Jörg Jacobsen’s $5 Eye-Friendly (Mac App Store link) is the third resolution-switching utility for the Retina MacBook Pro that I’ve looked at, after QuickRes () and Pupil (). In my quest to find the ideal resolution-switching app for my Retina MacBook Pro, is the third app the charm?

Like the other two apps, Eye-Friendly appears only in the menu bar. When you want to change your display’s resolution, you click the Eye-Friendly icon and mouse over your display (the menu lists your laptop’s built-in display, as well as any external displays); a submenu appears with available resolutions. Resolutions that look the best on that display are denoted with an Eye-Friendly icon; choose the desired resolution to switch to it. If you use only the best-looking resolutions, the Eye-Friendly Modes Only option configures the app to show only those resolutions.

Eye-Friendly’s menu is much more elegant that QuickRes’s, though it’s not as flexible as Pupil’s, which allows you to not only select which specific resolutions you want to appear in the menu, but also re-label them. But since it’s not difficult to find a resolution in Eye-Friendly’s list—and, as I mentioned, you can narrow the list down to show only the best resolutions—this level of customization isn’t a feature I miss.

Eye-Friendly also offers convenient keyboard shortcuts: Just place your cursor on the display you want to change, and then press Control+Option+Command+Up Arrow to cycle up through available resolutions or +Down Arrow to cycle down. Eye-Friendly displays each resolution in a semi-transparent overlay on the screen; when you settle for a couple seconds on the one you want, the display’s resolution changes to match.

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iOS’s accessibility features are great, particularly on the iPad—as I’ve written elsewhere—but for disabled users, accessibility is more than just a niche set of options in the Settings app.

But perhaps the greatest accessibility feature is the most obvious part of a smartphone: the screen. As a visually impaired user, my effective use of these devices depends on the quality and brightness of the screen. In order for me to achieve optimal use—especially on the iPhone, the device I use the most—I’ve found that I really need a Retina display set to maximum brightness.

Pixel perfect

My eyesight is such that I see “pixels” naturally, meaning that everything I see is fuzzy. While no Retina display will ever be able to completely eliminate that fuzziness, such displays can drastically reduce it.

I used both the orignal iPhone and original iPad with great success with their displays set to full brightness, but seeing my iPhone 4’s Retina screen was a total game-changer (in some cases, literally). It was the combination of the big, bright LED-backlit display with the high pixel density that made all the difference. Suddenly, even the smallest text was readable, and I was able to spot details in images that were previously indistinguishable.

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Those who’ve hooked up their MacBook to an external display are probably all too familiar with the dreaded dance of windows (not to be confused with George R.R. Martin’s bestselling A Dance with Dragons): You’ve got all your windows positioned exactly as you like them, then you disconnect your MacBook and blergh—windows every which way.

Sound familiar? Cordless Dog’s $15 Stay has the fix for what ails you. This menu-bar utility lets you save sets of window locations and sizes. So if you like your Twitter client pinned, just so, to the bottom-left corner of your screen, you can tell Stay to remember that window position—and here’s the key—both when you’re running your MacBook on its own and when it’s connected to your external display. If you want your IM client’s contact list to hug the right edge of the screen on your MacBook’s display but the left edge of your external display when it’s connected, Stay can do that too.

Better yet, you can have Stay automatically restore your windows whenever a display is connected and disconnected. So once you’ve chosen your favorite window positions, Stay does its thing transparently. (You can instead restrict Stay to being triggered manually, either using its systemwide menu or via a user-defined keyboard shortcut.) And if you’re particular about application window locations, you can choose to have Stay restore each app’s windows to particular sizes and locations whenever you launch that app.

Because Stay uses the names of windows to match them with the ones stored in your saved sets, the utility can have issues with windows whose titles change (for example, with text editors or Web browsers). You can fix that problem in one of two ways: by manually linking your current window to the one Stay has stored, using the Link Active Window To command in the app’s menu, or by setting up a window title pattern for Stay to look for.

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For the past three decades, Apple has made it a point, with few exceptions, to ship the highest quality computer displays it can muster.

The company’s obsession with the clarity and accuracy of its displays began with the original Macintosh in 1984 and grew as the platform attracted a large audience of visually-oriented professionals from fields such as graphic design, desktop publishing, photo retouching, and film production. Feedback from these pros only strengthened the quality of Apple’s displays over the years.

Apple spent nearly two decades selling some of the world’s sharpest and most color accurate CRT displays (mostly manufactured by Sony), but the company has truly shined in its pursuit of flat-screen technology, racking up a number of industry firsts since the debut of its first LCD for the Apple IIc in 1984.

To be sure, Apple’s largest contribution to computer display innovation has not come from the invention of new display technologies themselves—technologies that usually originate from companies like Sony, Samsung, or LG—but from Apple’s push to integrate the most cutting-edge display technologies into consumer products.

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Before me sit two 1920-by-1080 displays. But aside from resolution, the two have more differences than similarities. No, a display is not just a display. Making a choice between these two requires a careful consideration of size, reflection, performance, and price.

The two displays, the BenQ VW2430 and the HP Pavilion 27xi, use the same number of pixels, but they are spread across differently-sized screens. The VW2430 measures 23 inches diagonally, while the Pavilion 27xi measures 27 inches. It’s common to see a display like the VW2430 with a 1920-by-1080 native resolution, but it’s uncommon to see the same resolution on a 27-inch display like the Pavilion 27xi—it’s usually higher. Because the resolution isn’t as dense, the Pavilion 27xi displays larger text and icons on screen at its native resolution, which could be advantageous to anyone who has trouble seeing small type, or if you plan to use the display from a distance. On the downside, the extra space between pixels can give icons and images a grainy appearance and make text look less smooth.

That said, the VW2430’s text wasn’t very clean. Between these two displays, legibility was a wash, despite the VW2430’s advantage in pixel pitch.

The other tradeoff made when choosing a lower pixel pitch monitor is a reduction of screen real estate, especially if you compare to a 27-inch display with a 2560 by 1440 native resolution like the Apple Thunderbolt Display. The Apple display has one-third more horizontal and vertical pixels, allowing you to see more of a high-resolution image, have easier access to open windows, and show more rows and columns on spreadsheets.

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Apple’s Thunderbolt Display () is very nice. It has a beautiful 27-inch IPS screen, a stylish aluminum case, and handy connectors that replace ports missing from Apple’s laptops. But at $1000, the Apple display is too expensive for many consumers, especially if those extra ports aren’t necessary.

Less expensive displays are available, but 27-inch displays with high quality IPS panels and LED backlights still cost a pretty penny—HP’s ZR2740w is over $700 and Dell’s U2711 has a list price of $999 (available for $800). Monoprice, a company known for its affordable computer cables and adapters, hopes to shake up the display market by offering its 27” IPS LED CrystalPro Monitor WQHD for much less—under $400—than these more expensive monitors.

Removing the CrystalPro out of the box, it’s quickly apparent that there are major differences between the Apple and Monoprice displays. If you’re expecting the fit and finish of Apple’s LED Cinema Display () or Thunderbolt Display, you need to reset your expectations. The Monoprice monitor uses a generic-looking black plastic case with a somewhat flimsy stand. It has seven buttons on the bottom, two of which do absolutely nothing. There’s a power button, volume up and down, and backlight brightness controls. No onscreen menus appear to show you where on the scale from low to high the monitor’s brightness or volume is set; just stop pressing the button when it looks or sounds good. Apple displays have no buttons, but you can control the brightness and volume from the keyboard, with onscreen cues as to the relative level of each.

The CrystalPro offers only a DVI connection. DisplayPort, HDMI, and USB are not included. If your Mac has Mini DisplayPort, you need a dual-link Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter, which you can find from Apple ($99) or Monoprice ($69). The monitor does have speakers but they sound tinny, especially when compared to the Apple Thunderbolt Display’s speakers.

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The Matrox DualHead2Go Digital ME is an external multidisplay adapter that allows you to add up to two DVI monitors to a Mac.

The $179 DualHead2Go Digital ME measures just 3.8 by 2.5 by 1.1 inches and comes in a silver aluminum housing with two DVI connectors on the back for video output. The front of the device has a DisplayPort connection for video input and a USB port for power. Matrox includes a USB cable, a Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable, desktop software, and a two-year warranty. DVI cables and video adapters are not included.

Matrox

The DualHead2Go Digital ME is a straightforward device to use; you can finish installation in a few steps. Using the USB cable, you connect the DualHead2Go Digital ME to a USB port on your Mac to power the device. As for the second included cable, you connect the Mini DisplayPort end to the Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt connector on your Mac, and the other end to the DisplayPort on the DualHead2Go Digital ME. External monitors connect to the DualHead2Go Digital ME’s DVI ports. After everything is hooked up, you simply install the Matrox PowerDesk software, and the DualHead2Go is ready to use.

Matrox

Through PowerDesk you can optimize your new display landscape via the Mode Management tools and Desktop Divider feature. Mode Management lets you customize display settings such as resolution and refresh rates. The Desktop Divider allows you to choose between using the extra monitors as one big display for widescreen viewing (also handy for digital signage), or using them in a traditional setup as individual screens. If you opt to use each screen individually, the software configures the displays in a “4x2” manner, allowing for up to eight different applications across both monitors. PowerDesk also lets you move the Dock to one of the external displays.

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The Macworld Lab took a look at three new 27-inch displays, and though they share a few common features, they also have some very substantial differences. The Dell UltraSharp U2713HM, the Dell S2740L, and the Samsung SyncMaster T27B750ND are all 27-inch displays that use LED backlights, but that’s where the similarities end. The one that you should consider will depend on your tastes, needs, and the amount of money you are willing to spend.

Check out the full reviews for more specifics, but know that all 27-inch displays are not created equal. Nor should they be.

Chock-full of features

If you’re looking for bells and whistles, the most feature-packed display I’ve seen in a  while is the Samsung SyncMaster T27B750ND. It offers an integrated TV tuner, Wi-Fi connectivity that allows you to browse the Internet, Netflix and Hulu streaming, and access to Facebook. But while these features work, the display sofware interface can be clunky, and you might find it more convenient to keep a tablet, notebook, or smartphone on the couch for Internet access. The T27B750ND also supports wireless mirroring of your desktop from some Intel WiDi-enabled PCs and multiple input connectors.

Read Macworld’s review of the Samsung SyncMaster T27B750ND

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Dell’s $799 UltraSharp U2713HM is a 27-inch LCD that uses an in-plane switching (IPS) panel and LED backlights to provide a high-end, 2560-by-1440-resolution display that compares favorably with Apple’s offerings but costs considerably less. Unlike Apple’s Thunderbolt Display (), the U2713HM lacks Thunderbolt ports and a glossy screen, but some users prefer a nonglare display and have no interest in using Apple’s latest peripheral connector.

Simply unpacking the U2713HM gives the impression that Dell considers this display to be a high-end product, especially in comparison with the company's $400 S2740L (). Packaged with cardboard rather than styrofoam, the box contains all of the necessary cabling. Setup is straightforward: You attach the one-piece stand to the display, plug the power cord from the monitor into a power outlet, and hook the included dual-link DVI cable to your computer. (Mac users may need to purchase an adapter, depending on their Mac’s available connectors.) In addition to DVI, the display has DisplayPort, VGA, and HDMI connectors.

Dell

Interestingly, instead of the U2713HM polling the available ports when it started up, I had to manually select the DVI connection from Dell’s on-screen menus. Once I did that, the U2713HM fired right up and displayed in its native WQHD (2560-by-1440-pixel) resolution.

The monitor itself is rather nondescript, with its thin, matte-black plastic bezel and nonglare screen. Its silver and black stand offers impressive flexibility, permitting height adjustment, tilt, swivel, and pivot into portrait mode. Other niceties include a USB 3.0 hub with one upstream and four downstream ports, and a three-year warranty.

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The $550 Samsung SyncMaster T27B750ND 27-inch display offers a ton of interesting features: wireless connectivity, an integrated TV tuner, Internet browsing without a computer, and multiple inputs. It’s a good fit for dorm rooms or other small living areas where a space-saving combination of desktop monitor and television comes in handy. But even with its clever tricks, it suffers from lackluster performance as a standard monitor.

An LED-backlit display with a matte, antiglare screen, the T27B750ND sports two HDMI connectors, component-video ports, and VGA input. The built-in wireless functionality lets you browse the Internet without being connected to a computer.

The display has an interesting design. The front of the monitor has a typical-looking glossy black bezel; toward the bottom-right corner, however, the case slopes backward and into a translucent-white, arched base. The back of the display is white. Despite its side-stand construction, the display holds its position solidly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer much physical adjustability, allowing only a few degrees of tilt, forward and back. It does not permit height adjustment, side-to-side rotation, or pivoting into portrait mode.

The T27B750ND functions best as a TV. Its on-screen menus supply a wide range of color and picture adjustments, which are strangely unavailable in computer-display mode. The display offers a limited viewing angle, with noticeable color shifts as you move from left to right, or up and down, from the center of the screen. In our tests, text looked jaggy in computer-display mode, and dark hues appeared blocked up when I viewed photos on screen. I also noticed some uneven transitions in our grayscale-gradient test. I found no stuck or dead pixels on the screen.

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On the surface, the $400 Dell S2740L—an LED-backlit, 27-inch display with a high-quality in-plane switching (IPS) LCD panel—looks like a great deal.

Dig deeper, though, and the reason for its attractive price becomes apparent. Yes, it does use high-quality components, but the resolution is considerably lower than that of Dell’s own U2713HM ($799) or of Apple’s LED Cinema Display, which is available only as a refurbished product for $829.

Dell

It comes down to pixel pitch. For a 24-inch display, 1920 by 1080 pixels is not a low resolution, but when you spread those pixels out over a 27-inch display such as the S2740L, on-screen elements appear much larger than they do on a 27-inch display with a 2560-by-1440-pixel resolution, such as the aforementioned U2713HM and LED Cinema Display. In some instances—or I should say, at some distances—larger elements can be beneficial. Presentations and games look better when you're sitting a few feet or more from the screen. When I sat directly in front of the S2740L, as one does in a traditional desktop-computer setup, my first instinct was to back up. The individual pixels are visible, which can make text look a little jaggy. In many ways, it’s the opposite of a Retina display.

The trade-offs don’t end with the resolution, though. While the S2740L offers VGA, DVI, and HDMI connection options, only an inexpensive VGA cable ships with the display. To use this monitor with a Mac, you’ll need to buy the appropriate adapter, depending on the video output connector on your Mac.

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The Epson MegaPlex MG-850HD is a portable projector with two built-in ten-watt speakers, bright 2800 lumen output, and a dock for connecting and playing movies and music from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Weighing in at 8.4 pounds, the piano black MegaPlex is compact and easily portable. It uses 3LCD technology and offers native 720p resolution in screen sizes from 33 to 320 inches diagonally.

The MegaPlex has auto vertical keystone correction and iris controls, as well as manual focus and zoom rings near the lens and a horizontal keystone adjustment just behind them. You can tilt the front up with an adjustment leg beneath the front of the projector. You can correct horizontal tilt by adjusting the height of the feet at the back of the projector. Manual adjustments can be made through the menu system using the included remote control. There are seven different color modes to choose from including Blackboard (for projecting onto a dark green chalkboard), and four audio modes including Vocal, which emphasizes voices and dialog during video playback.

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Mobile Monitor Technologies' Monitor2Go is an external display designed with the iPad in mind. Its physical design is much like a laptop; it has two parts attached by a hinge, with the external display on one side, and an iPad docking space on the other. You slip the iPad into the dock, connect the video cable to the iPad (an HDMI adapter is required), and then you access the iPad screen through a cutout on the device.

Macworld

The company has two versions of the Monitor2Go. The $299 model has a 1366-by-768 resolution, while the $329 model (which made its debut at Macworld/iWorld has a 1500-by-900 resolution. Both screens measure 15.6 inches diagonally. Since the Monitor2Go uses HDMI, you can connect it to any device with HDMI out.

Apple may be about to strike down the current Thunderbolt display, the front of the Apple Store makes a better window than garage door, and Apple’s lawyer is hitting the slopes. The remainders for Monday, January 14, 2013 are crashing, hard.

Apple Thunderbolt Display inventory dwindles, may hint at upcoming redesign (AppleInsider)

Is Apple’s Thunderbolt Display heading for a revamp? Inventories of the external monitor are apparently low, suggesting that Cupertino might be ready to revamp it, perhaps with a MagSafe 2 connector (instead of the adapter models currently ship with). It’s probably too early to hope for a Retina upgrade because I don’t think there are that many pixels in the world.

Car smashes into Lincoln Park Apple Store, no one seriously injured (update: photos) (The Verge)

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Apple is adding variety and subtracting cost from its Thunderbolt cable lineup.

As first reported Wednesday by 9to5Mac, Apple has reduced the cost of its 2-meter Thunderbolt cable—first introduced in June 2011—from $49 to $39. Additionally, the company has unveiled a new, shorter, half-meter model, which costs $29.

Two other Thunderbolt cables in the Apple lineup—the Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter and Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter—remain available for $29 each.

Thunderbolt cables have remained relatively expensive for an extended period; while Thunderbolt adapters are on every new Mac, the only people who've really needed the technology have been those involved in video production and other pursuits that demand the fastest possible data transfer.

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Don’t adjust your Retina display; I’m not Lex Friedman, but this is still The Weekly Wrap. This week, Apple announced a slew of new products for you to spend your hard-earned money on, we took a look at some great new software and hardware, and what week would be complete without us showing you how to do things that you’ve never done before.

Most of all, though, we’re just glad that Apple is now officially cool.

Center stage

Primadonna that Apple is, the company demanded our attention on Tuesday. If, somehow, you missed out on the dynamic duo of Tim Cook and Phil Schiller, you can relive the experience with our live blog.

At the center of the event were, of course, updates to iBooks and iBooks Author. And here I thought that books were called “television” these days—at least that explains the overlooked Final Cut Pro X update the company snuck out.

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Budget-accessory vendor Monoprice.com, known for its inexpensive cables and adapters, will be introducing a line of high-end LED displays with screen quality designed to compete with Apple’s $999 Cinema Display, a company representative told Macworld.

The first model will be a 27-inch in-plane-switching (IPS) WQHD display with a 16:9 aspect ratio at 2560 by 1440 pixels. The company says the panel will offer a 1000:1 contrast ratio, maximum brightness of 380cd/m², 6ms response time, 178-degree off-angle viewing (both horizontal and vertical), and a 72-percent color gamut—specifications that compare favorably to Apple’s display.

The dual-link-DVI Monoprice display will ship with a tilt stand and VESA wall-mount capability; it will also include built-in speakers. Unlike Apple’s aluminum offerings, Monoprice’s display will feature a glossy-black-plastic enclosure.

The company has not yet announced final pricing or a specific ship date, but Monoprice says the display will be available sometime later this year and should be priced substantially lower than other similar-quality displays currently on the market.

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This week, in some ways, felt a bit like the calm before the storm. Apple announced a special event coming next week, we shared the stories of various unusual Macs, and of course we offered our usual slew of reviews, how-tos, and news.

Apple’s big little event

We scored invitations to Apple’s “A little more to show you” event. The “little” in the invitation’s text had us all thinking “iPad mini,” but the colorful background had us all thinking “Apple invented an iRainbow.” We’ll find out definitively early next week, and of course Macworld will provide live coverage from California.

You can listen in on our ruminations on the upcoming event in this week’s edition of the Macworld podcast.

How to do stuff

Your MacBook Air lacks a CD/DVD drive, and your disc just won’t fit in the USB port no matter how hard you push. Luckily, we can guide you on how to use such discs with your Air.

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Mac accessory maker Twelve South has introduced the HiRise for iMac, a stand that lets users elevate their desktop Mac monitors to a better viewing level.

The $80 device is designed to support all generations of Mac that have an L-shaped stand, including the largest 27-inch displays on the latest generation of iMacs. The stand itself looks a little bit like an older, metal-shelled hard drive—a reminder of the days when drives and displays were separate components of the same computer.

The inside of the HiRise, though, is a shelf containing six slots, allowing users to slide the iMac stand in at the precise level to provide optimum screen viewing. The remaining space can be used for storage—everything from a backup hard drive or Mac Mini, or an area for more mundane items such as wallet and keys.

HiRise also accommodates Apple-compatible cinema and Thunderbolt displays with L-shaped stands. If you have a Thunderbolt display as a second screen, sliding your iMac into the second HiRise slot will align it exactly with the height of the external monitor, providing a consistently level display sightline along your field of view.

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Slowly but surely, Retina-enabled apps for the new MacBook Pro are starting to hit the market—and that trickle should grow into a flood as the summer turns into fall.

Last month’s launch of the MacBook Pro with Retina display initially caught third-party software developers flat-footed; their apps weren't ready for the laptop computer’s new high-resolution display. (Apple, of course, was first out the door with Retina-ready upgrades of iPhoto Aperture ( )and Final Cut Pro X.) But now developers are beginning to catch up with the new screen.

Updated titles that have been released in the month since the Retina MacBook Pro was unveiled include popular productivity apps such as Reeder ( ), Sparrow ( ), and Twitteriffic. We've also seen a handful of Retina-ized games from vendors such as Aspyr—including titles from the popular Call of Duty and Star Wars franchises. (See below for a more complete sampling of updated apps.)

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Whether you're reading text, viewing photos and movies, or playing games, you likely spend hours each day staring at your computer monitor. With so much time spent interacting with your computer's display, your monitor-purchasing decision should be based on careful consideration of a number of factors, not just a price comparison. Here are a few tips for buying the display that's right for you.

Size

When companies specify the size of a display, they are referring to the diagonal measurement of the screen. When LCD monitors first started replacing bulky CRT displays on people's desks, 14- and 15-inch monitors were the norm. As time marches on, typical display sizes get larger and prices continue to drop. These days, 24-, 27-, and even 30-inch desktop displays are within the budgetary reach of the average computer user.

When you're shopping for a display, opt for the biggest screen size your budget and space allow, as you'll be able to view more data without having to close or shuffle windows around. At the same time, carefully consider your work area, since many workspaces don't have the room to accommodate certain display sizes.

Resolution

The resolution of a monitor refers to the number of pixels it has to display an image. The first number is the number of horizontal pixels, the second is the vertical pixel count. Most 27-inch monitors offer 2560-by-1440-pixel resolution. Some, however, have just 1920 by 1080 pixels—typically what a 24-inch model offers. At this resolution, the pixels are more spread out, so every icon, letter, and window appears larger on the screen. This may be desirable in some cases, such as on a TV, but most people buy a larger computer monitor to be able to display more information.

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A visit to your local Apple Store during the holiday season can be maddening. The stores are overrun with other shoppers, there’s a mob around each gadget table, and waiting for your turn to be helped by an Apple Store employee takes eons. The walk-in line to purchase an iPhone 5 alone can take upwards of an hour, depending on how many people are in front of you. While we generally like the Apple Store’s “no register” system, it can be a real headache during busy periods.

This year, there are a few ways to avoid waiting in a long line. It just takes a little planning ahead.

Check yourself out

Bring your iOS device to the Apple Store, because the Apple Store app is a handy guide for holiday shopping. The app shows you where the nearest Apple Store is, lets you search for product availability at specific stores, and allows you to purchase items yourself.

The Apple Store app also has a feature called Express Checkout that lets you directly purchase items from the online Apple Store by quickly entering your Apple ID and password. Designate whether you’d like to pick the item up in a store or have it shipped. The app bills the card on file that’s linked to your Apple ID and will ship to the address on file as well; you can adjust these settings by selecting Edit in the app itself at checkout.

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Our increasingly wireless lives are still dependent on physical connections. And that means cables—lots of cables. As the editor who does most of Macworld's accessory coverage, my office is overrun with cables, connectors, and chargers. Few warrant a full review or an article of their own, but that doesn't mean they should go unnoticed. Whether you're looking for worthy candidates for your travel bag or you just want to clean up your desk, here are some of the best accessories I’ve come across recently for connecting, charging, and more.

Compact cable kits

Short cables are lightweight, take up less space in a bag, and are less likely to tangle. Thankfully, it's no longer necessary to hunt down short versions of essential cables on your own, as a number of companies sell handy kits.

Micro, mini, 30: I previously covered Griffin Technology’s $25 USB Mini Cable Kit, which offers three short (3.5-inch) USB cables in one package. Incase's $25 USB Mini Cable Kit contains 4-inch versions—the length includes the connectors—of the same three cables: USB-to-30-pin (dock connector) for iPads and pre-2012 iPhones and iPods; USB-to-Micro-USB; and USB-to-Mini-USB. The actual cable sections are thinner than those of Griffin’s, making Incase’s cables more flexible and even lighter. The kit also comes with a convenient nylon carrying pouch. You can choose either the standard kit, which consists of black, white, and gray cables (for 30-pin, Micro-USB, and Mini-USB, respectively), or the brighter fluorescent kit with easy-to-spot green, blue, and orange versions.

Aviiq options: Another alternative is to choose one of Aviiq’s assorted $30 cable kits, which each include a pair of the company’s Ready Clip USB Mini Cables. Each Ready Clip cable is roughly 5.5 inches long, with a wide, flat body and a built-in clip for attaching the cable to a pocket or pouch in your bag. The Ready Clips are a bit bulkier and considerably stiffer than even the Griffin offerings, but they also feel sturdier, and the built-in clip is handy. Aviiq sells six different two-cable kits, each with a different combination of USB-to-30-pin (dock connector), USB-to-Micro-USB, and USB-to-Mini-USB cables.

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Reader Jake Tesler just can’t leave well enough alone in regard to a Lion “feature.” He writes:

In Lion can I display multiple full-screen applications at the same time using more than one monitor?

I’m not sure why you’d want to see the inside of a can of worms—honestly, it’s quite unpleasant—but as you insist, let me crack this one open.

No. You can’t.

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It might feel like you’ve just finished that last helping of turkey at the Thanksgiving, but the calendar doesn’t lie: The holidays are just about here. You’ve got less than a dozen shopping days until Christmas. Hanukkah starts even sooner—December 20—and even Kwanzaa is right around the corner, beginning on December 26. It seems like plenty of time to get your shopping done, but not if you’re relying on online shopping or buying customized tech gifts. If you still have gifts to order, pickup, or send, observe these deadlines to ensure that your gifts are delivered before 2012.

Gifts from the Apple Store

If you’re giving the gift of Apple this year and would prefer not waiting in a long line at the Apple Store, you can buy any in-stock product online and have it shipped to your house. Apple is even offering free two-to-three day shipping on most of its major products. However, if you want something delivered on or before Christmas Eve, you’d better act fast—some Macs need to be ordered by Wednesday to meet this deadline. Here’s the Apple Store’s express shipping schedule with a holiday delivery guarantee:

• iPad: December 19 for engraved, December 21 for non-engraved.
• iPod: December 19 for engraved, December 21 for non-engraved.
• iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS: December 21
• Customized Macs: December 14
• Regular off-the-shelf Macs and popular configurations: December 21
• Apple TV: December 21
• All other items: December 21

All of the above dates promise delivery on or before Christmas Eve. It’s too late to order an iPhone 4S online–they had to be ordered by December 5 to guarantee delivery by December 24. If you order one now, it’s set to ship between December 23 and January 3. At this point, you can either reserve an iPhone 4S after 9:00 p.m. for in-store pickup the next day, or else face waiting in line for a walk-in purchase.

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Reader Scott Anderson is frustrated with Apple’s HD content. He writes:

I rented the HD version of a TV show from the iTunes Store, hooked my laptop to our year-old HDTV, and was told no way, the show can’t be played. Same with my Apple monitor. We’re pretty furious that Apple did this and that the only workaround is to play in Standard Definition. Sort of defeats the whole idea of having an HD TV.

I understand your frustration, but if you're looking for a direction in which to vent it, I might point it at the movie and TV studios that demand this kind of protection of their content. And while I may not be able to offer you a working solution, I can at least explain what’s going on.

In all likelihood, the error you’re seeing looks like this:

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Reader David Camp would like to use an iMac’s display as a second monitor. He writes:

My wife’s running an old iMac G5, and we’d like to move her to a MacBook Air. She sees my setup with a laptop and second monitor and wants to know if her iMac can be used as a second monitor.

Yyyyesss. I apply the extra consonants to indicate that while it’s possible to project the image of one Mac’s screen on another Mac, it doesn’t work in a way you probably expect. What you likely want to hear is that there’s a way to string a video cable between the MacBook Air and the iMac and have the iMac behave just like an external monitor. Regrettably, there isn’t (at least not one that doesn’t require a soldering iron and far more skill than I possess).

Rather, you use VNC (Virtual Network Computing) over a network to place the image of one Mac’s screen on another screen. Specifically, try Patrick Stein’s $30 ScreenRecycler ( ).

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It all started when images on my 24" Dell monitor started looking odd. I received files from a client that should have been a certain color, but that didn’t match a sample printed with the same color. In addition, after editing the images and sending them back to the client, it turned out that the colors he saw had changed as well. We narrowed the issue down to the color profiles that were being used on our different computers.

Color profiles are a very complex topic, and I don't plan to go into much detail here, other than to say that the different programs we were using treated the color profiles differently, either using them when editing images or not. However, this color discrepancy prompted me to look into why my monitor was showing different colors, and how to get them to coincide, as much as possible, with those my client was seeing, as well as with another Mac I use.

Basic color calibration

If you're an amateur photographer, if you like to watch videos on your Mac, or even if you're a gamer, you should consider calibrating your display. Macs use a default color profile—a group of color settings—for each connected display. But if you find that these colors look odd, or don't match the colors of real objects that you can compare to on-screen photos, you can make changes by creating your own color profile.

Open System Preferences and click the Displays icon. If you have multiple monitors, a separate window will appear on each. Click the Color tab and you'll see a number of color profiles. If you check "Show profiles for this display only," you'll see those that can be used with your monitor. (Ignore the others; if you know what they are, you'll know whether you need to use them.) If the selected profile is not ideal given the possible color response of your display, you’ll want to calibrate the monitor.

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One of the unwelcome changes in Snow Leopard, at least for myself and others who use certain third-party LCD displays, was the gross simplification of the font smoothing options in the Appearance System Preferences panel.

In OS X 10.5, a pop-up menu provided a number of options for font smoothing—automatic, standard, light, medium (“best for LCD”), and strong.

In 10.6, though, that’s been simplified down to simply a yes or no option: “Use LCD font smoothing when available.” I guess the thinking here is that CRTs are a thing of the past, and all LCDs feature intelligent font smoothing.

In practice, however, that’s not the case. For me, the problematic machine is my OS X-running Dell Mini 10v netbook.

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