For Mac developers, handling app licensing can be a huge hassle. Image: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
For independent Mac developers, one of the big, daunting tasks that the Mac App Store efficiently handles is app licensing. You just submit your app, then the store manages the actual app license through its user accounts. But this unquestionable convenience comes with a few critical downsides.
These three MacX apps add a suite of tools and capacities for working with media of all kinds. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
It’s amazing the difference an app can make for the productive potential of your Mac. This power trio of apps from MacX adds a wide set of tools and utilities for for ripping DVDs, converting videos, and managing files on your drive. And right now you can get the whole shebang for $19.95 at Cult of Mac Deals.
The indie developers at DigiDNA scored their first hit with iMazing for Mac. Photo: DigiDNA
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
Sometimes you’ve got to think small to hit it big. For DigiDNA, a Swiss development team that makes popular software for managing iOS devices, that means functioning more like a tight rock ‘n’ roll band than a sprawling orchestra.
Apple’s magical new MacBook Pro hasn’t even shipped yet, but that hasn’t stopped one developer from creating the first Touch Bar fart app.
iOS developer Hung Truong churned out his new app, TouchFart, just hours after Apple released a new build of Xcode needed to make apps that support the new Touch Bar. Even though he hasn’t gotten to test it in a real-world scenario, you can watch TouchFart in action in a simulator.
Here are three problems we've run into so far. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
By now, most of you are probably upgraded to macOS Sierra, which is proving be a massive home run for Apple. However, while the new Mac OS packs some great new features, it’s also got a handful of problems — ranging from strange error messages to Wi-Fi issues.
Check out our video below for three macOS Sierra problems we’ve run into so far — and how we were able to solve them.
Apple's bold vision of future tech inches closer to reality. Photo: Apple
This week on The CultCast: Revamped iPads coming this spring; Apple lays the groundwork for the next era of personal technology; how smart homes get hacked; Google’s Pixel phone versus iPhone 7; and we reveal our favorite new iOS and Mac apps!
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to build a website that looks beautiful on any device that visits at Squarespace.com. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10 percent off.
Get the latest version of the greatest name in media capture and conversion, for half off Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
If you work with a lot of digital media, professionally or just for fun, you know the critical importance of a versatile and reliable converter. You’ve also probably well aware of Toast Titanium, the top name in media conversion. The latest version of Toast is also the greatest, slathered with new features for maximizing any digital media workflow. And right now, you can get Toast Titanium 15 for just $49 at Cult of Mac Deals.
This packed bundle of award-winning Mac apps is yours for whatever you're ready to pay Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
How often do you get more than you asked for at a cost that’s less than you expect? When it comes to Mac software, you’re not likely to find a better collection than this bundle of award-winning apps.
From productivity to photography, there’s something here that anyone can use. But the best part of all is that you can name your price for all 13 Mac apps.
Protecting apps from crackers can be a daunting task for developers. Image: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
App developers put a lot of time and effort into preventing their apps from being cracked or pirated. But for every coder taking a step toward making an app more secure, there’s someone on the march to crack it. The integrity of any app is subject to an ongoing arms race.
The most popular and useful apps are the most likely to release the cracken (I’m so sorry), so finding out that a bunch of people have downloaded your app illegally can be worn as something of a badge of pride. But that’s cold comfort when you’re losing customers, so let’s take a look at a couple of the most likely app-cracking approaches developers should protect against.
Dr.Fone gets under the hood of iOS to make iPhone data recovery simple. Image: Wondershare
This post is brought to you by Wondershare, maker of Dr.Fone.
Say you’ve deleted your messages before backing up your iPhone. Usually the best iTunes can offer is a shrug. With a convoluted and opaque system of options, it makes a task that should be a simple matter — finding the stuff you need and getting (or returning) it to your device — overly confusing and frustrating. Worse yet, iTunes can often lead to results you’re not looking for.
It's simple to crank out PDFs with Wondershare PDF Creator for Mac. Image: Wondershare
This post brought to you by Wondershare, maker of PDF Creator for Mac.
Wondershare has cemented itself as a dominant software-development company around the globe, thanks to an array of world-class software tools it has designed and tailored to fit the demands of the market.
For many of us, Instagram is the primary place to get our daily fix of fresh images and videos. We’ll spend hours browsing the feeds of friends and family, and our favorite artists, public figures or journalists. But all that addicting content — including what you post yourself — stays on Instagram’s servers, where it’s a bit of a hassle to find and only accessible by logging in.
Download nearly any video from any site including YouTube and Vimeo Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Streaming videos has opened up a whole new way to enjoy TV shows and movies, but when the connection drops so does the fun. We used to videotape and DVR our favorite content, but in the streaming age you need something more like Movie Sherlock Pro. It lets you easily stockpile movies, shows, YouTube videos, and more on your Mac. This is an invaluable addition to any media lover’s toolkit, and right now you can get it for just $15 at Cult of Mac Deals.
So many ways to lose your iPhone data; one simple way to get it back. Image: iMyfone Technology Co.
This post is brought to you by iMyfone Technology Co., maker of iMyfone D-Back.
Conversations, photos, notes — with the iPhone, the data we rely on most has never felt closer or more convenient. But when something goes wrong and that data disappears, it’s anything but convenient. And iTunes, with its tricky backup scheme based on bulk syncs rather than individual selections, doesn’t always help.
Putting a price tag on in-house app development can be tricky. Photo: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
If you’re developing a Mac app, you’re faced with a major either/or decision: whether to distribute inside or outside of the Mac App Store (MAS). Sticking to the MAS means you’ve got access to tools for licensing, hosting, crash reporting and other necessary tasks. However, Apple’s tools may not be what’s best for your app.
This bundle of seven cybersecurity apps will bring your Mac to Fort Knox levels of protection. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
It’s hard to know if we’re doing enough to protect our online identities and data these days. Got an email password with a dozen alternating numbers, letters and an upside-down question mark but somehow your email still gets hacked? This bundle of seven cybersecurity apps will cover the vulnerabilities in your Mac. And right now the whole shebang is going for just $52 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Mac and PC are like yin and yang, or oil and water — essentially similar yet significantly distinct. It’s not just a difference in personal computing preference: The two platforms are literally built not to communicate with one another.
Apple and Microsoft coded their operating systems using completely different languages for writing files to drives, HFS+ and NTFS respectively. OS X offers only limited support for files written to a Windows-formatted drive, whether an external hard drive, SSD or USB stick, which can mean major headaches if you’re living or working in a cross-platform world.
You need a game plan if you want to successfully launch your Mac app. Image: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
So you’re going to launch an app for Mac. Congrats! Now you’ve got to figure out an app marketing strategy that will get it to the widest audience possible.
There are many ways to approach the birth of a new product, but even in a field as fast-growing and dynamic as the world of apps, experience has yielded accepted wisdom about the best ways to start and maintain a successful campaign. Here are great rules of thumb for maximizing impact and customers for your app.
Project Planning Pro is a great tool for keeping your projects on track. Photo: i2e Consulting
This post is brought to you by i2e Consulting.
Keeping any project on track is like cooking a meal, requiring close attention to all the ingredients as well as the sequence and timing of critical tasks. In the kitchen you use a cookbook; in the digital workplace, you face a dizzying array of platforms and software for keeping all the goals, team members, deadlines and contingencies in order.
Project Planning Pro streamlines all that, and right now Cult of Mac is offering a special 30 percent discount on the Mac version of the easy-to-use software.
MacX MediaTrans makes it easy to back up and manage everything on your iPhone or iPad. Image: Digiarty Software
This post is brought to you by Digiarty Software.
Anyone who keeps half an eye on the world of Apple knows that iOS 10 and iPhone 7 are about to drop. This is a big deal: These major upgrades will bring a wide range of new capabilities and features, so you’ll likely be feeling the itch to upgrade soon.
But before you install iOS 10, or migrate to the iPhone 7, you ought to make sure you properly manage the data on your outgoing device. MacX MediaTrans offers a way to do just that, and it’s easier to use and more reliable than iTunes.
Keeping a digital collaboration humming can get expensive, especially as your team gets bigger and bigger. Making sure everybody has access to the same projects and files often takes a pricey subscription to a cloud platform like Dropbox. But right now a powerful solution is going for a huge discount of 98 percent — you can get a lifetime of Droplr for just $21.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
This bundle of powerful photo editing apps will let you make every photo a keeper. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Everyone’s taking photos these days thanks to smartphones, but unless you’re a professional photo editor you don’t need an expensive subscription to Photoshop to make your images look their best. With this bundle of photo editing apps for Mac — from noise reduction and artificial light source simulators to photo stitching, mosaic makers, image organizers and more — you’ll have everything you need to make every image a keeper. And right now you can get the whole shebang for just $29.99 at Cult of Mac Deals. Here’s what’s included:
Searching your photos just got easier! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is giving its Photos app a massive overhaul for macOS Sierra, adding cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to make searching for individual pictures far, far smarter than it’s ever been before.
The Photos app can now search upward of 4,432 scenes and objects, letting you pull just the pictures shot in your backyard, for instance, or only those that include your car. Although the feature’s not working in Apple’s beta releases just yet, the finished version of macOS Sierra also promises to recognize seven different facial expressions — including greediness, disgust, smiles, neutral, surprise, screaming and suspicious.
Here’s how to use Apple’s smart photo search when running the new operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.