Reviews

Software » Games

Diablo III a fun addition to Blizzard's iconic RPG series

by Chris Holt, Macworld.com,

It’s been almost 16 years since players were introduced to the world of Diablo, full of danger, magic, loot, and more danger. While Blizzard’s iconic dungeon crawler has had a long 12-year absence between Diablo II and Diablo III, a whole slew of dungeon crawlers have tried to further a genre that Diablo once dominated. When you return to the town of Tristam in Diablo III, a lot has changed, but you can’t help but get the feeling that you’re saying hi to old friends—if your friends are the horned and hellish lot.

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Software » Video

Premiere Pro CS6's aesthetic and workflow improvements boost editing efficiency

by Antony Bolante, Macworld.com,

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6's aesthetic and workflow improvements over the previous version are immediately obvious at first glance. Whereas Premiere Pro CS5’s most notable features—64-bit processing and the Mercury Playback Engine—were under the hood, the CS6 interface has undergone a comprehensive redesign that not only transforms the overall look and feel of the program, but facilitates a more efficient editing workflow. The new release is also designed to integrate two newcomers to the Creative Suite: Adobe Prelude for ingesting and logging file-based media, and Adobe SpeedGrade, a color correction and grading tool. Premiere Pro's companion DVD authoring program, Encore, is now a 64-bit application.

Playable, resizable icon views

Premiere Pro’s Project panel has always let you view and organize assets in list form or as large icons. CS6 includes several enhancements designed to take full advantage of icon view’s visually oriented approach to organizing clips.

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Software » Mobile » Reference

Two World War II reference apps for the iPad

by Philip Michaels, Macworld.com,

When I was about 10 years old, I decided it was time to graduate from the Scholastic Reader-approved books of my youth to what I determined was meatier, more adult fare. I checked out a book from the library about World War II—it may well have been one of those Time-Life overviews of the war that doubtlessly make serious historians cringe. But for a 10-year-old it was just the sort of stuff to spark an interest in history that continues to this day.

The 10-year-olds of 2012 have more sophisticated tools at their disposal in the form of Apple’s iPad. And that’s given developers a chance to use the iPad’s touch interface and multimedia support to make history come alive in ways that few people probably imagined back in 1982. I’ve recently spent some time with a pair of apps—World War II Interactive and Timeline World War 2—that take the same information about the war that I pored over decades ago and present it in an eye-popping new fashion. Both apps are worthwhile downloads for history buffs, particularly students, but one of them in particular does a standout job of putting its own stamp on the story of the conflict.

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Software » Office Software

Zengobi Curio Core 7.4.3 holds your best ideas

by Nathan Alderman, Macworld.com,

Even the most organized souls can still find themselves drowning in a sea of clippings and notebooks in search of one elusive idea. Curio Core 7 (Mac App Store link) consolidates your thoughts into one useful digital space. Despite its arsenal of options, it mostly balances those powerful abilities with admirable ease of use.

Each of Curio Core’s Project files houses a series of Idea Spaces for your work. Like many of its other elements, Curio lets you choose from a variety of preset Idea Space styles, from slick PowerPoint-style background gradients to replicas of notebook and graph paper. You can then tweak and save those styles as your own custom options.

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Software » Productivity

Justnotes is an elegant notes app that syncs across devices

by Dan Frakes, Macworld.com,

Unlike iOS’s Notes, OS X’s built-in app for quick notes, Stickies, goes beyond simple text. Still, it feels dated these days, and perhaps its biggest flaw is that it doesn’t sync across Macs or with your iOS devices. If you’re looking for something a bit more modern that lets you create and manage text notes, and access those notes anywhere you’ve got an Internet connection, Justnotes (Mac App Store link) may be the solution.

Justnotes’s main window uses the now-familiar two-paned interface: a list of your notes on the left, with the content of the selected note on the right. (You can choose to show a preview in the list for each note’s contents—one, two, three, or four lines.) The first line of each note is displayed in bold as the note title, and next to each note’s title is the date the note was last modified; for items modified today, you see the time of the last change. A search field lets you quickly find all notes containing your search string; instances of that string are highlighted within each note. You can sort the notes list alphabetically or by creation or modification date.

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Audio » Speakers

JBL Onbeat Xtreme speaker system combines unique look, excellent sound, frustrating controls

by Lex Friedman, Macworld.com,

JBL’s $600 OnBeat Xtreme is a Bluetooth-enabled, dock-cradle speaker system for the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Now, one of the first things we like to do when we review a speaker system is describe how the thing looks. In this case, though, I’m going to just direct you to the photos associated with this review—the OnBeat Xtreme looks like its own thing, and it’s nearly impossible to describe in words. My best attempt: It looks like it’s from the future, it’s a mix of black materials with shiny chrome, and its various pieces form a sort of oblong X.

Though the OnBeat Extreme includes Bluetooth audio (more on that in a bit), it also includes a traditional 30-pin dock cradle. In order to be all things to all i-Devices, the Xtreme ships with a pair of adapter clips for that cradle. One clip fits iPhone, iPod touch, and iPod classic models, while the other holds all iPad models. (Though, depending on which model iPad you have and whether its clad in a skin or Smart Cover, you’ll need to to rotate the rubber grips on the clip.) You need no clip at all for an iPod nano.

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Smartphones » Phone Accessories

Incase's Pro Slider Case is protective, but ordinary

by Karen Freeman, Macworld.com,

Incase’s $40 Pro Slider Case for the iPhone 4/4S is a hard shell case with a rubberized bumper for overall protection. It comes in either black or white, but with different colored bumpers—black with a grey bumper, or white with a black, teal, or raspberry bumper. The bottom part of the case slides off easily for docking in any kind of dock-cradle accessory, giving this case its “pro slider” name.

The Pro Slider is made of a high-quality plastic, which is attractive and glossy, but has one unfortunate side effect—it shows fingerprints, or at least the black model I tested did. The bumper is matte and rubberized, which improves grip, and the case has a solid, protective feel without adding too much bulk. The inside of the case has soft cushions to prevent the case from scratching your iPhone while you’re fitting it in the case, and the cushions also add some shock protection. The edges of the Pro Slider Case come up over the screen just a bit, which helps protect your iPhone in case of a face-down fall. However, there is no protective screen film included, so you’ll need to purchase that separately if you want more screen protection.

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Software » Programming

Coda 2 dramatically improves an already very good code editor

by Lex Friedman, Macworld.com,

I’ve done a lot of Web coding in my day. It used to be my fulltime job; now I code an in-house tool for Macworld, and I do some side Web development projects after hours. For years, my software of choice as a Web coder has remained Panic’s Coda.

Coda dates back to 2007, and it aimed to simplify the life of the average Web developer. And it succeeded. It combined, in a single tabbed window, your code editor, your FTP client, your web browser, and the Terminal. That’s a lot less Command-tabbing.

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Software » Mobile » Productivity

Diet Coda for iPad

by Lex Friedman, Macworld.com,

I didn’t know when Panic would announce Coda 2 (), but I knew that a significant update to its all-in-one-window code editor had to be coming. Diet Coda, the iPad app that Panic announced alongside Coda 2, came as a complete surprise.

Filed Away: Because you can swipe back and forth across your server's entire file hierarchy, you need never fear navigating too deeply into your file structure with no hope of backing out.

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Home Theater » HDTVs

Bravia KDL-46EX523 offers so-so video, great audio

by Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, PCWorld,

The 46-inch Sony Bravia KDL-46EX523 doesn’t stand out from the HDTV pack in design, features, or picture quality, but once you look at its price and its range of connected features, it starts to get a little more interesting.

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