Friday, May 29, 2015

Software : Mac Tips: How to open Appleworks files in Yosemite

Software : Mac Tips: How to open Appleworks files in Yosemite


Mac Tips: How to open Appleworks files in Yosemite

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Mac Tips: How to open Appleworks files in Yosemite

Got an Apple, Mac, or iOS tech question? We have the answer. While we're always glad to see the upgrades and new features that are included with each new version of Mac OS X, it's definitely a drag when the new operating system prevents you from opening older apps or documents. In response to a reader question, we'll take a look at how to deal with some of those incompatibilities — specifically, how to open Appleworks documents in Yosemite.

Question

I downloaded and installed OS X 10.10 Yosemite. After the installation a dialog appeared saying it can't run Appleworks 6. What am I to do with the several thousand Appleworks 6 documents that are important to me? Is there any way to make them work?

Answer

Appleworks 6 is a rather old piece of software, with the last updates coming out nearly 11 years ago (in January 2004). Apple discontinued support for the software in 2007, around the time that Leopard was released to the public. While you have been able to use the software for a few years afterwards thanks to Rosetta PowerPC (PPC) software support on modern Intel Macs, Apple finally stopped supporting PPC in OS X Lion.

If you still have documents lying around in this format, however, and wish to upgrade them to work with modern apps (say, Pages, Word, or TextEdit), you can do this with the available iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote).

Appleworks in Yosemite

For example, if you have an AppleWork 6 word processing document, then you can drag and drop it on the Pages icon in the Dock to have it open; if you have an AppleWork 6 spreadsheet or presentation file, then you can also drag and drop them on top of Numbers and Keynote, respectively. You might end up with some formatting issues, but in general this should allow you to access your old documents.

Got an Apple tech question? Email ask@maclife.com.

Meet Big Data Analytics firm claiming to be 10x cheaper than the competition

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Meet Big Data Analytics firm claiming to be 10x cheaper than the competition

Enterprise data warehousing is never going to be cheap, but it doesn't need to be nearly as expensive as it is. At least, that's what's driving big data analytics startup MammothDB and its hopes to disrupt the business technology sector.

The software company, which is based out of Sofia, Bulgaria, offers 10-fold savings when compared to the analytics database solutions offered by bigger players like Oracle and SAP, as well as claiming to deploy 50 percent faster.

MammothDB offers two core products; the cloud-based MammothDB 'Storm' solution and MammothDB On-Premises. According to the company, one particular use case saw logistics and parcel delivery firm DHL rollout MammothDB at a cost of €400,000 (about £286,000), compared to the €4m figure (£2.8m) quoted for SAP HANA.

For the 'Storm' Enterprise Cloud, installations are customised based on an enterprise's needs, with the company quoting an average figure of $500 (about £325) per license, per node.

Pricing for the On-Premises Enterprise Edition is more straightforward. Up to five nodes can be trialled for free with the individual price of nodes sold in pack of 10, 15 and 20, down to $2,000 (around £1,300).

In terms of tech, MammothDB offers a native MySQL port so that any visualisation tool - whether it's a commonplace product like Excel or a more robust tool like Tableau - can be connected to the database.

It's also compliant with certain open-source technologies, including components of Hadoop, so customers should be able to easily scale their implementations.

Currently, MammothDB is part of Cisco's first European Entrepreneur in Residence programme, a tech incubator based out of Vienna and planning to expand to London in the summer. As well as Cisco, MammothDB is also partnered with Microsoft's Azure on the cloud-side of its operation.

The company recently secured a €1.6m (around £1.1m) funding round with 3TS Capital Partners and Empower Capital.

Mac Tips: The 16 best free GarageBand plugins

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Mac Tips: The 16 best free GarageBand plugins

Getting started

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Even though Apple's GarageBand for Mac has all sorts of built-in instruments (and a smaller complement of audio effects), it has always been expandable by adding Audio Unit (AU) plugins. Besides the vast assortment of commercial plugins, there is also a treasure trove of free synthesizers and effects that will really inspire your creative juices. We've taken the time to sift through the mountains of offerings to locate the gems in the pile.

Track image

Some of the plugins include an installer, but for those that don't, you'll need to place the plugin (identified by the .component suffix) into the support folder Macintosh HD\Library\Audio\Plug-Ins\Components before starting up GarageBand. Power User note: The latest versions of OS X might try to stop you from installing these plugins (it's a long story), but you'll have success if you use this trick: hold down the Command key while clicking on the installer, and select the "Open" command from the pop-up menu.

Once in GarageBand, you can access your AU plugins by creating a software instrument track, then clicking on the "Edit" tab in the right-hand Track Info column (see left image). You can choose a custom AU synthesizer at the top of the stack, and there are hardwired slots for the Compressor and Visual EQ effects, plus four remaining slots for your installed Audio Units plugins.

You can reorder them by clicking-dragging them up and down the stack, and the position will have a direct impact on your sound; sounds start at the top and work their way down. You can also use AU effects on any GarageBand track - recorded vocals and guitars, for example - as well as entire songs (the upper right Master Track tab, then the Edit subtab, where you'll find a single AU effects slot).

Synth: Podolski

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Mac musicians in the know are keen to the amazing line of commercial synths and filters from U-He Software, and their free Podolski is a deep, wild source of animated, evolving pads and classic synth sounds that blows some other expensive synths out of the water - all for free!

Synth: Tyrell

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Have the urge to unleash your inner Vangelis? With Tyrell, you'll be able to summon some of the darker elements of the "Blade Runner" score with this awesomely powerful softsynth, and tweaking the presets is a great way to cook up your own signature sounds. Another total winner from U-He.

Synth: Lokomotive

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

There was a time when you'd pay a hefty sum for a hardware synth that could pull off deep, wall-thumping bass, but in the GarageBand era, you'll score a gem like Lokomotive for the few seconds it takes to download from the web. Thick, luscious sounds galore are to be found in this processor-efficient, highly approachable beast.

Synth: Crystal

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Crystal is wonderful synthesizer that's been around for years, and it's deep enough to keep you busy for eons, with intensely complex, evolving sounds perfectly suited for just about any kind of music you care to conjure. We really dig the ability to select two presets and "morph" them into a totally new sound.

Synth: PG-8X

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Installing PG-8X, a sim of a classic Roland analog synthesizer, is a bit of a primitive process (you'll want to open the "Mac-AU-discontinued" directory of the included Dropbox link for the synth AU itself, and then manually download and load the preset banks when you open the plugin in Garageband), but the resulting sound is thick, classic Roland sugar.

Synth: Clap Machine

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Talk about a one-trick pony: Clap Machine lets you conjure up an appreciative audience from thin air, with a variety of sampled hand clips you can trigger by pressing multiple notes on your keyboard. It's a bit silly, but if you need the sound of many hands clapping and find yourself alone, this is the quickest way to get some virtual crowd-sourced love.

Effects: SonEQ

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Equalization is the primary spice of audio sweetening, and SonEQ delivers some serious vintage vibe, smooth sound, and a very straightforward interface.

Effects: SGA1566

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Don't worry about SGA1566's cryptic name; this virtual preamp adds some gritty analog warmth and drive to make brittle digital tones fatten up and smooth out, a perfect way to help make individual instruments stand out in the mix, or add some sweetness to overall songs.

Effects: Nova-67P

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Nova-67P is the kind of amazingly powerful tool we'd expect to see as a commercial product, but you'll be able to take parametric equalization and multiband compression to the next level with this streamlined, pro-level sonic sculptor's tool. Expect a little learning curve on this one, but it's well worth the effort.

Effects: Pitchproof

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

The venerable DigiTech Whammy pedal became a key tool for bands such as Rage Against the Machine and Radiohead, and the funky results of that pitch-shifting hardware are duplicated spot-on in this little red monster. Pitchproof is funky-sounding, but a great way to make guitars sound like they're a mob of angry hornets.

Effects: Multiply

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Nothing quite makes guitars and voices sing like a good chorus effect, and Multiply is a totally useful, silky-quality spin on this popular type of pedal. Add it to some acoustic guitar and marvel at how it opens up and softens the overall tone of the strings.

Effects: MFreeEffectsBundle

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

This vast collection of effects plugins is a cornucopia of excellence with something for everyone, from equalizers, compressors, and filters to some downright bizarre stereo effects. (The excellent Tremolo is pictured here.) There's simply too much to cover here — just be thrilled and grateful that a quality collection like MFreeEffectsBundle won't put a dent in your wallet.

Effects: Voxengo Marvel GEQ

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

The range and quality of the many free offerings from the folks at Voxengo is rather impressive, like Voxengo Marvel GEQ, an old-fashioned 15-band graphic equalizer that lets you quickly and intuitively gain control over your treble, midrange, and bass frequencies.

Effects: Voxengo OldSkoolVerb

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Another totally useful Voxengo effect is the OldSkoolVerb, which adds some nice "space" around any track — a must for percussion and voices. Actually, it helps just about anything when used in moderation.

Effects: Audio Damage RoughRider

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

Any audio engineer will tell you that you can't have too many compressors in your toolkit. Unlike most other compressors, this beast is very far from transparent or subtle. Audio Damage RoughRider behaves a bit more like a rowdy teenager on too much Red Bull, but lay it on top of a flat drum beat, and it'll turn it into a sonic Frankenstein.

Effects: SoundMagic Spectral

Best Free GarageBand Plugins

A collection of 24 plugins that delivers some of the more extreme sound-mangling abilities to be found in plugin paradise, these gems lack refined interfaces, but make up for it by delivering some seriously bizarre audio processing. From shimmering glissandos to wild time-bending delays and some downright outrageous granular filtering, the SoundMagic Spectral plugins make conjuring up instantly captivating sonic textures rather effortless.

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