Acorn Is A Fine Image Editor For Everyone [50 Mac Essentials #46]

Acorn describes itself as “an image editor for humans”, and that sums it up in a nutshell.

What you get inside Acorn are pretty much all the image editing features you’re ever going to need, for a fraction of the price of some of the competing apps.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

Gatekeeper: First Step Towards App Store-Only Software On The Mac? [OS X Mountain Lion]

One of the big headline features in Apple’s new Mountain Lion OS is Gatekeeper, designed to keep malware and other nasties away from your computer. So is this another step towards App Store-only software on Macs?

The short answer is yes, it is. But it doesn’t have to be. Gatekeeper gives you the choice: do you want to stick to App Store-only apps, or be able to install anything from anywhere?

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

Damn You Android! We Want This Amazing Scalado Photo App

For once, there's an Android photo app to make iPhone users jealous

When you’re snapping a tacky, cliched vacation photo, isn’t it annoying that all those other tourists are buzzing around and generally getting in the way of that monument/handsome plaza/amusing statue? Short of climbing up into a bell tower and, well, you know what, there’s little that you can do to remove these scampering human ants. You could take a sequence of photos and buy Photoshop just to paint out the milling hordes, or you could try Scalado’s Remove app. If you had an Android phone.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

iOS Developers Use “Well-Known” Download Bots To Manipulate App Store Rankings [Report]

Ever wondered how come iOS titles make it into the App Store’s top 25 list? Some iOS developers have been using download bots to purchase their own apps and manipulate the App Store’s top 25 list, according to a new report from Inside Mobile Apps. The software has been in use for over 12 months to fraudulently promote iOS titles, and some marketing firms charge up to $15,000 a time for the service.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

How To Set Up Super Quick Web Searches In Alfred [OS X Tip]

The latest update to Alfred adds a selection of smart new features, one of which is a new way of grabbing selected text from any Mac app and pushing it straight into one of your other Alfred actions – such as a web search, for example.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

Win $470 Worth Of Mac Software for You and a Friend! Mac Superbundle Giveaway featuring Parallels 7

Update: To spice things up a bit – we’re now going to select TWO winners for this Mac Super Bundle featuring Parallels 7 – ONE for you and ONE for a friend. Check below to see how you and your bestie can WIN!

Note: if you previously entered in the giveaway you will still be eligible to win, but if you want to give your friends a chance to win, be sure to check out the new rules below!
***

CHECK OUT THE PRIZE HERE!

Ready to Supercharge your Mac? How about doing it for FREE?!? Then you may want to check out our latest giveaway below.

Packed full of goodies our Mac SuperBundle is here to take your Mac to the next level. With the Mac Superbundle you can: Run Windows in OS X with Parallels 7, Take Pixel-Perfect Screenshots with Little Snapper, Monitor your Mac at a Glance with iStat Menus 3, Create Powerful HTML5 Designs Easily with Flux 3, Plus Six Other Amazing Apps for Pennies on the Dollar!

We’ve stuffed this package full of awesome-sauce and the savings are oozing out. You’ll get $471 dollars worth of software for only $49! That would be an amazing deal for Parallels 7 alone, but you’ll get so much more.

Want to know about everything you’ll get in the Mac SuperBundle? Head over to Deals.CultofMac for the full scoop and to make your purchase.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

The Best iPhone Train Game Just Got Better

A few months ago, Days of Wonder released the $2 iPhone version of their overwhelmingly popular, award-winning board game, Ticket to Ride. Ticket to Ride Pocket amazed everyone by including all the elements of the iPad version in a smaller, tighter, but just as engrossing package — only with one huge hole: While you could play real people around you via a Bluetooth connection, there wasn’t any way to play against people who weren’t in the same room with you. All that changed yesterday, making TTR pocket one of the best board game on the iPhone, right up there with chess and Words with Friends.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

CameraBag 2 for Mac Arrives At the Mac App Store with Launch Sale

We’ve waited patiently for this little gold nugget of a photo processing app to land at the Mac App Store, ever since developer Nevercenter teased us with CamerBag 2‘s beta a few months back. Wait’s over: It’s here. And today only it’s on sale for $19.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

Apple Prepares For War Against Consoles By Hiring Former Xbox Live Chief

Apple has made another addition to its team this week with a former Microsoft Product Marketing chief, Robin Burrowes, joining the ranks to become the head of App Store Marketing for iTunes Europe. Burrowes was previously part of Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE team, and he’s not the first gaming executive to head for Cupertino as Apple gets serious about battling consoles head on.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »

Autodesk’s Pixlr-o-matic App Has Some of The Most Amazing Photo Effects We’ve Seen [Daily Freebie]

Autodesk makes industry-leading software for animators, architects and industrial designers, so maybe the fact their Pixlr-o-matic  app is a stunning, gasp-worthy photo-effects tool for the iPhone (and iPad) shouldn’t be surprising; what is a surprise, though, is that it’s free.

Read the rest of this post »

Comment »