another new Tree on Ancestry.com but lots of missing data will need to be entered there to recreate your original work. Ugh. It appears a typical technique is to use Ancestry.com for research and building and then download the GEDCOM file into your local Application for backup, enhancing, minor tweaking and generating reports. Ancestry.com does offer a free iOS Application that goes against their web databases but I found it a bit buggy and sluggish with only a 70 person database. Ancestry.com does offer a commercial package, Family Tree Maker (FTM) in both PC and Mac versions to allow you to locally control your data but it is deeply tied to the service and the Mac version has lagged badly in development and release schedules. I understand a new version is in the works. Until then, I would look to more Mac friendly applications like the powerful but clunky and ugly Reunion 10 or the lighter-weight but much friendlier MFT7. As a note, Ancestry.com does not allow you to merge a GEDCOM (.ged) file back into your tree on the service, only add another one. That is somewhat understandable for data integrity but can be a real pain if unanticipated. Also, by default your tree on Ancestry.com are public unless you change your preferences. That way others can benefit from your research and the reverse. There is a whole other world of issues with such topics when your family tree is available to the world of social networking. Choose your settings wisely. To be frank, I will probably subscribe to Ancestry.com to have access to a well organized and growing collection of data. I was able to build my 70 person database in a couple of hours just sitting on the couch. I can't imagine what could be accomplished with a bit of rummaging through my old records. That does not mean, however, there is no place for local tools like Synium's products. On the contrary, when you do run out of on-line data sources, nothing beats taking some other approaches and generating some additional information. You may have to enter them in twice, once locally and possibly again on-line but everything keeps improving so that may be a temporary snag. It also is nice to double check OCR created records against other sources. Privacy can be another consideration. Of course you could start out with a simple stand alone tool like the iPad version of MFT7 and build up enough data to start with. If you choose to research on your own there are some great resources out there. One is A One-Step Portal for On-Line Genealogy. It is one person's collection of not only sites, but how to use them. Another is on About's Genealogy site. It has good introductory information and may be worth a look to get a better understanding of the whole searching approach. What does differentiate the plethora of offerings? Is the package well laid out for easy navigation and integrated help? What are the costs, both initial and ongoing for subscription services? What are the number, coverage and quality of the exploding number of data sources? Are the reports that allow you to understand and share that information to others something you like and do they have a way of automatically generating a web site version? Does the package support a robust and current way to exchange GEDCOM, CSV formatted or other data, especially URL, and multi-media information? Is the package currently and actively supported? If you do not want to pay for ongoing subscription services will it still meet your needs? Is your goal to capture the information about your family from personal sources, look for a package that can support detailed info like medical information or do you just want to research to see how far back you can trace? Do you want to see the original 22! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit documents or are you ok with documents that have been processed by another person or just an automated scanning with an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) package? How does the package manage duplicate person selection? Think before you spend money and time, and make no mistake, it will demand more time that you every thought. I suspect the bottom line is no single package or service will meet all you needs or wants. My recommendation, after a bit of exposure, is to try out trial and demos. Maybe a quick free or single month subscription to Ancestry.com can let you populate enough information and run an Export to a GEDCOM file to let you spend more leisurely research time filling On the Mac version only the EXPORT Tab on the left is available for GENCOM Exports in all the gaps on your local device. with a number of options or for the creation of a Web Site. Synium has some of the nicest, Mac friendly software out there for building, sharing and displaying your family's information. Not being intimately connected to the big commercial services is a plus and a minus. Consider what you need and want to do before buying any package. Make sure you have the right tool and do that work in a comfortable environment because even in the best environments it is so easy to go down the wrong rabbit hole and have the entirely wrong family connected to your tree. When you can, actually look at the source records. There are numerous sites that give you free access to their source material for you to review. Use the web to view all the public documents you can. They hold so much more information you can find fascinating. By the way, now that I have the framework of the family already in the system, I think I might peek at a pile of papers my Dad left me with his take on our family tree. He would be so jealous. e Skinny Evaluation: Synium has an elegantly designed tool for creating and sharing your very own family tree. While you will still need to seek out information from many sources, their Mac offering MacFamily Tree 7, and their stand-alone portable version for iOS devices, MobileFamily Tree 7, can give you a very positive experience in capturing and sharing the beautiful results. Easy to learn and grow with, yet substantial enough to handle data from other genealogy services and applications while remaining stable and responsive. Work off-line or on-line and take control of your history with these friendly and useful siblings. Requires: MacFamilyTree 7: Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later, 64-bit processor. For the sync between different devices an iCloud account is required. MobileFamilyTree 7: iPhone, iPad, and iPod, iOS 5.1 or later Company: Synium Software Price: MacFamilyTree 7 (for the Mac) has recently jumped from $29.99 to $49.99 and is available exclusively from the Mac App Store. I would not be surprised if they adjust that price in response to competitive market conditions. MobileFamilyTree 7 (the Universal iOS App), has recently jumped from $7.99 to $14.99 in the Apple iTunes Store. I would also not be surprised if they adjust its price in response to competitive market conditions. Available trial copy (of the Mac version) 23! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit FunBITS Train Your Brain with Lumosity by Josh Centers One of the hottest ideas in the tech world now is the quantified self — the concept of monitoring oneself, recording the data, and using it for self-improvement. This has been applied mostly to personal fitness, with gadgets like the Fitbit (no relation to TidBITS, as you can tell by the capitalization) that track your fitness, what you eat, and even how well you sleep. The free Lumosity app brings the same concept to your brain via the iPhone and iPad. Few people would argue against becoming a bit smarter, which is what Lumosity aims to help us do. The company was founded in 2005 for neuroscience research and development of brain training technologies. The result is a Web and iOS app whose goal is to enable you to train your brain. While the app has been available on iPhone since 2010, it was recently updated with a flat design and a new iPad version. When you first launch Lumosity, you must create a login for Lumosity.com, if you haven’t already. You’ll then be asked a series of questions to personalize your training regimen. “Would you like to remember people’s names?” Yes, I’m awful at that! “Would you like to keep track of multiple ideas?” Well, we have Trello for that, but sure! “Would you like to make better decisions under stress?” My wife could go into labor at any moment, so absolutely! Lumosity takes your input and develops a daily training program, which it recommends that you go through 3–5 days a week. Without a $79.99 annual subscription, you’re restricted to a limited set of tests per day, which are rotated every day. However, it doesn’t seem to interfere with daily training. The subscription also unlocks other nice features, like tracking your progress over time and the capability to compare your scores against other players. Each test comprises a series of timed challenges, the goal being to complete as many as possible. There’s Speed Match, which presents a series of colored shapes, and, for each one, you have to decide if it’s identical or different from the last. In Color Match, you’re presented with two words, each a color, and you have to decide if the word on top matches the text color of the bottom word. Chalkboard Challenge presents you with two numbers or math formulas, and you have to decide which is larger, or if they’re equal. Many other games are available — both within the iOS app and on the Web site. After completing each test, you’re given a score, which is used to calculate your Brain Performance Index (BPI), an overall assessment of brain performance. Paid subscribers can track their BPI over time, or compare against other users. Training takes only a few minutes, and you can set alerts to remind 24! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit you of specific days and times to train. The app also tracks which days you’ve trained, so it’s easy to keep up with the schedule. The entire app is well designed, with a friendly interface, bright colors, and tasteful fonts. The games themselves are fun, but can they actually make you smarter, as Lumosity claims? The company says it works with researchers from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkley, and its Web site links to a number of peer-reviewed papers. Plus, Lumosity has founded the Human Cognition Project, an ambitious effort to work with scientists, doctors, and teachers to advance neuroscience. However, the science is still murky, despite numerous studies. David Z. Hambrick, associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University told SmartPlanet “There’s been all this focus on brain training and cognitive training. But there is not convincing evidence to support the claim by Lumosity and other companies that these programs have far-reaching beneficial effects on cognitive functioning.” In fact, the evidence seems to indicate that these games make you better only at the game itself, not at broader cognitive function. Neuroscientist Dr. Adrian Owen performed a test of 11,000 subjects over 6 weeks and determined that while the subjects improved at the specific tasks the test game presented, they did not seem to improve in other areas. Still, while it’s inconclusive that these games can actively make you more intelligent, there’s no indication that they do any harm. And many of the games included in Lumosity are some of the same tasks we assign to schoolchildren, such as shape matching and arithmetic repetition. If these methods don’t work, then perhaps we have bigger problems than we realized. But what about improvements in specific populations? Some studies, such as one from the University of Iowa’s Federic Wolinsky, have shown that brain training games can slow mental decay in older people. On the other hand, according to an article by Jessika I. V. Buitenweg, Jaap M. J. Murre, and K. Richard Ridderinkhof in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, results of such studies “are neither robust nor consistent,” and they suggest a series of elements that may offer more successful outcomes. I’d also love to see more career-specific games. How about a game where you’re presented with a paragraph or sentence and you have to find the typo or grammatical mistake? That could help me a lot. Or maybe a similar game for programmers, where you have to spot the error. Perhaps if these games were more specific and less general, they’d be of greater utility. All that being said, Lumosity is fun and might possibly make you a bit sharper. It’s certainly worth a download, though I won’t be spending $79.99 per year for full access. Nor do I think most people will, despite the game’s popularity. The free daily content should be sufficient to keep most players satisfied, at least until solid data showing mental improvements should appear. Motion Control Games on Your iPhone by Josh Centers When Nintendo’s Wii, with its innovative motion controller, debuted in 2006, it took the gaming world by storm. People were blown away by being able to play games like tennis by swinging the Wii Remote like a racket. The night before launch, gamers all over the United States were lining up at stores to get their hands on one. I should know, since I spent an entire night in the freezing cold outside a Best Buy to buy one for my little brother. To date, the Wii has sold nearly 100 million units worldwide. But in spite of its popularity, third-party developers refused to pour resources into it because of its dated, standard-definition internals. Other than first-party titles like Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the Wii suffered from a paltry library. So in spite of its incredible sales numbers, a puzzling lack of support has made dusty Wiis a fixture in closets around the world. The Wii has since been succeeded by the Wii U, which eschews motion controls for a tablet-like controller. But the idea of motion control didn’t die with the Wii, and you no longer need special gaming hardware to join in on the fun. A couple of innovative games have brought the concept to the iPhone. Motion Tennis -- One of the most interesting games I’ve seen for iOS in a while is Motion Tennis by Rolocule Games ($7.99). It combines your iPhone (4S or 5) or fifth-generation iPod touch with a second- or third-generation Apple TV to provide a motion-controlled tennis experience in your living room. 25! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit Before you run out and buy Motion Tennis, though, be aware that it requires an Apple TV to function — it is not a standalone iOS game. Also, it is not compatible with the iPhone 4, except as a client for multiplayer, as the iPhone 4 does not support AirPlay mirroring. Before launching Motion Tennis, you must enable AirPlay mirroring on your device. To do so, double tap the Home button to bring up the multitasking bar, then slide the multitasking bar to the right twice to access the AirPlay button, which is represented by a rectangle intersected with a triangle. Tap that button, select your Apple TV from the list, and make sure the Mirroring switch is set to On. Once you launch the game, you have the choice of playing a match against a computerized opponent, playing a doubles match against another player who owns the game, or playing a survival mode that pits you against an endless battery of opponents. The game tracks the calories you burn, which is a nice touch, but don’t expect to get in shape playing Motion Tennis. When you start the game, you have to calibrate your device by holding it flat and selecting which hand you prefer. The motion controls work great in my experience. Your swing in the game changes depending on the angle and speed at which you swing your iPhone. However, Motion Tennis drains power quickly, causing your device to heat up. That heat leads to sweaty palms, and a slippery hand combined with a glass-encased phone and fast arm swings could lead to an expensive fastball through your living room, or, worse, through your TV screen. There are a couple of solutions for this. If you’re playing with a fifthgeneration iPod touch, it features a built-in wrist strap stud, which handily solves the problem. However, if you have an iPhone or an older iPod touch, try the SwitchEasy SW-LAN5-BK lanyard case, which currently costs $23.58 at Amazon. Motion Tennis is fun, but it’s full of provisos. You must spend $7.99 on the game, own an Apple TV, calibrate the device each time you want to play, and possibly spend more money on a case to keep from destroying expensive hardware. But despite that, I applaud Rolocule Games for such an innovative idea, and if you own an Apple TV and don’t mind picking up the necessary lanyard case, it’s worth checking out. Rolocule Games has hinted at future titles with this technology, and I’m curious to see what they do with it. However, if you don’t own an Apple TV, there’s a free alternative that’s arguably even more impressive. Roll It -- One of the most jaw-dropping tech demos I’ve seen in years is Roll It, a Google Chrome Experiment that takes Web gaming to a whole new level. Roll It combines your desktop computer’s Web browser and your smartphone for a motion-controller variant of skee ball. What’s so impressive is that it does all of this inside a Web browser. It supports any modern b row s e r, b u t o f c o u r s e recommends Google Chrome. To play, visit the Roll It page on your computer, and then pick up your smartphone. On your phone, open a browser, navigate to a special Web page, and enter a code to sync your phone with the game. 26! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit Once synced up, tilt your phone to navigate the game’s menu. You can play solo, or with up to three players. As for the game itself, well, it’s skee ball, though each level is a different take on the game. You swing your phone to throw the ball, which responds to how fast you swing, as well as the angle. You can also control the direction of the ball by adjusting a control on your phone’s screen. Befitting its “experiment” status, Roll It is far from perfect. For instance, if you switch away from your browser, your phone loses sync with the game, and you have to start over. But despite that, Roll It is still mind-blowing. Motion control that works with any smartphone, and 3D graphics in a Web-based game! If you own an iPhone, you owe it to yourself to check out this modern miracle, since it’s totally free to play. Get Moving -- As impressive as these games are, they’re little more than gimmicks. But what they demonstrate is that mobile gaming is fast encroaching in the space once dominated by game consoles. These two titles are sure to fire up the imaginations of developers. And with Apple pushing harder into the gaming space — via upcoming technologies like game controller support in iOS 7 and Sprite Kit, which makes 2D game programming dead-easy — I think we’re about to see the iPhone and Apple TV sneak up from behind to become a major threat to entrenched console developers like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Electronic Arts, the world’s third-largest gaming company, already brings in more money from Apple than any other platform. The next five years should be an exciting time for Apple gamers. FTL: Faster an Light by Josh Centers FTL: Faster Than Light is a gripping space adventure for the Mac that has you on the run from a massive enemy fleet. You’ll have to contend with limited resources, enemy ships, boarding parties, and all the dangers of deep space apart from mind-numbing boredom. It has won mounds of awards, including IGN’s Best PC Strategy Game of 2012 and PC Gamer’s Best Shortform Game of 2012, and it was named one of NPR’s Best Games of 2012. But as good as FTL is, it’s also tough, and I have a few key tips that will help you stay alive long enough to enjoy the game’s challenges. FTL doesn’t offer much in terms of a backstory, but any science fiction fan has heard it all before anyway. You command a Federation starship, like the stereotypical Federation from Star Trek, which has obtained information vital in the war against an evil Rebellion that threatens the galaxy. Your mission is to “jump” from system to system until you reach Federation headquarters, all the while pursued by the Rebel Fleet. If you’re a fan of Battlestar Galactica, then you’ll love FTL, as the scenario is strikingly similar. FTL isn’t your typical space simulation. It’s based on roguelikes like NetHack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Like those games, FTL’s game content is generated randomly, and failure means starting over from square one. Also, unlike most space sims, you control the crew inside your ship manually. You start with three crew members, whom you can assign to various ship systems. You have to have one crew member in the cockpit to go anywhere, and you get bonuses for assigning crew to other systems, like engines, shields, and weapons. Each crew member earns experience the longer they use a particular system, so it’s a good idea to keep each member on one system, and to try and keep them alive. A good practice is to rename your starting crew members to match the systems they’ll manage. For example, “Pilot,” “Engines,” “Shields.” That way, it’s easy to keep them assigned to what they do best. If you’re so inclined, you can even name your crew after characters from your favorite franchises: “Riker,” “Han,” “Adama,” — I even saw one player name his crew after the Starks from Game of Thrones. (Though I personally would rather have Tyrion Lannister at the helm than Ned Stark.) Having complete control over everything that happens in the ship leads to some interesting possibilities. You and your crew will have to repair damaged systems, repel hostile boarding parties, and extinguish ship fires, among much else. FTL doesn’t suffer fools, even in the game’s easy mode, which I highly recommend to beginners. You must pay close attention to everything on your ship. Did an enemy ship disable your oxygen 27! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit generator? You had better send a crewman to repair it quickly, or it’s game over. And even after you repair it, you must remember to turn it back on. Ship fire? The good news is that you can open your ship’s airlocks and doors to drain the oxygen out of the room, suffocating the fire. But if you don’t remember to close the doors, you’ll suffocate your crew instead. I hate it when that happens. Fortunately, you can pause the game at any time to plot your course of action. To up the ante, you’re in a constant struggle for limited resources. The single currency of the game is Scrap, which is used to upgrade and repair your ship, buy new components, buy fuel, and hire new crew members. You obtain Scrap from random events and from defeating enemy ships in battle, either destroying them or accepting their surrender. Fuel is another source of tension. You use one unit of fuel every time you jump between systems. It’s a wise idea to buy fuel where you can find it, because it can become scarce later in the game. Run out, and you’ll be stranded in space, forced to wait for a passing merchant or enemy ship. Or even worse, the Rebel Fleet may catch up with you. The game’s universe is split into sectors, each containing a number of solar systems. You must jump from system to system to reach the next sector. Each system has the potential for opportunity or doom. You could happen upon an abandoned hulk to strip for Scrap; find a store where you can buy supplies, upgrades, and crew members; or stumble across a hostile ship. As you jump through systems, the enemy fleet approaches from the left side of the screen, taking control of the systems it passes over. If you cross paths with the fleet, you’ll be forced to do battle, but you also don’t want to rush through the systems, as you’re going to need as many upgrades as you can buy. Battles happen in real time. Your ship appears on the left of the screen, the enemy ship on the right — fortunately you’ll never have to fight more than one ship at a time. Early on, combat is simple: power up your weapons, take aim at the enemy ship’s systems, and systematically destroy them. My advice is to target enemy weapons first. Once disabled, the enemy can’t damage your hull, which costs precious Scrap to repair — and thus hampers your ship’s upgrades. Another tip is to fire your weapons together as a volley, since that increases your chances of breaking through enemy shields. Later in the game, enemy ships come equipped with teleporters, so you can expect to be boarded. Once on your ship, enemies attack your crew and sabotage your ship’s systems. Boarding parties are one of the toughest challenges for new players, but I have some tips to help. First, upgrade your doors to blast doors early on. Doing so costs only 20 Scrap, slows down the spread of fires, and most importantly, boarders will have to cut through a door before opening it, slowing them down. Second, pause the game as soon as they board, send as many crew members as you can to the Medbay, and then open every door on the ship except for the Medbay, including airlocks. This will suck the oxygen out of the ship except for the Medbay, which in turn drains the enemy’s health. By the time they open the Medbay doors, their health will be low, and they’ll have to contend with a room full of your crew, who are constantly being healed by the Medbay. Third, save up your Scrap, and eventually you’ll be able to afford a teleporter to board the enemy’s ships yourself. Destroying enemy ships often yields Scrap, but sometimes also weapons, fuel, and additional crew members. Unless it’s a Rebel Fleet ship. Fleet ships are incredibly tough, and the only reward for defeating them is one measly unit of fuel. Your best bet is to disable their weapons and teleporters until your FTL drive charges up, and then make a run for it. In general, if a fight isn’t going your way, go ahead and jump. I also advise upgrading your engines as early and often as possible, because that helps your FTL engines spin up faster, and you’ll dodge more attacks as well, making engines even more valuable than shields, which don’t protect against missile attacks. 28! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit ! If you’re skilled and lucky enough to make it all the way to the end, you enter the Last Stand sector, where you must destroy the Rebel Flagship before it gets too close to the Federation base. Or so I’m told; I have yet to get that far. FTL is a tough game. In fact, FTL might as well expand to “For The Loss,” because you’re going to die… a lot. But what I love about FTL, as opposed to more scripted games, is that its complexity and randomness lead to potentially great stories you can share. The FTL Forum is full of them. You teleport a boarding party to an enemy ship, but it jumps away with your crew. You run out of fuel, and manage to fight your way through the Rebel Fleet until you can reach a store. Or maybe, just once, you manage to defeat the Rebel Flagship and make it home alive. I purchased FTL during a recent sale on Steam, Valve’s much-loved gaming service, for a measly $2.50. However, if you can buy the game direct from the developer during a sale, I think it’s actually a better deal. They give you a code to redeem on Steam, but they also include DRMfree copies of the game for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and later, Windows, and Linux (sadly, it’s not yet on iOS). In addition, the developers receive more of the purchase price. Outside of sales, FTL retails for $10 — relatively pricey in the App Store era, but still highly worthwhile, as given the dozens of hours of entertainment it offers. Reuse governed by Creative Commons license. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit www.tidbits.com. 2 1 1 2 1 0 2 0 1 3 3 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 3 3 1 2 1 0 2 1 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 1 0 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 0 2 0 1 3 3 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 2 3 2 3 3 3 1 0 1 2 1 1 0 1 3 1 2 3 1 3 2 1 2 About Us e Silicon Mountain Macintosh User Group, Inc. (a nonprofit educational corporation) was formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1985, and is one of the oldest Macintosh User Groups in the United States. SMMUG, Inc. is dedicated to helping members enjoy and learn about their Macintosh computer, iPhone and iPad devices. Club membership is open to everyone and you are cordially invited to visit our free monthly General Meeting on the First ursday of each month, at 7:00 PM. For those new to the Macintosh, we have a Question & Answer session at 6:00 PM, where our collective expertise can help answer your questions. All members receive a monthly newsletter, published on our web site, see great reviews of software and hardware, can participate in the monthly door prize drawing, or get access to the club software library. Each member gets one vote during annual Officer Elections. No corporate memberships are granted. 29! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Silicon Summit ! HOW TO FIND US SMMUG Meetings are held on the FIRST Thursday of each month at the Colorado Springs Senior Center at 1514 North Hancock. It is at the end of Hancock on the south side of Patty Jewett Golf Course. (indicated by the RED BALLOON on the map). Ample on-site parking is available. Smoking is not permitted on the premises. September '13 Membership Application Form September '13 Membership includes monthly meetings, monthly newsletters, member assistance, vendor discounts, attendance at Special Interest Group Meetings, and participation in drawings and raffles. 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