Mac apps - page 35

Ok, I’ll admit it: I still haven’t kicked my RSS addiction. As hard as I try to just use sources like Twitter and Flipboard to get my news, there’s something about having every article from every site I follow in one place. And in my line of work, it’s very important to stay on top of the news cycle.

For the longest time I’ve used Reeder to scan RSS feeds on all of my devices. The iPhone, iPad and Mac apps are about as good as it gets for RSS, but I’ve been longing for some competitive apps to come on the scene. On the Mac, a RSS client called Caffeinated may have way it takes to dethrone the reigning champion, Reeder.

TUAW reported earlier on Thursday that Apple was planning to start rejecting apps from the Mac App Store that used universal hotkeys to trigger functions and access features. The ban was supposedly set to go into effect on June 1st alongside Apple’s app sandboxing deadline. A new report from Macworld debunks TUAW’s claim by saying that Apple is not planning to start rejecting apps like Alfred that rely on universal keyboard shortcuts.

As OS X continues to become more of a consumer-oriented platform and less of a power user-friendly environment, Apple is reportedly set to begin enforcing new guidelines in the Mac App Store that will ban apps that use “hotkey” functionality.

Apps like Alfred are able to give the user a universal system hotkey that can be used to access the app anywhere in OS X. Starting on June 1st, Apple will be prohibiting these kinds of system-wide features from making their way into the Mac App Store.

Do you have a hard time keeping your Mac windows where you want them? Sick of manually adjusting the ever-changing Tetris puzzle of your OS X desktop? Think the green + button at the top left of every Mac window is beyond useless at intelligently resizing an app?

You’re not alone. You want to download Windownaut, a new app that supercharges that green + button to allow you to quickly and easily snap your windows to any location you want on your Mac’s display.

Droplr, the popular web and app service for sharing files and links online, has launched its Droplr Pro plan. In case you didn’t know, Droplr is an incredibly slick way of sharing and storing media in the cloud. The iPhone and Mac apps can also be used to share files with shortened links, much like CloudApp.

Droplr Pro offers a completely ad-free experience, views/downloads statistics, increased storage, private drops, customized drop views, and custom domain configuration for short URLs. The service costs $3 per month or $30 per year.

Spotify announced a major update to its Mac and Windows desktop apps today. Version 0.8.3 has begun rolling out to users of the popular music streaming service, and the update brings several new features and improvements.

Pandora-like radio stations can now be created based on Spotify playlists. Like Google’s search results, Spotify has also added Instant Search for immediately displaying search results. Playable song buttons can now be copied and embedded with HTML on the web. Sharing options have also been expanded for social networks like Tumblr.

The Mac has had a vibrant, growing community of developers for many years, and Apple has continued to encourage third-party developer participation with the Mac App Store. Launched in January of 2011, the Mac App Store already boasts 10,000 apps. It’s easier then ever for developers to get their apps in front of millions of OS X users. But what if you don’t want to play by Apple’s rules? Or what you if you want your app to be seen by as many eyes as possible? Then you start to look outside the Mac App Store.

While Apple’s is great in its own ways, other storefronts are offering different —and in many ways better — experiences for app distribution and discovery. In fact, there’s a certain Mac app out there that’s been doing it well for a long time.

Cult of Mac Deals is wrapping up another stellar app bundle lined up for our readers — with a total savings of over $400 on 9 great Mac apps! All of these apps would normally retail for $453 on their own. But thanks to Cult of Mac Deals you can get all of them for only $49 for a limited time. That’s an 89% savings!

But time’s running out to get your hands on The Mac SuperBundle…because it ends in just a few hours!

Apple launched the Mac App Store with over 1,000 apps back in January of 2011, and the digital storefront has been rapidly growing ever since. Thanks to warm reception from the developer community and the exclusive distribution of software like Final Cut Pro X and OS X Lion, Apple controls the largest and most vibrant PC software storefront in the world.

15 months in and the Mac App Store is home to more than 10,000 apps. While not as big a number as the iOS App Store’s 500,000+ titles, the success of the Mac App Store heralds the future of software distribution.

Looking to power up your Mac — and to do it for FREE? Well, Cult of Mac Deals has another great giveaway lined up for you — as in we’re giving 1 lucky winner The Mac SuperBundle!

The apps in this bundle can help you in a wide variety of activities, from digital media with Roxio Toast to searching for files more efficiently and effectively with Houdah Tembo to keeping track of your home inventory easily with Compartments.

All of these apps would normally retail for $453 on their own!

Following the announcement of the already-sold-out WWDC 2012, Apple has officially begun accepting nominations for its 2012 Apple Design Awards. Mac and iOS apps can be nominated to win the most prestigious developer awards Apple gives each year, and past winners include apps like Infinity Blade and Things.

Registered iOS developers can nominate apps today and Apple will announce the winners at WWDC in June.

Whoa. WWDC 2012 was announced just under two hours ago, and the conference has already sold out. Apple has confirmed the news, and devs who weren’t able to grab a ticket are out of luck.

Three years ago, WWDC sold out in a month. The next year took a week to sell out. 2011 took just 12 hours. This year took 2 hours. How fast will next year sell out?

Amazon today announced its “Send to Kindle” app for Mac users. The free tool can send documents from a Mac to registered Kindle devices (including the iOS Kindle app) wirelessly. Many are unaware that each Kindle account comes with its own email address, and Amazon lets its users send documents to devices through that address. Popular bookmarking service Instapaper also lets its users push articles to a Kindle account for reading later.

The new Send to Kindle app cuts out the email middleman for desktop computer owners.

Several weeks ago we brought you an exclusive look at the HackStore, an upcoming Mac App Store alternative for unapproved OS X apps and tweaks. After finishing up development, the HackStore is now available for everyone to download.

Cult of Mac Deals has another stellar app bundle lined up for our readers — with a total savings of over $400 on 9 great Mac apps! The apps in this bundle can help you in a wide variety of activities, from digital media with Roxio Toast to searching for files more efficiently and effectively with Houdah Tembo to keeping track of your home inventory easily with Compartments.

All of these apps would normally retail for $453 on their own. But thanks to Cult of Mac Deals you can get all of them for only $49 for a limited time. That’s an 89% savings!

The other day, I was setting up an iPad for a client of mine when I noticed that there was 5 Gb of space being used on the device. When I plugged the iPad into my Macbook Air and opened iTunes, it said that the iPad had 3.9 Gb of space in the “Other” category, but none of the files in the file sharing section of iTunes were that big. This conundrum led me to today’s tip.

Apple has released updates for three of its production apps, Final Cut Pro X, Motion, and Compressor. Verizon 10.0.4 of Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5.0.3, and Compressor 4.0.3 are all available now as updates in the Mac App Store. Overall stability improvements and multiple bug fixes have been included across the board.

When the App Store first launched on iOS, the need for an alternative marketplace quickly arose. Jailbreakers and power-users wanted a way to download and install apps that gave them more control over their devices than what Apple would allow.

That was how Cydia was born. Created by Jay ‘saurik‘ Freeman, the Cydia app store allows users with jailbroken devices to not only install apps that bypass a number of iOS’s built-in restrictions, but to more easily discover them.

On the Mac, there’s obviously no jailbreaking, but given the sandboxing restrictions placed upon App Store developers, there’s still a need for a Cydia-like alternative: an easy-to-use, curated catalog for apps that give power-users too much control over their systems for Apple’s comfort.

Enter the HackStore, which hopes one day to be as synonymous with user-empowered Macs as Cydia is with jailbroken iOS devices.

Apple has released a new version of its iAd Producer application with multiple additions and fixes. Overall speed and stability for version 2.1 has improved, and features like Twitter integration, support for the third-gen iPad, improved ad testing, and more have been added.

Remember when we told you about the amazing Reflection Mac app that lets you mirror your iOS device screen over AirPlay? Well, the developer of Reflection just updated the app with support for Apple’s latest iPad and its beautiful Retina display.

The huge update also includes support for recording audio as well as video from your iPhone or iPad. Several new features, including full screen ‘theatre’ streaming to your Mac, have been included in version 1.2 of Reflection as well.

The guys at MacLegion are back at it with their 2012 Spring Bundle. They’ve assembled 10 fantastic Mac apps from great developers and packaged them into an offering that’s hard to pass up. If you decide to purchase this year’s Spring Bundle, you’ll be getting $800 worth of Mac software for only $50. Doesn’t get much better than that.

There’s only a little over a week left before the bundle expires, so don’t hesitate to buy if you’re interested.

Following the release of iOS 5.1 and the long-awaited ability to delete individual photos from Photo Stream, a new version of iPhoto for Mac has been released with the same feature. You can now delete photos from your iCloud Photo Stream on all of your Apple devices and have your changes synced instantly.

Skype has released a new public version of its Mac app with full screen video mode for OS X Lion, automatic updates, improved group calling, and more. Version 5.6 includes multiple bug fixes and interface improvements.

A new Mac app called Reflection allows you to wirelessly mirror your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 screen on your Mac. Using the magic of AirPlay and OS X Lion, Reflection will allow you to view your iOS device’s screen in real time on your Mac display, no setup required. Screen activity can be recorded and saved to your desktop. You can even kick back and play your favorite iOS game on your giant iMac! Now that’s awesome.

Although Apple just announced OS X Mountain Lion last Thursday, Mac apps are already getting updated for compatibility with the next-gen OS. Mountain Lion is only available as a developer preview, but that hasn’t kept Smile from updating its popular PDF editor for the Mac, PDFpen, with Gatekeeper compatibility.

Smile makes great productivity apps for the Mac, like TextExpander. With this latest update to PDFpen, a Gatekeeper-friendly Developer ID has been added to help future Mountain Lion users install the app in a secure environment.