Review: Tannoy DC8
One of the oldest names in British hi-fi, Tannoy is currently part of the Danish TC Group and is probably best known for its unique Dual Concentric single-chassis two-way drive unit technology, which first appeared way back in 1948. This £2,500 per pair DC8 is a simple two-way design and the smallest of three Definition models.
As the name suggests, an eight-inch (200mm) Dual Concentric 'double drive unit' is at its heart, firing a 25mm titanium dome tweeter with 'tulip waveguide' horn-loading through the centre of a 145mm flared paper bass/mid cone with a conventional rubber roll surround.
A bonus of the construction, of course, is that the tweeter is automatically well protected from prying fingers. The crossover network components have received Deep Cryogenic Treatment (DCT), which involves cooling key components slowly to around -190 degrees Centigrade, then restoring them equally slowly to room temperature, a process believed to relieve micro-mechanical stresses created during manufacturing.
Twin terminal pairs are fitted for bi-wiring or bi-amping and internal wiring is silver-plated, high purity copper. A fifth terminal allows the driver chassis to be earthed to the amplifier, to reduce RF interference, though in practice five-conductor speaker cables are very hard to find. A large port is also mounted on the narrow rear panel.
Although the shape is rather unconventional – significantly taller and shallower than usual – the enclosure has notably clean, contemporary lines and is beautifully finished in real wood veneer or black, all covered in good-quality high-gloss lacquer.
A wide silver trim ring around the driver and a shaped silver strip across the lower edge provide decoration and the grille is held in place by concealed magnets. The carcase is actually made from birch plywood and extensively braced. The sides are strongly curved towards a much narrower back, so that reflections and internal horizontal standing waves should be pretty well dispersed.
Sound quality
While the DC8 didn't top the lists, it did settle unanimously into a solid and second place in the listening tests. Speed and timing were its particular strengths and the voice balance was also considered very natural.
Dynamics are lively and involving and music is reproduced with genuine passion, but also a measure of coloration in the lower registers. Above all, this is a fun loudspeaker, if not a strictly neutral one and the good size main driver undoubtedly helps bring fine expression to the party.
Tannoy's Dual Concentric approach has several significant consequences. One panelist correctly identified its 'point source' precision and it was abundantly clear that this speaker has unusually good coherence and a seamless crossover transition, with a lively and open presence band.
Furthermore, because the horn-loaded treble radiates as a 90-degree cone, with narrower treble dispersion compared to conventional direct radiating designs, the relative amount of room-reflected treble is somewhat reduced, so the stereo imaging is exceptionally precise, with good depth perspectives.
Not without character, this is nevertheless a fine loudspeaker, which looks great and does most things very well.
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Review: Spendor SP2/3R2
Spendor arrived on the scene at the beginning of the 1970s, bringing a strong BBC heritage along with a number of interesting innovations that its competitors arguably didn't fully appreciate. One of the most significant among these was a radical approach to enclosure design. The theory goes as follows: building an exceptionally stiff structure might serve to reduce the amplitude (ie relative loudness) of cabinet vibrations, but it also increases the frequency at which they occur, so that the enclosure coloration tends to occur in the midband where human hearing is most sensitive.
The alternative Spendor approach, originally inspired by the BBC's desire for accurate speech monitoring, is the 'thin wall' cabinet approach, backed by heavy damping pads, which pushes the cabinet wall vibrations down into the bass region where they're considered less intrusive.
Although that technique sounds simple enough, in fact these enclosures are rather harder to make than the thicker variety. The Classics are just one of Spendor's ranges and make every attempt to recreate the physical characteristics of those 1970s' models, albeit using more modern materials and manufacturing techniques.
This /3R2 variation is the latest version of the SP2 and is the middle model among five Classics. The shape, size and presentation are all nostalgically similar to its 1970s ancestor, so it's a quite large two-way standmount, finished in cherry veneer on all six faces and with the baffle and grille recessed behind a 'picture frame' formed by extending the enclosure sides.
Set halfway up (or down) the front, in between a large port and the tweeter, the bass/mid driver has a 210mm frame and a transparent plastic cone 150mm in diameter. The tweeter is a relatively new and usual design, used in several recent Spendors. Described as a '22mm wide surround' type, in fact the central dome measures around 19mm in diameter, while dome-plus surround totals 34mm.
Twin high-quality socket/binder terminal pairs are mounted directly through the rear panel, feeding silver-plated copper wiring and a crossover network with highgrade components.
Sound quality
We weren't all that surprised when the SP2/3R2 comfortably and unanimously topped the listening test rankings. We'd already given the various models a quick listen while carrying out the measurements necessary to determine where best to site them and that had provided strong clues that the Spendor would do well.
The paeans of praise recorded by each panelist actually became a little repetitive, at least two individuals reckoning that this was a speaker they could happily live with, especially in the way it handled all six very different tracks without fear or favour. This is also a speaker that knows how to rock.
The bass could perhaps be tauter, tighter and punchier, but the overall timing and coherence is excellent, which is what matters most.
Some potential purchasers may be put off by this speaker's old-fashioned presentation, but I daresay others will welcome the nostalgic appearance. And anyone who takes the trouble to listen will surely appreciate the sonic superiority that justifies the thin-wall enclosure approach.
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In Depth: New motherboard tech: key advances explained
What kind of motherboard do you have exactly? Do you in fact know much about it? When specifying a system you probably start with what processor to buy, followed by the graphics card, memory and drives you want. It's at this point you probably pick a suitable board with enough ports and slots to plug it all together.
The trouble is that processors are rapidly gaining functions, and since Intel and AMD make the motherboard chipsets too, what's left for the motherboard techies to work on to create compelling boards?
As long as a board supports the chip and memory combination you've got in mind and has a sufficiency of SATA and USB ports, who cares?
Mobos used to be arcane beasts, and blowing one up wasn't that difficult. Components could be plugged in backwards and there were jumpers and DIP switches that required a manual and some experimenting to work your way around. There were no software utilities to play with and no two boards appeared to be laid out in the same way.
USB 3.0: Intel still hasn't included native USB 3.0 support so NEC rules the roost
These days they are robust, easy to use and designs are mature and fairly uniform. What, then, is there left for them to add to the mix?
Speeding up your system was once a secret craft but is now a major feature of what the manufacturers like to call 'enthusiast' motherboards. And a good job too, given the way the processors are still sold running at less than full tilt. Not attempting to unlock some of that extra oomph would be a criminal waste.
Enthusiast boards from the main players all come with an array of software and hardware tools for the job. These overclocking abilities have long been the major battleground between the top motherboard players, each producing specialist overclocking or gaming boards with suitably grandiose names, often bristling with other specialist silicon and elaborate cooling arrangements.
Speed demons
Asus makes a wonderful claim of being able to permanently unlock up to 37 per cent more performance (which sounds suspiciously like a figure plucked from the air, but whatever) thanks to its TurboV Processing Unit (TPU).
This custom chip moves parts of the processor-intensive overclocking task from the processor to itself. It reduces the loading spike caused by overclocking: "Hit apply and our chip takes the loading away, enabling you to push even further", says Asus. The TurboV software then enables you to overclock within Windows without tedious restarting. "Feel the adrenaline rush of real-time OC", it says here.
The TPU also gives access to automatic overclocking. We tested this in our Asus P7H55-M motherboard review and were not overly impressed with its timidity, but it is fool-proof and stable.
MSI also has a custom chip dedicated to over-clocking through OC Genie, which can operate completely in hardware. This auto-detects the overclocking potential of your processor and memory and you simply push a button on the board and bingo, in about five seconds it has run through the possible timings and voltages available and found the highest stable settings (in theory). MSI reckons that "nobody else has anything quite as good as that." Another one that's great for the overclocking noob.
OC GENIE: MSI's one-button overclocking tool is one of the most effective around
Gigabyte is another major player with a name for overclocking boards, it claims to be "the No.1 motherboard for unlocked performance." Quite. It has an array of software and BIOS goodies and makes great play of its high-quality components, including solid capacitors, ferrite chokes and MOSFETs (metaloxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor).
It's also proud of the fact that its top boards use two ounces of copper, there's even a bizarre YouTube video to illustrate this. Apparently most use about half that.
Getting stable overclocking is partly down to being able to supply steady and accurate power levels, components such as these matter than you start stepping outside design parameters. The top boards from all these players can make a good job of overclocking.
Chips can be unlocked and you've access to all sorts of arcane voltage and frequency multipliers, through the BIOS, custom hardware and specialist software, but as MSI's spokesman confided "It's difficult to say which board is best for overclocking as to a large degree it really depends on the person doing the overclocking. We've tried to make it as easy as possible for people uncomfortable with changing voltage settings."
Basically all the decent boards give you enough tools for playing with voltages, in one way or another, so that it largely comes down to your experience and the quality of the processor and memory how much you can wring from your box.
Playing the green card
The other feature that gets the big shout out is going all green and reducing the power consumption. Lets ignore the obvious irony that this is pulling in the other direction to the other big-sell of overclocking for a moment. The way to save power is to turn things off or down.
A lot of this technology is built around PWM, Pulse Width Modulation. If you remember your basic electric circuits (you do don't you?) then the easy way to reduce current is to add a resistor. If you wanted variable power then you popped in a rheostat. Trouble is this wastes power (in the form of heat).
PWM circuitry basically just switches the power on and off very quickly, effectively reducing overall draw without wasting energy. PWN fans are pretty commonplace now, but the system can be applied to other components.
MSI has its DrMOS, which is a three-in-one MOSFET, which makes great play of reducing temperatures as well as power consumption, although the two do go hand in hand.
Asus has its Energy Processing Unit or EPU chip. This monitors and controls power to all the major components, turning them off or down as it sees fit.
Gigabyte has a similar power saving tech, and another three letter acronym, DES, which stands for Dynamic Energy Saver. This turns off unused voltage regulators. The board can have as many as twelve but rarely uses more than ten under load. DES is one of the better systems as it selectively turns off the voltage regulators individually.
It should be noted that most motherboard's green features are about tapping into the abilities of other components. Controlling a fan, or throttling back an Intel chip for example. It's about the control of parts not required all the time, rather than inherent power reduction - which probably tells us something about the difficulty of reducing the motherboards own power requirements.
There are some wildly optimistic claims made about power saving, and some statistics that are clearly best possible case scenarios - 80 per cent was quoted to us. This is clearly so much balderdash and poppycock. Ten per cent might be more like it.
Decent energy saving – like capable overclocking – requires hardware support and another custom IC on board. We can expect the power-saving capabilities of boards to be pushed further, with many fanfares no doubt, as better control chips are added.
There are limits of course, there is only so much you can turn off.
The new Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) looks like it is finally going to become mainstream on PCs (it has been around on Macs and servers for yonks). If you get one of the new Intel P67 boards for Sandy Bridge then you'll encounter it.
UEFI: UEFI BIOS pretties up the blue screen we have all come to loathe
UEFI looks very different to the blue screen BIOS we've come to know, you can use a mouse for a start and it has colourful screens.
UEFI is largely written in C rather than Assembler (although at the core there is a little to get things going) and is a completely different proposition to the traditional BIOS, which is expecting to see a 16-bit processor with 1MB of memory and dates from the IBM AT.
Technically the big gain is the new Globally Unique IDentifier Partition Table or GPT for short. This enables you to boot from drives over 2.19GB, about time because drives long since passed that landmark. This is the one big immediate practical benefit.
UEFI can be easily extended: it is in effect a miniature OS of its own that isn't tied to any specific hardware. It can have hardware drivers, utilities, diagnostic tools and all sorts added in.
You could, for example, run a system back-up utility from within UEFI and also access a network. It can load code from attached hardware, so your graphics card could add a screen into the BIOS for direct control, for example.
The UEFI is one area where the board guys can, at relatively little expense, add value by enabling easy access to all the features, set-up profiles and so forth. It can go a little too far though, the first version we saw from MSI included the game Breakout on it, bizarre. Still MSI promises that it'll be continuing to "spice up the BIOS".
Enter the P67
Given that motherboard features are so directly linked to the main chipset, the release of a new set of silicon from Intel is a big deal, and means a whole new set of boards all round.
P67 HEAVEN: The current top P67 motherboard, Asus Maximus IV Extreme
Intel's latest is the H67/P67, is a sixth generation chipset designed for the Sandy Bridge processor. The H67 is the budget version, or 'affordable' as the marketing people have it, while the P67 is more fully-featured offering.
The good news includes two SATA 6Gbps ports to accompany the four SATA 3Gbps ports. Plus, for the P67 at least, two PCI-E x8 slots. You'll also get UEFI, of primary importance if you want to run nice big hard drives as boot devices. Still no USB 3.0 though, although you do get up to 14 USB 2.0 ports, which should just about be enough we think. It's up to the manufacturers then to add the extra silicon for USB 3.0.
Intel has decided to severely limit overclocking on Sandy Bridge, with just about everything locked to the base clock including USB, SATA, DMI and PCI-E. This base clock is generated by the P67 chipset, so you don't get an external clock the board guys can program directly. Plus, since everything is locked together, turning it up can cause unexpected consequences, apparently even a modest increase can cause the USB or SATA to fail. Ouch.
There will be a K-Series version that will have an unlocked CPU multiplier, but for most versions it will be locked down.
Early results with the K-series have at least been promising, 5GHz has been widely reported. This lockdown is bad news for the board guys, overclocking is where they can score points with you and off each other. So obviously it has to be done, and it will. No motherboard manufacturer can afford to be left behind in the overclocking arms race.
Getting an unlocked multiplier on all versions looks like the best option, leaving the base clock alone and avoiding complicated asynchronous systems which may or may not work. We shall see, as Intel has claimed to lock chips before, only to earn our gratitude by not implementing it (as with Lynnfield).
Intel appears to swing backwards and forwards on overclocking, one minute it releases chips you can easily pump-up, and the next it tries to call a halt to the whole game. Intel wouldn't want to send the overclockers running to AMD would it? This is the commonly used threate by irate overclocker on forums at least.
Motherboards come with impressive lists of features, complete with logos and fancy names, but in fact there is precious little between the best offerings aimed at the desktop market. Each manufacturer watches for new developments and trends and when one produces something extra, the others aren't far behind.
This is what you would expect from a mature technology market: Intense competition, rapid turn-over of technology, which requires continuous investment, and the economies of scale have cut the number of big players in the general PC market to a handful. If any fall too far behind the curve then they will soon fall out of the running altogether.
All in all
As MSI puts it: "We've got to the point now where we've thought of most things people want to do with their boards, and now we are trying to make those functions easier to use, and more efficient."
MILITARY CLASS: The different mobo capacitors, and assorted silicon, makes for a rich battleground
Asus sings a similar tune: "With the current level of technology available in the chipsets provided by the chip vendors, it's becoming increasingly difficult for motherboard manufacturers to offer differentiating factors."
Basically AMD and Intel control the processor, the motherboard chipsets and the board layout. Adding features over and above those available via the main chipset means adding new silicon to the board, and that means expense. You can't get too fancy or you'll price yourself out of the running, but you can't afford to be left out either.
For the serious tweaker then the same differences in overclocking technologies is of interest, some are better here or there, but for much of the market boards have become remarkably uniform.
So where can we go from here? Motherboards will always have to carry the BIOS and physically connect everything and supply the power. For some sections of the market we have increased integration, bunging everything onto the board to make complete systems by just adding a processor and drives and off you go.
Other boards, aimed more at the enthusiast, will always stress flexibility and the ability to be customised and configured as required. There will always be a market for the insane LED-strewn gaming board, carrying extra, and expensive, silicon.
And there we have it, a handful of top manufactures trying hard to differentiate themselves with little to work on, and a lot to lose if they fall behind. Each new chipset sends them all back to the labs, and if any feature looks decent then they all implement a version of it.
The market is fierce, but it has kept those left in it sharp. Which is good news for us, as they compete to produce the best tools to squeeze every last performance point out of what's on offer.
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Review: Dynaudio Contour S 1.4
The Dynaudio Contour speaker ranges have occupied Dynaudio's middle ground for many years. We previously reviewed ancestors of this Contour S 1.4: a Contour 1.3 way back in 1993 and its MkII successor in 2001. But the latest S-type variations with their shield shaped metal front driver mounting panels look considerably different from those earlier Contours.
That 5mm-thick metal alloy front baffle, which at its top stands slightly proud of the box, is certainly the S 1.4's most visually distinctive feature. Together with the inverted driver layout, this very much dominates the appearance, creating a uniquely interesting and individual aesthetic.
Certainly it should ensure fine mechanical integrity. Furthermore, the varying width will reduce baffle-edge diffraction effects and the overlap will allow an enclosure that's less than 190mm wide accommodate a 170mm bass/mid driver.
Furthermore, the whole baffle/driver assembly is decoupled from the enclosure proper via a lossy gasket, while the optional grille is attached magnetically.
The unusually slim enclosure is beautifully finished in a wide range of alternatives, including four realwood veneers, plus high-gloss black or white, or satin silver. The rear panel has a large port and the whole speaker sits on a little plinth, which houses the crossover network and single terminal pair.
A classy Esotec-type tweeter with a 28mm fabric dome diaphragm is mounted below a 170mm bass/mid driver, which uses a 115mm plastic diaphragm-driven from a large 75mm voice coil.
Sound quality
The Contour S 1.4 sounds rather different, with an overall character that one of our panelists found particularly appealing, but which was rather less to the tastes of the others.
This speaker is certainly a little more laid back than other speakers, yet its essential sweetness and good voicing is undeniable. Stereo images are well presented and transients sound suitably coherent, though sibilants could sometimes be a touch obtrusive and the sound as a whole seems a little constrained and lacking in warmth.
Its most controversial sonic feature is a function of that rather too healthy mid-bass port output, especially in conjunction with the laid back upper mid and top end. With some material the combination can be very convincing, making the speaker sound significantly larger than its physical dimensions would lead one to expect, bringing an impressive sense of scale to, for example, choral material.
However, bass guitars and drums on rock tracks do have a significantly 'thumpy', resonant quality that's less welcome. Although it has many good points, the success of this attractive loudspeaker may ultimately depend on how well its substantial port output interacts with the characteristics of the listening room.
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Review: Cayin SP-30S preamp and SP-40S power amp
Cayin is the brand name of Zuhai Spark Electronic Equipment Co. – a Chinese company making good-value, high-end electronic products. The unashamedly retrolooking SP-30S and SP-40M tube pre/power amp is one of its tastier offerings, with the promise of excellent performance at a realistic price. But, what should one expect from an amplifier like this? It used to be oh-so simple; tube amps sounded rich, warm and friendly, while solid-state types were lean, mean, and bitingly sharp. But can you still rely on the old stereotypical categorisations? Will the Cayin conform to type, or is it a wolf disguised in sheep's clothing?
No hum
The SP-30S is a nice simple preamp built around three tubes – 2x 12AU7 and 1x 12AX7. It offers three unbalanced line inputs plus a phono stage. There's a fixed output for recording and two variable outputs.
Facilities are minimal; just a volume knob and dual-lever input selector. It's encouraging to see a phono stage as part of the package – though this is for MM pickups only, with an input sensitivity of 3mV. If you want to use the SP-30S with a low-output MC pickup, you'll need an MC step-up transformer or pre-preamplifier.
Noise is pretty low (-68dB) and there's no hum to speak of. The SP-40M is a stereo power amp based around 4x KT-88 output tubes, producing 40 watts per channel with one per cent distortion at 1kHz.
It has a single pair of inputs and a single set of loudspeaker outputs with transformer taps for four ohms and eight ohms. Additional tubes include 2x 12AU7s and 1x 12AX7.
The choice of different loudspeaker output taps is fairly common with transformer-coupled tube amps. It enables you to match the amplifier to your loudspeakers. The 'correct' impedance is the one that gives the loudest volume level. So, if the eight-ohm tap sounds louder than the four-ohm one, that's what you should use – in theory.
However, even with eight-ohm speakers, it's worth trying the four-ohm tap. You'll lose a bit of power, but the sound may have a bit more control – a slightly firmer quality that makes voices and instruments seem better-focused. Used on the four-ohm setting, we noticed precisely this difference with the Impulse H1 horns used for this review.
Fairly beefy
Both pre and power amp are built on a steel chassis/case with a wooden sleeve surround. The preamp circuit features a single mother board, with normal printed circuit tracks.
The power amp is hard-wired, which helps improve sound quality. The brushed aluminium front panels are well-finished and the volume knob is made from solid aluminium giving a classy feel. The wooden case is around 175mm thick and has an attractive semi-gloss lacquer that reminds us of a Japanese Urushi finish.
Internal build quality is good, with minimum amounts of wiring and the use of high-quality components, including an Alps potentiometer. Admittedly, there's nothing to make you gasp with amazement, but neither is there anything to cause disquiet or disappointment.
The transformers used seem fairly beefy – the SP-40M weighs in at a hefty 20kg – and decent transformers are the key to excellent performance with tube amps.
The Cayin is basically a safe tried-and-trusted sort of design. There's nothing fancy or clever about it – the company hasn't attempted to reinvent the wheel here. Both instruction books contain full schematic diagrams of the amplifier's circuits – a nice 'retro' touch.
Schematics were common in the 1950s and 1960s, when many of those buying hi-fi were electronics engineers who wanted to see what was under the bonnet. It also meant they could service the amplifier themselves, should something fail.
For those into 'retro' looks and styling, Cayin also offers a matching CD player – the SP-CD300 costing around £1,450 – that goes with the SP-30S/SP-40M combination. Cayin also offers products with more modern styling at price points above and below those occupied by the items reviewed here.
More bite
We began by listening to the SP-30S preamp on its own – using it in place of our regular Musical Fidelity kW Pre tube/transistor hybrid. The MF combines valves with solid-state to (hopefully!) deliver the best of both worlds.
The Cayin sounds smoother and a mite less bright than the MF, though it isn't soft or unfocused. While the MF has a bit more bite and attack, the smoothness of the Cayin is both beguiling and deceptive. It's just as detailed and dynamic, albeit with a rounder, more relaxed quality.
The musical presentation is wide-ranging and articulate, but not in a manner that draws attention to itself – a 'classic' tube sort of sound. Some tube preamps produce a very rich euphonic tonality that creates an impression of ambience and space. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in a loss of focus and drive.
Although the SP-30S is tonally smooth and open, it has a taut crisp immediacy that keeps the music on its toes – sounding direct and purposeful.
Having established the preamp's sonic signature, we then connected the SP-40M power amp, substituting it for a Musical Fidelity kW tube/transistor power amp.
The Cayin is less powerful than the MF (40 watts against 750 watts), but subjectively the all-tube design more than held its own at 'normal' volume levels. The power amp delivers a similar quality of sound to the preamp.
It offers comparable smoothness and integration, being slightly less sharp and immediate than the big MF, but nonetheless focused and articulate. Natural and unexaggerated sums up the sound of the Cayin SP-30S and SP-40M. It's not, perhaps, an immediately impressive amplifier – it doesn't wow you with an arsenal of tricks and effects. It just gives you the music in a balanced and intelligible form.
The more we listened to this amplifier, the more we liked it. With the SP-30S/SP-40M, Cayin has created something that's very inviting and comfortable to listen to. It's precise, tidy and controlled, yet at the same time doesn't sound bland or boring. It gives you the music cleanly, without adding false spices and colours of its own, while bringing out the natural timbres and tonal subtleties.
The presentation is detailed and informative, yet easy-on-the-ear and very unfatiguing. Being a tube amp, a certain amount of heat is produced – but not excessive amounts. The preamp barely gets warm at all, while the power amp runs surprisingly cool given the use of four KT-88s in a fairly confined space.
At 40 watts, power output is limited, but subjectively the SP-40M punches above its weight and sounds more powerful than its paper specifications might indicate. This is partly due to the bass, which is firm and solid; full and nicely voluminous. Tonally, there's a smooth natural warmth that creates an impression of fullness and power.
Hot and sexy
The amps represent very good value and make an excellent choice for anyone seeking a good affordable tube amp that offers something special, without costing silly money.
Of course, there are dearer, more glamorous alternatives to entice you. But don't overlook what's on offer here. If certain other brands offer you the sonic equivalent of a seductive femme-fatale, this Cayin represents a loving faithful wife who provides companionship, comfort, support and also (when necessary) a bit of excitement, too! It's an amplifier we could very happily live with. 'Nuff said!
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Tutorial: 10 cool things you didn't know your Mac could do
The number of cool things you can do with your Mac will probably surprise you. For example, did you know you can use it to catch a burglar, take over somebody else's Mac or even save the world? Yes, it's all true! Here we'll show you some of the cool tips and tricks the MacFormat team have picked up over the years, using Macs day in and day out. Of course, seasoned pros will know most of these tricks, but we expect there could still be a few in there that will surprise even the most gnarly old Mac expert.
So, let's start our little tour with a look at how to turn your Mac into a home-security camera.
1. Catch a burglar
See that camera leering at you from your Mac? Well it's got more uses than just making FaceTime calls or taking amusing pictures. It can keep a watch over your house while you're out.
Using an app such as EvoCam ($30), you can use the camera as part of your home security system. Another option is SecuritySpy (from £30).
Then there are apps such as iAlertU (free), or Lockdown (free) that sound an alarm and take a picture if someone meddles with your Mac, so they'll be put off and you'll know who it is.
It's a great way of protecting your kit if you're somewhere public and you've had to leave your Mac alone for a moment (of course, you'll have locked it down with a Kensington lock too, won't you?).
2. Create stopmotion classics
Sure, if you wanted to create a stop-motion movie, you could buy software such as iStopMotion, but in fact you don't have to spend a penny.
Set up your stills camera on a tripod pointing at your scene, take a picture, move your characters, take another, repeat.
If you want to take a time-lapse film, connect your camera over USB, open Image Capture (in Applications), choose File > Take Picture. Tell it how frequently you want a shot taken.
Once you have your image sequence, launch QuickTime Player 7 choose File > Open Image Sequence, choose a frame rate and click OK.
3. Turn it into a retro games machine
Most Mac gamers know the joys of digital download services, such as Steam, but few are aware of the Mac-emulation scene. Thanks to emulator programmers such as Richard Bannister, you can play classic games of yore from just about any platform you care to remember.
While emulation software is perfectly legal, the issue of acquiring game images, or 'ROMs', is murky. Some developers permit fan sites to host releases no longer on sale (such as www.lemon64.com), but other archives operate under the hazy rubric known as 'abandonware'. Be wary of your sources and use them at your own risk.
OS X offers support for many USB game controllers, but drivers are needed to use an Xbox 360 gamepad. You can find one here.
4. Plug in and use any scanner
Your Mac can scan without installing any software, by doing it directly from Preview or Image Capture.
First of all, plug in your scanner. To scan using Preview, from the File pull-down menu, select 'Import from Scanner' and choose your model of scanner. A scanning window opens, from where you can do a preview scan, select an image format, scan in colour, black and white or text, set the resolution and more. You can even correct the brightness, tint, temperature and saturation.
Scanning through Image Capture is very similar. Open the app, and a connected scanner should appear in the side bar. Select your scanner, and it works in exactly the same way as scanning through Preview.
If you don't need comprehensive controls, both applications have a Show/Hide Details button that toggles between a full control window and the bare minimum of settings for a quick and easy scan.
5. Use it without a mouse
The mouse (or trackpad) has been integral to Apple and its OS pretty much since the year dot, but with a few smart keyboard shortcuts, you can do a huge amount on your Mac without going near it.
Aside from the obvious keyboard shortcuts that you'll see listed next to menu items, meet the application switcher. Press Command+Tab to bring it up. Hold down Command and press Tab repeatedly to cycle through your open apps; add Shift to move in the opposite direction.
That's all well and good for switching between programs, but if you've got several windows open in a single app - say a couple of Pages documents - press Command+' to cycle through the open windows. And if your web browsing's built around tabs, press Ctrl+Tab to cycle through these in Safari. As with the application switcher, simply include Return to flick through them in the opposite direction.
When you're navigating your files and folders in Finder using the arrow keys, you've no need to move your hand anywhere to open anything. Pressing Command+Down Arrow opens whatever you've got selected, while Command+Up Arrow opens the next folder up in the hierarchy.
And if your Mac's set to open each folder as a new Finder window, you can override this by holding down Option as you press one of the above commands, which will close the current window as the new one opens.
A few other shortcuts that are worth knowing about are Ctrl+Eject to bring up the Sleep/Restart/Shut Down dialog, and Ctrl+F3 or Command+F3 to access different Exposé features.
6. Take over somebody else's screen
How many times have you had a call from somebody who owns a Mac and needs your help? If you're anything like me it happens quite often. It would be so much easier if you could actually see their screen, so you could know exactly what they were talking about.
Well, you might not know it, but all Macs have the built-in ability to look at, and take over, somebody else's Desktop! So long as you're both on the internet and running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later, all you need is iChat.
Fire it up, then start a chat session. The next thing you need to do is get them to choose 'Share My Screen from the Buddies' menu. You'll then have the ability to control their Mac using your keyboard and mouse - it's so easy!
During screen-sharing an audio chat is initiated automatically, too, so you'll be able to talk them through any changes you're making.
7. Automate actions
Everyone forgets about Automator, the application that lets you automate repetitive tasks. It works by clicking together actions into a chain of events.
Look at the Library of Actions at the left of the Automator window and you'll see that they're split into categories, which are grouped by type. Say you want to recreate a Workflow; we use a lot to prepare CMYK images in various formats, into RGB JPEGs. We start by defining which files we want to convert; do this by specifying a range of files manually using the options in the Files & Folders library, or by effectively running a Spotlight search looking for specific types of file.
Next, drag in whatever Action you want to apply to those files defined in the first step - you'll see that the steps 'link' together to remind you that these workflows are chains of dependent steps. After converting to JPEG and applying the RGB ColorSync profile to change the colour space, we've used the very helpful 'Rename Finder Items Action' to force a JPG file extension.
Whatever Workflow you create, you can run it from within Automator, or save it as a self-contained application (File >Save As). You could, for example, have a rule set up in Mail to trigger an Automator app or script so you could have your Mac at home perform actions by sending yourself an email.
Finally, remember you can save Workflows as plug-ins for Finder, Folder Actions and more, so that you can run them by right-clicking on files or even just dropping files into a particular folder.
8. Use it as a dumb hard drive
If you connect a MacBook to another Mac by a FireWire cable then hold down T while you start it up, then it boots up into a special FireWire Target Disk Mode. You can now effectively use it as a removable hard drive, which is ideal if you need to transfer files from one Mac to another, or if you've got a problem that prevents the original Mac from booting properly.
With the FireWire port not being included on the latest range of Apple's MacBooks this cool tip is falling out of favour, but it can still be a lifesaver for older white MacBooks, iBooks and MacBook Pros. Make sure you disconnect all other FireWire devices before you attempt this tip though, and remove any firmware passwords first.
9. Save the world!
Do you want to join the fight against cancer? Or perhaps you'd like to help look for aliens? Believe it or not, you can do both with your Mac. Distributed computing projects let you put your computer's spare processing power to good use.
The project organiser's server downloads small amounts of information or 'packets' to your Mac over the internet. Your machine then processes this packet and returns the results to the server.
Projects include Folding@home, which analyses the way proteins fold and has already advanced our understanding of how cancers begin. And SETI@home looks for signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence by analysing radio telescope data.
10. Doing your maths homework
Forget that expensive scientific calculator in your bag, chances are your Mac is all you'll need to solve those tricky problems. You probably know about the Calculator app, but did you know you can use it in scientific or programmer modes?
Use the View menu to choose how it appears. If you just want to do a quick calculation, you can type it into the Spotlight search bar instead of launching Calculator - how cool is that?
And here's the really good bit - hidden away in Applications/Utilities is a little app called Grapher. This will draw you 2D and 3D graphs in a number of formats. Just select the one you want, type in your equation, press Return and your line or plane will appear instantly.
It does a whole lot more besides, including integrals and differentials, should you need them. When you're done, save, print or export as an image.
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Apple under pressure over 30 per cent subs cut
Anti-trust regulators in Europe and the United States are investigating the fairness of Apple's decision to take a 30 per cent cut of all in-app subscription payments.The company, which launched the service last week, will stop magazines and newspapers linking out to external websites and insist that all subscription collections go through the App Store.
That means that Apple will be able to pocket 30 per cent of the selling price while, from June 30th, content providers will be banned from offering consumers a better deal on their own websites.
Pressure is now mounting on both sides of the Atlantic for Apple to think again about the 'subscription tax'
Is it fair?
There are two issues that publishers deem unfair and unlawful. The first is the size of Apple's slice of the pie and secondly the closed system that forces customers to buy through them.
The announcement has the trade police banging on Apple's door with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the Federal Trade Commission is examining whether Apple's actions break anti-trust laws.
In Europe, the International Newspaper Marketing Association warned that "publishers simply can't afford to invest in new technology, products and services when the platform charges them 30% of total revenue."
The group has called for an official investigation.
The consensus seems to be that the levy is a bit drastic, but then the App Store does offer a fantastic opportunity for publishers to push their content in a new medium to a new audience. Perhaps a compromise is in order, but we certainly can't see Apple willingly entering into such an accord.
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Is Apple planning to make televisions?
A job posting on Apple's website suggests the company may be looking to bring its brilliant display tech to full-blown television sets.Cupertino is currently advertising for someone to work on "Apple's next-generation Macintosh platforms spanning from notebook computers, desktop computers, servers, standalone displays, and TV."
The posting which is specific to "new power management designs and technologies" has many speculating the Apple might be preparing to enter the television game.
Apple TV for real?
The hype obviously arises from Apple's use of the word "TV" in the job description but, while it's fun to speculate, it would be difficult to see Apple entering an already-congested gogglebox market.
We'd hope for continued upgrades to the affordable, yet feature-shy, Apple TV set-top box.
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Buying Guide: Best gaming headset: five pairs on test
If you love playing games but there are other people in the house/office that would rather not be subjected to the sounds of your speakers cranked up to 11, then you should invest in a pair of gaming headsets.But which are the ones to buy? Here, we've taken a look at five of the best gaming headsets for 2011.
1. Sony DR-GA500 - £100
Web: www.sony.co.uk
Sony seems to have taken a leaf out of the Mass Effect design book with its headphones, which look like something Commander Shepard would wear while bouncing around the galaxy.
They're designed specifically for PC gamers, and they ship with a relatively large digital signal processing unit, which connects to your sound card or USB port. I'm not convinced by the ability of a stereo connector to deliver a 7.1 channel output, as Sony claims.
According to Sony's blurb the unit narrows the sound field, too, so that subtle sounds such as footsteps are enhanced whereas explosions are muted. It wasn't a hugely noticeable effect, though.
The DSP box of tricks is impressive, but you would probably be better off investing in a decent sound card and headphones for the money. What's more they're not hugely comfortable, especially when you feel your skull crack slightly upon putting them on.
Verdict: 63%
2. Logitech G930 - £132
Web: www.logitech.com
Logitech's headset has rapidly become my favourite cans of all time and not without reason: It's a wireless headset that actually works. The sound is incredibly clear and expansive, with subtle bass and a nice wide treble.
The technology of Logi has actually managed to get surround sound working on it, as well. They're rather weighty, but even weight distribution means that they are never uncomfortable.
Like Microsoft's Sidewinder, they can be charged while you're using them, and unplugged when they're full.
There are a couple of minor issues, however. The buttons on the side only occasionally seem to let you control Windows media centre, and the sound sometimes cuts out for a few seconds very.
Other than that, though, this is a pair of cans that actually deserves the high price tag. If you can afford them, you can't afford to miss them.
Verdict: 90%
3. Sennheiser PC333D - £100
Web: www.sennheiser.com
USB soundcards are all the rage these days, and every headset in our round-up comes with one. Sennheiser's is the of the smallest of the bunch, consisting of a mere switch to enable Dolby, and the ubiquitous mic-in and headphone-in ports.
The headset itself is comfortable to wear, and one of the cups handily bends back at an angle so you can actually hear what's going on in the real world. A nice tight fit means that background noise isn't too much of a distraction, and the mic is clear and doesn't pick up too much ambient chatter.
The only problem is that at £100 these are massively overpriced for what they offer. All the steel-looking bits are actually plastic, the cable is low-grade and that USB sound card can't have cost much over £10 to make.
If they were about £60 they'd be worth picking up, but at the moment they're simply too expensive.
Verdict: 82%
4. Sharkoon XTatic - £106
Web: www.sharkoon.com
This is a bit of an oddity from Sharkoon. These cans are marketed as a headset suitable for both consoles and PCs, provided they have SPDIF optical audio outputs. It takes the optical output, and converts it into 7.1 sound before chucking it out to the headphones.
It sounds like a great idea on paper, but my PC - and most in PCF towers - don't have optical outputs. They have digital coaxial out, yes, but there's no option to connect Sharkoon's headsets via that popular format. You can connect it via USB, but it seemed to merely generate a crackly mono signal. A totally missed opportunity from Sharkoon, then.
As comfortable and well-made as the headphones are, if there's no way to connect them to a 3.5mm jack or coaxial source, they're going to be fairly useless to most PC gamers. Unless you buy a sound card, which kind of negates the point.
Verdict: 57%
5. Creative Sound Blaster Tactic - £54
Web: www.creative.com
PC Format magazine was filled with high hopes for Creative's latest headset attempt. It was a chance for the sound expert to redeem itself after its risible WoW headset. After all, its Fatal1ty headset is still going strong and still sounds great.
The Tactic 3Ds are the cheapest in our test and they do feel slightly plasticky. There's the unusual decision to hollow out the 'phones, which means that putting them on is akin to holding a seashell to each ear. It means that certain background noises - such as clacking keyboards - are weirdly accentuated and echo.
The mic isn't great, either, and it didn't generate a very high volume. Installing software usually sorts these problems out, but Creative's Control Panel failed to do anything other than crash.
A shame, because these are the most bargalicious cans on test, and THX approval actually counts for quite a lot - when it works.
Verdict: 76%
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Review: Audiovector Ki 3 Signature
The Ki-series is relatively new and also relatively inexpensive by Audiovector's standards. The Ki 3 Signature are the sole floorstanding models in a range that also includes a standmount and home cinema oriented variations.But each Ki-series model comes in three versions – Standard, Super and Signature – with superior engineering features as one moves up the ladder.
We've chosen for this review the £1,890 per pair top-of-the-ladder Ki 3 Signature, but a key Audiovector feature is the option to upgrade from the base model to those higher up the hierarchy.
Unconventional performer
All three Ki 3 variations share the same basics, which are themselves somewhat unconventional. The unique upgradeability has already been mentioned, but no less interesting (if a little more common) is the quarter-wave bass loading this model uses.
It's a relatively unusual technique that has something in common with tuned-column and transmission-line loadings, but in this case the shape of the tapered column behind the drivers leans significantly towards horn-loading. A handful of speaker companies have adopted this approach in recent years, the most prominent being Castle Acoustics with its 'twin pipe' models.
The Ki 3s have just the one internal quarter-wave column, which forms a V at the bottom front edge and is created by a partition set at a narrow angle so that it stops well short of the top and roughly bisects the depth. The partition, therefore, creates a rather narrow horn behind the two bass/mid drivers, with a very small 'slot mouth' created between the enclosure base and the plinth.
Three driver two-way
The two identical main drivers are 130mm units, allowing the enclosure to have an exceptionally slim front view. They operate in tandem right up to the 3.2kHz crossover point and feature 90mm diaphragms made from a woven mix of glass and carbon fibres, impregnated, sealed (and damped) within a polymer matrix.
The tweeter has a transparent 25mm woven fabric done, driven from a neodymium magnet with high-viscosity ferro-fluid damping. This Signature version exclusively uses rubber grommets in the mounting to isolate it mechanically from the cabinet above 2.5kHz.
The crossover network is a deliberately simple, minimalist affair, as care is taken to optimise the drivers to make this possible. It's fed from twin terminal pairs, permitting bi-wiring connection or bi-amp drive.
The enclosures are nicely finished in a choice of four real-wood veneers (cherry, black ash, rosewood and maple) – a silk white paint finish is available at extra cost.
Besides the decoupling tweeter mounting, the other feature exclusive to the Signature Ki 3 is a so-called Superstand – a neat, if rather small plinth. Nicely shaped and finished in silver, it does extend the stability footprint a little. Crucially, however, it incorporates a leaf spring in the fixing for the front spikes, so mechanically decoupling the speaker from the floor.
Another feature, this time shared with the Super version, is extra reinforcement for the front and back panels. The top half of the front panel, where the drivers are mounted, is laminated with an extra silver-painted panel 8mm thick; the back is laminated by a shaped and much thicker (up to 24mm maximum) panel, again painted silver but extending the full height of the enclosure.
Needing some space
The Ki 3 came with the confident recommendation that it should be used fairly close to a wall, in order to provide some mid-bass reinforcement. This didn't entirely correlate with our far-field in-room averaged response measurements, which indicated that free space actually gave a marginally flatter overall response.
However, wall reinforcement only showed a mild excess and was actually preferred subjectively. That's probably because the quarter-wave loading seems to be inherently less resonant than the more common reflex ported approach – it certainly sounds that way. Best subjective results under our conditions were obtained with the backs of the speakers about 30mm out from the wall.
The main driving system comprised a Naim NAC552 preamp with NAP500 and NAP135 power amplifiers, driven from Naim CDS3/555PS and Rega Valve Isis CD players, as well as a Magnum Dynalab MD106T FM tuner. Vinyl record players included a Linn/Rega hybrid using a Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge. Cables were from Naim, Phonosophie, The Chord Company, TM Systems and Vertex AQ.
Smooth operator
First impressions did reveal some limitations, in both bass weight and dynamic expression. But this speaker also shows a smooth and even overall balance, a wide dynamic range and good basic coherence.
Stereo imaging is particularly good, with very little evidence of boxy effects, and very fine central focus. Furthermore, while the bass might lack some ultimate weight and scale, it does possess the liveliness and clean, crisp character associated with quarter-wave loading, which is musically more useful.
According to the designer, the Ki 3s were designed: "to be used as both traditional hi-fi speakers and as party speakers," and they were equally at home with heavy electronic stuff and more familiar material from English-speaking bands like Tool, System of a Down and Audioslave.
While the Ki 3 shows good loudness capability and handles plenty of power without distress, its mild upper-mid forwardness is happier operating at low and medium volume levels than playing appropriately heavy material at 'party' levels. It can certainly do the latter, but the consequences tend to be an aggressive rather than a comfortable experience.
This is a speaker that does a very good job of disappearing, sonically speaking. It might have certain limitations in terms of dynamic vigour, and doesn't really offer the grip and tension one might find with a larger speaker. It could also do with a little more sweetness and transparency at the top end of the band, but the good enclosure control means that the actual dynamic range and coloration levels are both low.
On balance, Audiovector's Ki 3 is rather impressive. Its super-slim front and suggested near-to-wall location certainly makes it a very attractive and discreet package. The taut, tight and clean bass is a particular joy, underpinning a generally smooth, if somewhat forward tonal balance.
The sound is basically free from coloration, with fine stereo imaging. The only significant criticisms are that the sound is a little small in terms of weight and dynamic expression and can become aggressive when playing at high levels. And a somewhat larger plinth would certainly improve the overall physical stability.
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Review: Emillé Ara integrated valve amplifier
Emillé takes its name from a giant, ornate bell that is considered a national treasure in its native Korea. Its range of well thought-out integrated, pre/power amplifiers and phono stages is entirely valve-based and has worn commensurately high-end price tags up until now. The £2,450 Ara is not exactly cheap, but is comfortably Emillé's least expensive integrated amp ever and targets a rather more accessible and competitive price point.
The good news is that there is little sign of cost-cutting. The Ara is built in the same factory as the larger amplifiers and there is little sense at any stage that this is a 'poverty spec' product.
The valve complement differs from the rest of the range and, in fact, differs from most other valve amplifiers on the market. Alongside a relatively normal choice of 6922 valves for the preamp section, the Ara makes use of four 7591a valves for the power section instead of the more usual choices of EL34 or KT88. These endow the Ara with an output of 22 watts at credible distortion levels.
While not a huge amount of power, the 20-watt boundary is an important one in terms of system-building and gives the Ara the ability to work with speakers with sensitivity in the high 80s, as well as more specialised 90dB/w plus designs.
Input innovation
The other very interesting feature can be found nestling unobtrusively on the rear panel. As well as a pair of RCA line inputs, the Ara is fitted with an SP/DIF and a USB input. This is not something we have ever seen before on a valve amp and makes the Ara rather more flexible in connectivity terms than might otherwise be expected.
The digital board is entirely solid-state and makes no use of any additional valves. The feature set is rounded-off with a headphone socket and remote control for the volume. Slightly limited number of analogue inputs aside, this is a well-specified product with considerable flexibility in how you might go about using it.
Aesthetically, the Ara is designed in the Emillé house style. Two large knobs serve as the power switch and input selector, while the central knob is the volume control. A full-sized covering cage is supplied to protect the valves which does make the Ara respectably childproof.
We tested without the cage in situ, as we preferred the appearance, but given the cage is included in the asking price, it is a useful thing to have.
Fit and finish is also very good. Controls move with a precise and solid feel, the panel gaps are minute and the connections on the back are high-quality and rock-solid. If the Ara was a 'normal' valve amplifier with only analogue inputs, it would be good value.
With the unique options afforded by the digital inputs, it looks more like a bargain – depending, of course, on how good those digital inputs are, more of which later.
No stereotype
Starting by listening to the standard analogue inputs, the Ara makes a convincing case for itself. There is no sense of excessive warmth or bloom to performance or any other stereotypical 'valve sound' traits.
The Ara has an incisive, detailed and fabulously real presentation. There is no softening of frequency extremes or flabbiness in the bass which allows the Emillé to demonstrate superb timing that is better than many solid-state amplifiers.
The Ara makes good use of the 22-watt output and should generate all but the most ballistic of listening levels from speakers of reasonable sensitivity. At the same time, there is a sense of space, air and presence to vocals and instruments that is hard to realise with anything other than a well designed valve amplifier.
Vocals, in particular, are staggeringly well presented, never separated from instruments or their surroundings, but completely attention-grabbing and placed perfectly in a wide and believable soundstage.
Given that the digital input board on the Ara represents the company's first attempt in the field of digital reproduction, we were not entirely sure what to expect. The USB is not an asynchronous type and neither will it handle hi-res formats, but it connects correctly to both PCs and Macs and proves silent and stable in use.
More importantly, the performance is excellent. The overall sonic balance of the Ara is unchanged by the digital inputs which is superb achievement. There is something surreal and yet strangely satisfying about seeing the Ara turn in the same superb performance it does from the analogue inputs, from a laptop playing your iTunes collection.
There is always a sense that performance of this nature ought to be something that entails more fiddling around or sacrifices in convenience. The Ara rejects this thinking entirely.
Lossless files
The electrical digital input is if anything, even better. A fair amount of listening was conducted with the unlikely partnership of an £80 Pure i-20 connected digitally to the Ara. This duo proved a very happy one.
Fed on a diet of AAC lossless files, the Ara loses none of the captivating detail and timing from this compact source and the 21st-century slickness of the iPod interface sits brilliantly with the retro tech of the Ara. CD proved equally satisfying.
Superb value
The digital inputs are an interesting feature. If you are using a high quality standalone CD player, the Ara will have to be considered as a two-input amplifier with a digital board that might prove useful going forward. If you are considering a more wholesale upgrade to your system, the Ara is superb value for money.
If the performance over the analogue inputs is to your liking, the digital inputs offer sound quality comparable to most £1,000 sources and allow the connection of streamers, iPod docks, or a CD player with a digital output.
The Ara is a superb amplifier and the combination of well implemented 'old' technology and latest thinking is one that we like very much and highly recommend.
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Tutorial: Apple Mail tips and tricks to help you work smarter
Life without email is now hard to imagine. Luckily, your Mac comes with a great little program to send and receive emails and there's a lot of power lurking behind its friendly interface. We're going to help you unleash some of this, to help you work better, faster and smarter with your daily email, leaving you with a few extra minutes to concentrate on other tasks.
Firstly, let's tailor the toolbar to your needs. Right-click it and you'll see an option to Customize Toolbar. This drops down a window with all the buttons you can add – there are plenty to choose from. Simply drag and drop the ones you need to build your perfect toolbar. If you decide you'd rather have the original one back, drag the set at the bottom onto the toolbar to restore it.
You can also decide if you'd like the buttons to appear as icons, text, or both. You'll be amazed at how much time you can save by having your frequently used commands close to hand.
If you've got several email accounts, you can add each one by going to Preferences > Accounts and clicking the + button. With a lot of accounts, you won't even need to type in server details, because Mail will work them out for you.
Most people end their emails with some sort of signature, which is a useful way to have your contact details, website address and more in one place. Signatures are account-specific, which is great if you've got both your personal and work addresses set up – you don't need to remind your family of the fact you're the managing director when you send them your holiday photos!
In Preferences, click Signatures, select the account you want to create the signature for, and click the + button. Give it a memorable name, and enter the details you want in the text frame. You can even use an image.
Then tick the Place signature above quoted text box, so that it doesn't get lost below any emails you reply to. Add as many signatures as you like. Use the Choose Signature: dropdown to pick which is the default, or to have a random one chosen each time. When you next compose an email from this account, your signature will appear, or use the Signature menu to pick another.
While we're in the Compose window, did you know you can customise its toolbar as well? Right-click it in the same way you did in the main Mail window. And then there are the fields at the top: do you ever wish there was a Bcc line there? Click the little menu below the Subject line and choose Customize… to tailor the window to your needs.
If you've got more than one account set up, you'll see a From: drop-down there as well. By default, your emails will come from the account you were viewing when you clicked Reply or New Message.
Now, those of you who have a large screen might be interested to know you can open multiple Mail viewer windows. This is a great way of monitoring two accounts at once.
To open an additional window, press Option+Command+N or go to File > New Viewer Window. Now, here are more ways to work smarter with email…
How to work better with your emails
1. Optimise your viewing options
Unread messages need to stand out, so go into Preferences, click Viewing and tick Display unread messages with bold font.
At the bottom of the Viewing pane, you'll see a Message threading option – tick this to highlight related messages in your inbox. Say you've invited some friends over for dinner by sending a group email – when you click one reply, it will highlight all the others in your inbox, helping you spot them quickly.
Use the colour box to determine what shade is used. Beware, however, that Mail's way of linking messages in this way isn't always perfect, so it may end up highlighting messages with the same subject line, even if they're unrelated. For this reason, we suggest you don't use this feature to actually group messages together (which you access via View > Organize by Thread).
Use the top drop-down in the Viewing Preference pane to set up what headers you see when you receive mail – that's the From, Subject, date and other details at the top of a message. If you frequently find yourself needing to see routing information, for example, use the Custom option to specify what you see.
2. Rules, rules, rules
If you receive lots of email, keeping on top of it takes time. Rules can help by automatically performing tasks on mail as it comes in, based on criteria you set up.
Say you're subscribed to several mailing lists for theatres and cinemas in your area, and you get a couple of messages from each list a week. Most of these won't be time-critical, meaning you don't need them cluttering up your inbox, but you'll want to go over them at your leisure later.
You can set up a rule that says all emails coming from certain addresses should be moved to a given folder. Rules can be as simple or complex as you want, so you can build yourself a sophisticated filtering system that helps you sort the wheat from the chaff.
To create rules, go to Preferences > Rules and click Add. You can choose whether to apply them retrospectively as well. If you find things are ending up in the wrong places, tweak the offending rule to make things work how you want.
3. Smart mailboxes
Smart mailboxes group messages together if they match certain criteria. You might wonder what the point in them is when you can create rules. But smart mailboxes don't move the email, so it remains in its original place.
These mailboxes can include messages from any folder, including Sent. Editing a message in a smart mailbox alters the original. Say your business gets lots of emails from customers, as well as advertising and other messages.
It's important you reply to each customer message, so set up a smart mailbox to display all the mail sent to your customer service address that hasn't been replied to. As you work through the list, they'll disappear from the smart mailbox, but you'll still have them stored safely.
Smart mailboxes have their own unread count. Set one up in Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox….
4. Fight the spam
No matter how careful you are about giving your email address out, the odd unwanted message can still find its way into your inbox. Most email providers screen mail before it comes to your Mac, but Mail has its own system to complement that.
Go into Mail's Preferences and click Junk Mail, then tick the top box to switch on filtering. Below, decide what you want Mail to do when spam comes along. If you don't get much, it's best to leave the top option selected.
You can also choose to exempt messages from people in your Address Book, or from those you've previously conversed with. If you find yourself inundated, select the third radio button and then click Advanced… to set up more sophisticated rules.
It may also be worth ticking Filter junk mail before applying my rules, so that junk mail doesn't find its way into your other folders.
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Review: Okki Nokki JB1 record cleaning machine
Okki Nokki distributor Ken White has been selling second-hand records since the nineties, so he knows a thing or two about filth, enough it would seem to have sought out this strangely named machine and decided to bring it to the UK. It's certainly priced right at £395 – we don't know of a cheaper alternative that has built-in vacuuming capabilities and the ability to spin in both directions. Not only that, but it comes complete with concentrated cleaning fluid and a goat's-hair brush. The name, incidentally, is Dutch for 'thumbs-up'.
Float on
The true test of a record cleaner is how well it achieves its aim and how much effort is required to do so. But that's not all, there is also the question of reliability.
A lot of cleaning machines need to have their reservoirs drained quite frequently – as often as every eight to ten records – this is because excess fluid will eventually work its way into the vacuum motor and damage it if not removed.
One very useful feature of the Okki Nokki is that it has a float mechanism, that stops it operating when the fluid needs to be drained, so there's never any danger of water getting into the motor. Which given its electrical nature, has got to be a good thing.
Operation is via two switches: one for forward/reverse and the other for suction, but first you need to dilute the cleaning fluid in a litre of condensed water and then pour a little back into the bottle which has small spout for ease of use. Inconveniently, this bottle has no lid so needs taping-up. The fluid itself is soap rather than alcohol-based and doesn't require rinsing.
Sucking-up to vinyl
The Okki Nokki is rather attractive in its white finish and it's not too big. More importantly, the vacuum motor isn't excessively noisy and does the job quickly. It's not as well finished as the Hanns Acoustics RC20 we looked at last year and doesn't look or feel quite as solid, but it's substantial enough for the job, even if the clamp is a little basic.
The supplied brush is good quality and parts like the suction arm are very nicely executed, alternative length arms for seven- and ten-inch discs are available, as are replacement velvet strips which stop the tube damaging the vinyl.
Another useful option is a dust cover at £49.95 – the last thing you want is dust on the foam-faced platter.
Scrubber
The cleaning process is pretty straightforward and once you've done it a couple of times, it's not too slow either; you can do what it suggests in the manual in about a minute per side. With dirty records, this process needs to be repeated up to three times and it's necessary to scrub for a bit longer than the indicated two revolutions.
The result is that vinyl sounds relatively 'fresh' because the highs are clearer, which not only adds sparkle to the treble but brings greater definition across the range. Both an ancient Nina Simone album and a more recent Joni Mitchell one benefited quite obviously and curiously, a second clean proved worthwhile, even if the law of diminishing returns had started to kick in.
It also gets rid of some sources of noise such as pops and clicks, not the ones caused by actual damage of course, but by larger deposits of detritus.
Keep it clean
There is no such thing as a record cleaning machine where you put a dirty record in at one end and get a clean one out at the other, they all require a fair amount of elbow grease.
The Okki Nokki works as well as any we have tried, but costs less and has a safety feature that should stop users from inadvertently damaging it. Record-cleaning is not the most fun you can have with your clothes on, so an affordable machine that makes it painless is very welcome indeed.
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Review: Bryston BDP-1
The engineers at Bryston have made the radical decision to build the BDP-1, a digital music player that doesn't stream music from a computer. Their angle is that streaming is bad, but digital music files are not. Is this then a brief diversion from the tidal onslaught of streamed music over solid software, or it could signal a new angle that brings us music files without the complications of streaming.
Bryston's approach is to let you access music files stored on USB drives, be they thumb drives or hard drives which you stock up with music on the computer and then plug into the player.
Drive on
This approach is already available on a number of the streaming devices we have seen and does mean you can avoid the occasional glitches of wireless streaming, but it also makes getting new music a bit more cumbersome, albeit not significantly more than the traditional disc in a draw system that we have enjoyed/endured for so long.
The BDP-1 has four USB inputs, the two on the front being for flash drives or powered hard drives, while the two on the back can power any attached drives. The idea is that you hook up larger terabyte drives to the back panel for a full collection of music and play new pieces with thumb drives through the front sockets.
You can't transfer data from one drive to another and each time you connect one it has to be scanned by the player so that it can update itself and show you what's on there.
There are a number of ways to find what you want to play, out of the box you can navigate via the front panel display (this is not a large thing so you need to be close to it in order to read it) and you have to be close to it to scroll through it with buttons on the facia.
The BDP-1 does not come with a remote control, that's an optional extra, but there are other control options. One is to drive it from a computer using an add-in for Firefox called Minion and the other is to download an app called mPod onto your Apple touchscreen device be it a Pod, Pad or Phone. Both these latter routes require an Ethernet connection between the player and your router, a connection that one would have thought could easily be used to stream through.
We used the mPod app on an iPod Touch and found that it was easy to install and intuitive to use if a little slow to respond, but that's something you get used to. What takes a bit of familiarisation is the operating style of mPod, which is clearly geared toward playlist style use.
If you have a track playing, for instance, and then choose another one, the system will let the first track finish before starting the next unless you press the next key. You can choose to play all the tracks on an album in sequential or random order, or do the same with a whole directory – that is the contents of a given drive.
It's not up to usual iPod usability but comes close enough and you can show album art or a track listing but not change volume, the BDP-1 doesn't have an analogue output let alone level control.
Signal is output via one of two electrical digital outputs that don't include a RCA phono socket, but rather opt for the technically better but less common BNC connection – the BDP-1 is more a digital transport than a player.
Data delivery
Bryston is renowned for the build quality of its products and offers a five year warranty on digital products. The BDP-1 is built much like one of its preamplifiers with a solid aluminium front panel, clear two-line display and steel casework. It has pretty minimal socketry for four USB devices, Ethernet, digital outputs, RS232 connection and voltage triggers.
The controls are much like those on a CD player except for the addition of the four navigation buttons which let you find your way around the attached drive(s). In technical terms, it's ability to play files up to 24-bit/192kHz puts it among the leaders in the music file game, but this is something that can be achieved with a computer via USB and, in both instances, you require a DAC that can accept this density of information.
Bryston says the system's advantage is that it accepts raw data from a USB drive which means jitter is not an issue, but it's hard to see how the data sent from an attached drive differs from that streamed from a remote PC or hard disk, in both cases jitter only becomes an issue when the signal is converted to SPDIF or AES/EBU and sent to a separate DAC.
This is why streamers from Naim and Linn have onboard converters and these are the products that the BDP-1 has to beat. Naim's Uniti is an all in one streamer/CD player/DAC and amp for £2,100, while Linn's Majik DS is £1,840 and doesn't have USB, but does include a DAC and volume control.
Engaging results
The BDP-1 does sound good when paired with Bryston's £1,950 (HFC 316) BDA-1 DAC, but then that's a pretty good DAC in its own right, nonetheless the 'player' is capable of pretty engaging results with all manner of music and we could easily have whiled away far more time than was available listening to familiar pieces and a selection that distributor PMC had supplied on a terabyte drive.
Once you have familiarised yourself with mPod, it's quite a pleasurable driving experience as well, the software's playlist mentality means that the latest selection will be added to the list of tracks to play rather than take over from what's currently on, but you can jump to the desired piece with ease.
It lags slightly when compared to a CD in a regular player via the same DAC, with the disc having a lighter touch and less 'glare' around treble sounds, cymbals for instance have a slightly unnatural brilliance with the BDP-1. But taken on its own the BDP-1 is quite convincing, it can deliver the dynamics, atmosphere and scale of a full-on orchestral piece, as well as the finesse and delicacy of more subtle music.
It reveals the advantages of hi-res files quite well too with Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances revealing a lot of its soundstage depth and huge dynamic swings. There is an appealing fluidity to the result that's uncommon with digital sources and while you wouldn't mistake it for a turntable (it's basically too quiet for that) there is something of the analogue in its sound that keeps you listening.
Next to a Macbook laptop playing via USB into the DAC, the BDP-1 put in a richer and more substantial performance, but we get the impression that the Bryston DAC's AES/EBU is a rather better input than its USB, so the playing field was not completely level.
Late in the day another tasty DAC turned up in the form of the Antelope Zodiac + and this proved to be rather more revealing than the Bryston – now we could hear right into the mix and enjoy nuances that have rarely been encountered previously. Essentially it showed that the BDP-1 is a more capable device than its partnering DAC suggests.
Brave step
Bryston has taken a brave step by producing such a niche product and while the results are really impressive they do not strike us as being that much better than units that add streaming and usually iPod playback to those offered here.
Then there is the issue of control, with the remote as a not inexpensive extra and other options requiring a link to a router, you are left with a small screen on the unit to scroll through a lot of music.
While the sound is clearly impressive and build quality high, we feel that the limited functionality undermines the BPD-1's ability to compete with the best in this fast moving sector.
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Lady Gaga fastest ever single to 1m iTunes downloads
Lady Gaga's new single 'Born this Way' has become the fastest selling track ever on iTunes, reaching a million downloads in less than five days.The eccentric pop star, who hit the headlines by emerging from an egg during at the Grammys last weekend, is leading the iTunes singles chart in 23 countries across the globe.
Gaga has established herself as the new media queen in recent years with over 407,000 subscribers on YouTube, while the official Vevo video for Bad Romance garnered 346 million views.
Gaga also boasts a whopping 8.2 million followers on Twitter.
Twitter controversy
Ironically, a lot of the track's success has been attributed to a Twitter controversy after a fan backlash claimed the song closely resembled Madonna's 'Express Yourself'
Twitter hashtags #bornthiswayfriday battled with #expressyourself throughout the week, catapulting the iconic performers single to unprecedented digital sales figures on iTunes.
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Updated: Twitter suspends UberTwitter and twidroyd
Twitter has cut-off popular third-party portals UberTwitter and twidroyd, citing a host of policy violations and trademark infringements.The apps in question are, according to a statement on Friday, guilty of changing users tweets in order to make money and allowing direct messages of over 140 characters..
Twitter decided to get public with the suspension after many users complained about being unable to log-in to their favourite clients.
The statement reads: "Today we suspended several applications, including UberTwitter, twidroyd and UberCurrent, which have violated Twitter policies and trademarks in a variety of ways.
"These violations include, but aren't limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users' Tweets in order to make money."
Shape up or ship out
Twitter says developer UberMedia has been treading on thin ice for almost a year, but will be welcomed back into the fold if it falls back into line with the social networking site's rules.
"We've had conversations with UberMedia, the developer of these applications, about policy violations since April 2010, when they first launched under the name TweetUp – a term commonly used by Twitter users and a trademark violation.
"We continue to be in contact with UberMedia and hope that they will bring the suspended applications into compliance with our policies soon."
With Twitter playing hardball, it might be an idea to rely on the official clients for the time being. The new Android Twitter app is actually pretty good.
Update: The policy violations have now been ironed out and the apps should be live again soon.
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Update: Twitter suspends UberTwitter and twidroyd
Twitter has cut-off popular third-party portals UberTwitter and twidroyd, citing a host of policy violations and trademark infringements.The apps in question are, according to a statement on Friday, guilty of changing users tweets in order to make money and allowing direct messages of over 140 characters..
Twitter decided to get public with the suspension after many users complained about being unable to log-in to their favourite clients.
The statement reads: "Today we suspended several applications, including UberTwitter, twidroyd and UberCurrent, which have violated Twitter policies and trademarks in a variety of ways.
"These violations include, but aren't limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users' Tweets in order to make money."
Shape up or ship out
Twitter says developer UberMedia has been treating on thin ice for almost a year, but will be welcomed back into the fold if it falls back into line with the social networking site's rules.
"We've had conversations with UberMedia, the developer of these applications, about policy violations since April 2010, when they first launched under the name TweetUp – a term commonly used by Twitter users and a trademark violation.
"We continue to be in contact with UberMedia and hope that they will bring the suspended applications into compliance with our policies soon."
With Twitter playing hardball, it might be an idea to rely on the official clients for the time being. The new Android Twitter app is actually pretty good.
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