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Staff Writer - page 12

This iPhone 7 Plus case is tough, slender and totally affordable

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Jaagd iPhone 7 Plus case
This minimalist iPhone 7 Plus case offers great protection for just $9.
Photo: Jaagd

This post is presented by Jaagd.

If you’re dropping coin for a new iPhone 7 Plus, you’ll want protection for when you drop the phone. The ideal iPhone case is slim, strong and affordable. That makes the straightforward design of Jaagd iPhone cases a refreshing return to simplicity. We want cases that give our phones a tougher skin, not a whole new look and feel.

Treat yourself to a better weather app

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Today Weather Smaller
Today Weather presents some smart new features in a slick design, and we dig the result.
Photo: Today Weather

This post is presented by Today Weather.

Your weather app is probably the last thing you daydream about upgrading. After all, iOS comes with a pretty straightforward, reliable weather app. But when we tried free alternative Today Weather, we found some interesting features we didn’t even know we wanted.

This premium video converter doesn’t cost a dime

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Want to get convert video from one format to another? VideoSolo Free Video Converter makes it easy.
Want to convert video from one format to another? VideoSolo Free Video Converter makes it easy.
Photo: VideoSolo

This post is brought to you by VideoSolo.

Sometimes it seems like there are as many video formats as there are devices to play them on. Whether you’re creating or consuming video content, getting the right format and resolution for a particular device can make a big difference. It can also take some pricey software. Don’t want to spend a bundle? VideoSolo Free Video Converter is a quality converter for Mac and Windows that also happens to be free.

Mind mapping can boost your brainstorms and enhance your productivity

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Mind mapping with Mind Vector
Mind mapping, a classic technique for visualizing ideas, is getting a digital makeover.
Image: Mind Vector

This post is presented by Mind Vector.

Many people blame technology for mind-warping things like short attention spans, rotten social skills and fidget spinners. However, technology also offers new ways of engaging with our minds and sharpening our thoughts. Take mind mapping, a popular technique for brainstorming and planning.

PhoneRescue makes iPhone data loss less scary

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tocult
PhoneRescue shows that depth and flexibility are key with mobile data recovery.
Photo: iMobie

This post is brought to you by iMobie, maker of PhoneRescue.

Our iPhones carry all our important info, which makes them something of liability. Losing or breaking one is painful enough, but often the loss of personal data is even worse. Recovery services like Time Machine and iCloud make this less of a worry. But limits remain about what you can retrieve and how.

Behold the world’s thinnest leather iPhone case

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Totallee thin leather iPhone case
Totallee's new lambskin-backed iPhone cases are stylish, durable and measure a mere 0.02 inches thick.
Photo: Totallee

This post is brought to you by Totallee, maker of ultra-slim iPhone cases.

When you drop coin for a new iPhone, the natural instinct is to protect it properly. The preferred way to do that is with quality, long-lasting leather. But a nice leather case adds a steep premium to an already pricey purchase.

Free web tool CleverPDF gives you all the PDF editing tools you need

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CleverPDF PDF conversion features
Free online suite CleverPDF offers essential tools for working with PDFs.
Screenshot: CleverPDF

This post is brought to you by CleverPDF.

PDFs are pretty much a daily part of life for anyone who works at a computer. They’re the 8.5-by-11-inch sheet of digital documents. But like a sheet of paper, there’s not a whole lot you can do with a PDF besides signing it — unless you’ve got a special app.

Giveaway: Win a copy of Readdle’s award-winning PDF Expert for Mac

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Readdle PDF Expert
Readdle's PDF Expert is a must-have for working with documents on a Mac.

This post is brought to you by Readdle, maker of PDF Expert.

We’re giving away five licenses for the awesome Mac app PDF Expert — which was named “App of the Year 2015” by Apple — and we’re excited.

PDFs are part of daily life for pretty much anyone who works at a computer. But besides printing, sending or signing, there’s not a whole lot you can do with them if you don’t have special software. Get the right tool, though, and suddenly PDFs are loaded with possibilities.

For creative pros, the right screen makes all the difference

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LG has been partnering with leading design institutions to prove that better monitors means better creative work.
LG has been partnering with leading design institutions to prove that better monitors means better creative work.
Photo: 'Curve and Create' by @Littledrill featuring LG UltraWide Monitor 34UC98

This post is brought to you by LG Electronics, maker of UltraWide monitors.

Today’s visual content gets consumed on screens of all sizes, from smartphones to building-size projections and everything in between. That gives everybody’s eyeballs plenty of great stuff to look at no matter where we look. But for creative professionals, the size of the screen can prove key to the process — and to the quality of the content they produce.

Rip your DVD library faster and easier with MacX DVD Ripper Pro

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Got a pile of DVDs to convert? Try MacX DVD Ripper Pro for free.
Got a pile of DVDs to convert? Try MacX DVD Ripper Pro for free.
Image: Digiarty Software

This post is brought to you by Digiarty Software, maker of MacX DVD Ripper Pro.

If you’ve got stacks of movies and other discs that you want to watch on your iPhone, you need DVD rip software that makes the conversion process easy and fast. No matter what kind of DVDs you’ve got stashed in your closet, the latest version of MacX DVD Ripper Pro will get the job done — and you can try it for free.

Reach inbox zero with a simple browser extension [Deals]

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Throttle Pro
Control who sees your email address and what ends up in your inbox using this simple browser plug-in.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

The inbox is a hazardous place. Full of important information and conversations, it also harbors loads of spam from people you’ve never met or even heard of. After a few days, the sheer volume of new emails can become overwhelming. That makes it all the harder to reach the fabled place called “inbox zero.”

A simple browser extension called Throttle Pro can help you get there. It prevents your email address from falling into spammers’ hands (among other useful tricks). And right now you can get a year of Throttle Pro for just $39 at Cult of Mac Deals.

A simple way to avoid common email mistakes

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The MailButler plugin adds a range of super-useful features to Apple Mail.
The MailButler plugin adds a range of super-useful features to Apple Mail.
Photo: Feingeist Software

This post is brought to you by Feingeist Software, maker of MailButler.

If your inbox is a disaster zone that fosters common email mistakes, perhaps it’s time to get a little help. MailButler is a simple plugin that adds lots of features and functions to the stock Mail app on your Mac. It will help you avoid the dreaded “accidental send” and other common email mishaps.

New software turns PDFs to putty in your hands

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PDFelement 6 makes working with PDFs simple.
PDFelement 6 makes working with PDFs simple.
Image: Wondershare

This post is brought to you by PDFelement 6.

If you work at a computer a lot, PDFs are a part of daily life. It makes sense — PDFs are reliable and look great on a wide range of devices, making them ideal for a huge number of uses. But since the text, images and other information comes baked into the document, not unlike a printed page, doing anything but reading a PDF can be tricky.

Subscribe to this suite of Mac apps to get your creative juices flowing

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Setapp Mac apps subscription service
Mac apps subscription service Setapp saves you time, effort and money.
Photo: MacPaw

This post is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of Setapp and proven Mac apps.

Setapp brings the Netflix model to Mac apps, offering access to dozens of legit apps for a modest monthly fee. While the new Mac app subscription service packs plenty of essential utilities, it also includes software designed to delight creatives.

You don’t need a lawyer to create legally binding documents

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Use Eversign to create legally binding documents.
Don't waste any more time, paper or ink on legally binding documents.
Photo: Eversign

This post is brought to you by Eversign.

We live in the age of freelancing and side gigs, which means lots of contracts and agreements that need to be legally solid. Used to be you’d hire a lawyer to create documents that would pass legal muster — or at least a pen and paper for an official John Hancock. But this is the future, and we don’t need analog documents or lawyers for handling binding agreements.

Retrospect makes even the most massive Mac backups simple

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Retrospect_for_Mac_Multi-Server_right
For companies of any size, you're unlikely to find a backup solution as powerful and easy to use as Retrospect.
Photo: Retrospect

This post is brought to you by Retrospect.

From mom-and-pop shops to international enterprises, businesses of all sizes benefit from straightforward, reliable backup of key data. Even with access to a massive storage system like Amazon S3 or Backblaze B2, having the right agent to facilitate the preservation of your data can save a lot of valuable time and effort.

Now’s the perfect time to sell your old iPad

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This girl is using her iPad, but you probably aren't
It might be time to say "goodbye" to your iPad (and "hello" to some cold, hard cash).
Photo: Unsplash

Today is the best day to sell your iPad. Why? Because with the new iPads coming this week, prices on older gear will soon drop.

If you’ve got an old iPad lying around, or even if you’re over your giant iPad Pro, sell your Apple tablet now before the bottom drops out — we’ll pay you for it through the Cult of Mac buyback program.

Developing data-driven mobile apps has never been easier

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Dropsource is designed to save you time and money when developing native mobile apps.
Dropsource is designed to save you time and money when developing native mobile apps.
Photo: Dropsource

This post is brought to you by Dropsource.

The gap between great app concept and actual working mobile app is wide. Whether your coding skills are limited, or your budget to hire an outside dev is lacking, developing data-driven mobile apps can prove prohibitive to many people with innovative ideas.

CloudBerry Backup gives you total control of your Mac backup

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CloudBerry Backup
CloudBerry Backup gives you plenty of options when it comes to backing up your Mac.
Image: CloudBerry Lab

This post is brought to you by CloudBerry Lab, maker of versatile backup software.

When you click “back up now,” it’s easy to feel unsure about exactly what’s about to happen. With iCloud, for example, Apple decides what data on your device is most important and necessary to back up. Depending on your situation, the single-click process could be backing up data you don’t need, leaving it underprotected, or driving up a cloud storage bill for redundant backups.

This gadget fixes two of iPhone 7’s biggest shortcomings

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Charge your iPhone (even wirelessly) and bring back the headphone jack at the same time with RES.
Charge your iPhone (even wirelessly) and bring back the headphone jack with RES.
Photo: Gadget Creative Lab

This post is presented by Gadget Creative Lab, maker of the RES.

When the iPhone 7 came out, many bemoaned the loss of the headphone jack. The traditional way to use headphones disappeared, leaving iPhone 7 owners with just three options: Bluetooth, Lightning headphones or weird dongles. Luckily, the RES can take you back to a simpler time — and solve one of the iPhone’s other shortcomings at the same time.

Back up your Windows Boot Camp partition the easy way

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Winclone 6 makes it even easier to back up and copy your Mac's Windows partition.
Winclone 6 makes it even easier to back up and copy your Mac's Windows partition.
Image: Twocanoes Software

This post is brought to you by Twocanoes Software, which is releasing the sixth version of its popular Mac utility Winclone.

One of the great things about owning a Mac is how easily you can run Windows. But while there’s no need to hack anything together, that doesn’t mean running Windows on a Mac isn’t tricky.

How to find the right VPN for you

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The Best VPN
How do you choose the best VPN from the dizzying array of options?
Image: The Best VPN

This post is brought to you by The Best VPN.

If you surf the web in public — at a coffee shop, airport or hotel — you absolutely must use virtual private network software. But with so many versions and variations, from so many different VPN providers, the eyes glaze over at the very mention of this security essential.

How to maximize your MacBook trade-in

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Even a broken MacBook is worth something -- if you take the right steps and find the right buyback program.
Even a broken MacBook is worth something.
Photo: MyPhones Unlimited

Because there are fewer MacBooks than iPhones on the market, and the laptops are more difficult to repair, buyback programs typically shortchange you when it comes to Apple computers.

But there are three easy tricks that will help you maximize your profit when you trade your old MacBook for cash. (You’ll also want to choose your buyback company wisely, but don’t worry — we’ve got a hot tip for that as well.)

How indie devs at Smile won 100,000 happy customers

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Greg Scown, CEO of Smile
Smile CEO Greg Scown leads the team that created popular Mac apps TextExpander and PDFpen.
Photo courtesy Smile

Our App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

Smile, the indie development team behind super-popular productivity apps TextExpander and PDFpen, cut its teeth writing software for technology that barely exists anymore. But thanks to a user-focused attitude and a wholehearted embrace of the third-party tools that power modern offices, the company has been able to keep ahead of the curve as technology changes.

With Setapp, buying Mac apps goes the way of the dusty DVD collection

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Setapp Mac apps subscription service
You probably don't go to the store for DVDs anymore. Why do it for Mac apps?
Photo: MacPaw

This post is presented by MacPaw, the software team behind Setapp and a variety of proven Mac apps.

Remember the good old days when owning the movies you wanted meant going to the store to buy DVDs? Nowadays, most of us don’t even have a DVD player, and with good reason. Joining a streaming service like Netflix, which lets you pick and choose from a wide variety of great content, is a much more sensible option. It saves you time, effort, space, money and the waste of a misguided purchase (just think of all those DVDs gathering dust).