Apple preparing to pull Aperture from the Mac App Store

A recent update to the official Aperture website points to the end of the pro app. On the product page Apple has stated that “When Photos for OS X is available this spring, Aperture will no longer be available for purchase from the Mac App Store”. We were warned that this day would come during 2014’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) where Apple briefly showed on stage Photos for OS X – the successor of both Aperture and iPhoto.

Photos for OS X is the desktop counterpart to the Photos app that ships with your iOS device. Just like its mobile version, the software will have built-in support for iCloud Photo Library – Apple’s solution to storing all of your photos and their non-destructive edits in the cloud and making them available on all of your devices. In terms of functionality, we expect that Photos for OS X will be a suitable replacement and even an upgrade for iPhoto users, but may leave professional photographers and fans of Aperture disappointed. In addition to the built-in features, the app will also serve as a system-wide platform for photo manipulation by allowing OS X and iOS developers to create photo extensions which can be used directly inside the Photos app.

In terms of visuals, Photos for OS X feels at home in Yosemite thanks to its flat and translucent interface. The app’s layout is very similar to its iOS counterpart – you have all of your photos organized into Moments, Collections and Years. The Shared and Albums tabs are also present and allow you to organize the photos you’ve taken and view images shared by your friends and family. A new addition that’s only available on Photos for OS X is the Project tab, a place where you can create slideshows, calendars, photo books, cards, print orders, etc.

The new desktop application is expected to ship this spring with the release of Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.3, most likely during a special event where it will be demonstrated on stage once again. Apple recently released its first beta of 10.10.3 to developers and Photos for OS X is indeed present.

Even though the introduction of the desktop Photos app marks the end of Aperture, The Loop reports that Apple has no plans to discontinue their other pro apps – Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro. So you need not worry if one of those two apps is critical to your workflow – they’re not going anywhere. If you’re a photographer, on the other hand, you may want to look into alternatives to Aperture like Adobe Lightroom. While the current version of Aperture does work on Yosemite and will continue to do so after it’s retired, there are no guarantees that it will support the next major version of Apple’s desktop operating system.

After recent update Wi-Fi issues continue to plague OS X users

Ever since the official launch of Mac OS X Yosemite in October 2014, numerous users have been plagued by Wi-Fi connectivity and reliability problems as evidenced by the lengthy thread in the Apple Support Communities forum. Currently there are 2,570 replies to the thread and over 834,000 views. Even after the releases of OS X 10.10.1 and the recent 10.10.2 system update, both of which contain Wi-Fi improvements, many Mac owners still do not have fully functional machines.

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10.10.2 OS X update that acknowledges a Wi-Fi Issue / Fix

The issues reported range from a noticeable lag and a reduction in Wi-Fi speed to an outright lack of connectivity. While we have not experienced such problems on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, others have been much less fortunate. Macworld’s Karen Haslam recounts the challenge she was facing as she was trying to apply the 10.10.2 system update to her MacBook Air while having a non-existent Wi-Fi connection. Hers was a particularly dire situation since MacBook Air model don’t come with an ethernet port, so the main way of going online is via Wi-Fi. She managed to update her laptop by using her iPhone’s LTE connection over USB. Unfortunately, 10.10.2 did not remedy her Wi-Fi woes.

So is there a solution?

If your Wi-Fi has been unreliable since you upgraded to OS X Yosemite and you’ve tried the different suggestions found in Apple’s Support Communities, it may be worth wiping your Mac and installing a fresh copy of Yosemite.

It is always a good idea to do a clean install of new operating systems, rather than to just upgrade your existing one since all kinds of files and preferences get carried over and not all of them are beneficial. In fact, if you’ve been upgrading your operating system for a few generations already, your Mac will be slower than expected, will have suboptimal battery life and may experience odd glitches and reliability problems.

Unfortunately, with each new release of OS X, and especially after the introduction of the Mac App Store back in the beginning of 2011, Apple has been making it increasingly difficult to perform a clean installation of Mac OS X. If you decide to go down this route, we strongly recommend that you install OS X Yosemite directly, rather than using the installation media or recovery disk that came with your MacBook.

While doing a clean Yosemite install is possible, it requires some extra steps. For an easy to follow tutorial on how to create a USB thumb drive containing the OS X installer, check out guide here. Alternatively, you can perform Internet Recovery which doesn’t require additional hardware. A step by step tutorial can be found here.

How to perform a clean install of Mac OS X using Internet Recovery

Clean install of Mac OS X to Speed up your Mac. If your Mac feels sluggish and experiences random crashes and glitches, it may be worth wiping your disk and starting over with a fresh install of Mac OS X Yosemite.

This will be especially beneficial if you haven’t done so in recent years.  Most people opt instead to upgrade their setup to the next version of Apple’s desktop operating system through the Mac App Store. This can slow down your mac.  While upgrades preserve your personal files and media, they also preserve other data and settings which negatively impact the performance, battery life and stability of your Mac.

In this guide we will use Internet Recovery to install a fresh copy of OS X on your computer. Check out our guide on how to make an OS X recovery USB drive if you’d like to recover OS X using a flash drive instead.

Performing a Clean Install via Internet Recovery:

Pros:

  • Straightforward
  • Doesn’t require additional hardware

Cons:

  • Requires a valid Apple ID
  • Requires a Wi-Fi connection, preferably a fast one

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Let’s start:
  1. Start up your Mac.
  2. While you’re hearing the boot-up sound, press and hold the Command key and the “R” key on your keyboard. Continue holding the two keys until you see Apple’s Recovery setup.
  3. You’ll be greeted by the OS X Utilities screen. Choose Disk Utility.
  4. Select your hard drive from the list on the left and click on the Erase tab.
  5. Enter a new name for your hard drive and format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Press the Erase button to wipe the drive.
  6. Close Disk Utility and proceed to install Yosemite.
  7. Choose the newly formatted disk, enter your Apple ID and password when prompted and wait for the installation to complete.

Since Internet Recovery downloads the full 4GB Yosemite installer right then and there, expect the process to take an additional hour or so, depending on your network speed and the load on Apple’s servers.

Best document scanner for Mac

Today most companies are asking us to go paperless and help the environment. Likewise many Mac users are seeing the benefits of going paperless themselves by scanning their important documents: bills, family records, copyrights, patents, insurance policies, identification paperwork, taxes and more. There are somethings you just can’t afford to lose, so in case of fire or theft, it’s always good to scan documents to a secure hard drive or cloud service.

Not to mention the fun part of scanning – going paperless! No more boxes of paperwork, bills piling up on the kitchen counter or forgetting where you put your car insurance information. When you scan your documents you can keep them organized and searchable. Let’s take a look at the best document scanners available for Mac.

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for Mac

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  • Blazing 25ppm color scanning
  • Two sided scanning
  • USB or Wi-Fi connection to a computer
  • PC & Mac Compatibility

Hands down the ScanSnap iX500 is the most popular wireless document scanner on the market today. For starters it’s technology lets you scan a document to your computer or smart device. Imagine being able to wirelessly scan an important document to your iPhone or iPad and more. It scans business cards all the way up to A3 size paper. You can also generate editable PDF files, for example if you wanted to sign a document or mark bills paid. The main benefit to this scanner is it’s two sided scanning capability and speed. It’s the fastest you can buy. There are no complicated buttons making it the easiest to understand and use. Additionally the unit folds up for when it’s not in use. Some are put off by the price at ($417 USD), but when you compare it to similar models, it has a lower price range but has the most features. Not to mention if you use this in a home office on a regular basis it will pay for itself.

NeatConnect Cloud Scanner and Digital Filing System for Mac

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  • Scan your important info straight to the Cloud, purchase includes 3 free months of NeatCloud (available for a nominal monthly fee after initial trial expiration)
  • Scan in receipts to create expense reports and searchable databases
  • Scan in business cards to capture information, send info to address book, sync contacts with your phone
  • Scan in documents to create searchable pdfs, capture editable text, organize your digital files
  • Send scanned items as attachments in one easy step right from NeatConnect to email, DropBox, Evernote, ftp, Box.com, etc

This is the best looking personal document scanner we could find but it generally only gets 3/5 stars on most review sites. The NeatConnect Cloud Scanner helps you scan and keep your documents organized. The product comes with a 3 month trial of the NeatCloud subscription, after that you’ll have to pay for the service. If you like the idea of having your documents scanned to the cloud, then this is the scanner for you. Many looking for an online scanner or app scanner end up turning to this document management system. Theres even a mobile app available that lets you download and view your documents on the go. If paying for the subscription doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, we recommend you scan directly to DropBox – the popular way to store and share files online. Additionally you scan to email if you prefer. To scan to your Mac you’ll have to use a USB cable as it is not wireless capable. For ($427 USD) this is a capable document scanner with a lot of cloud features. If you must have wireless scanning you can try the latest model which offers both the cloud and wireless functions but at a higher price ($499 USD).

Brother Printer ADS2500W Document Scanner for Mac

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  • Scans up to 24ppm B&W and Color
  • Network Connectivity – Wireless and Ethernet. Scan to Cloud, USB flash memory drive, Android phone or tablet, E-mail server, FTP, Network, PC/Mac (Image, OCR, E-mail and File).
  • Simple, intuitive user interface with 3.7-Inch Color TouchScreen
  • High quality color and mono scanning up to 600 x 600 dpi (optical) / 1200 x 1200 dpi (interpolated)
  • TWAIN, WIA, ICA, and ISIS compatibility enables easy setup to scan documents into a variety of applications

The Brother ADS2500W Document Scanner features a bright color touchscreen display, wireless connectivity, cloud scanning, duplex (two-sided) scanning and OS X compatibility. It includes Presto! PageManger for Mac that lets you merge files and monitor your scanned documents to help you get the most out of the scanner. As with most of these document scanners you don’t have to use included software but it’s nice if you like to try the advanced options available to you. At ($599 USD), it’s hard to suggest this scanner over others but if you are used to or familiar with the quality of Brother products this could be for you.

Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S80 Color Document Image Scanner for Mac

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  • 40 ppm, 80 ipm scan speeds1; scans both sides of one sheet in just one pass
  • 75-page Auto Document Feeder
  • Front control panel with up to 10 user-definable scan jobs including scan-to-PDF, email and more
  • Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S80 Document Scanner – 48 bit Color – 16 bit Grayscale – 600 dpi Optical
  • Mfg #: B11B194081

The best feature of the Epson WorkForce Pro high volume document scanner is the 75-page auto document feeder. If you have to scan a lot of documents at once this is the product for you. It doesn’t allow for wireless scanning but what it lacks in that area it makes up in others. It should be called the WorkHorse because it lets you customize everything from resolution to file type and can scan up to 1800 documents per day. If you are dealing with financial or legal documents this scanner should be given some thought. At ($664 USD), it’s considered the most expensive but it is meant for a heavy workloads.

Bottom Line

There you have it the most popular document scanners for Apple computers. If we had to pick the most versatile all-around document scanner to buy it would be the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500. The ScanSnap has the speed, wireless functionality and most importantly ease of use. As we mentioned before going paperless, by scanning your documents, frees you from paperwork and helps you and your family create a secure place for your important life documents. These document scanners are especially important for people who work at home or run a business and need to know how to scan a document. Have you bought a document / receipt scanner recently? How has it affected your business or productivity?

Apple reportedly agrees to security inspections by the Chinese Government

A rumor was sparked recently with an article published in The Beijing News and later covered by IT World where an anonymous source claims that Tim Cook has agreed to have Apple products be subjected to spontaneous inspections. Those inspections would have the goal of verifying that there are no backdoors and that the data stored on Macs and iOS devices is indeed secure.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook met with the head of China’s State Information Office Lu Wei last November to discuss Apple’s products and the Apple Watch in particular as well as China’s security concerns when it comes to Apple and its software and hardware. The anonymous source cited in The Beijing News article has revealed that Tim Cook had openly stated: “We do not, and will not provide a back door”, while Lu Wei has insisted that “We need to draw conclusions, so that consumers must be assured”. In the end, the Cupertino CEO is said to have agreed to spot checks that should:

Ensure information security and privacy of users, while maintaining national security.

While we have no solid evidence that Tim Cook has agreed to such inspections, it is not as outlandish as it may sound. Even though letting Chinese government officials in on Apple’s secrets is a big risk due to China’s lax copyright law enforcement, the Chinese market is a crucial one for the Cupertino company’s long-term success since it provides a lot of potential consumers and is projected to grow in the next several years. So in that sense the rumor falls into the realm of possibility, if not probability.

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For the last few years Apple has been pushing to increase its appeal to the Chinese market in every way they can – from just recently opening their largest Apple Store on the Asian continent in Hangzhou, China, to releasing new products in China on the same day as Apple does in the US, to introducing new Siri languages and features aimed directly at the Chinese consumers such as the addition of Baidu as a search provider, an improved Chinese input method, a new dictionary, sharing capabilities to the Sina Weibo microblog as well as the Youku and Tudou video sites.

So what are the implications if the alleged agreement turns out to be true? The bad news for Apple is that it will be sharing private code and internal hardware designs with multiple Chinese officials assigned to investigate its products until they are satisfied that there are no backdoors or other unwanted software that endangers the consumers’ privacy. The silver lining, at least for us consumers, is that such an investigation will add a layer of transparency to Apple’s internal procedures and possibly reassure us that our data is secure.