software - page 20

Speculation and squatting on app names has been a going on in the App Store for a while. It eventually became so problematic that Apple initiated some serious new guidelines aimed at cracking down on App Store squatters who were sitting atop popular app names without any app to show for it. That policy change seems to have worked in cutting down on name squatting in the iOS app store…. but if early indications are to be believed, it appears that Apple’s forthcoming Mac App Store might have an even bigger squatting problem on its hands, and that problem could keep some of the Mac’s best loved software frozen out of the Mac App Store indefinitely.

It’s happened to us all: You delete a file, folder or entire disk, then realize you’ve made a mistake.  You reach for your backup – and you don’t have a backup. What now?

There are several utilities available to help recover deleted files under Mac OS X.  Your chances of success depend on how the file was deleted and what you’ve done since then.  Unfortunately you will also lose your original filenames, though some reconstruction is possible.

With the release Thursday of 5.0 Beta for Mac OS X, Internet communications giant Skype took a big step on the path to aligning the Windows and Mac versions of its flagship calling platform.

Mac users who’d grown used to the modular UI of previous versions may find the new, more unified interface arresting initially, but there’s no question Skype designers have brought their software well within the confines of the “iTunes” UI model and new Skype for Mac users, should there be any left on the planet, ought to feel right at home from the get-go.

The big news with the new release is support for group video calling, for which Skype borrows from Safari’s curved pane effect to display the feeds of individuals on a group call, with the more important feature being that it just works.

If you’re a Mac developer hoping to squeeze some more sales out of your software by bringing it to the Mac App Store, rev up your engines: Apple has notified developers that they are now accepting submissions.

Magic Launch is an OS X application that attempts to solve the creator codes problem that was introduced with Snow Leopard (see our original coverage here.

The issue didn’t affect everyone, only people who work with certain files in a variety of different applications.

NY-based DJ Rana Sobhany is fully committed to Apple’s mobile hardware — iPads and iPhones — as the technology that will be used to create the next generation of mobile music production. Her website Destroy the Silence chronicles her iPad Music Experiment and is filled with audio and video clips showing how the author and former instrumental musician is warping the boundaries of nightclub and dancefloor music production.

Sobhany notes in a recent interview that the strong emotional connection usually present between audiences and traditional live music performers can be lost in the transition to computer-based performance. She feels the touch-screen UI of Apple’s flagship mobile device may be able to help bridge that divide. “The iPad creates complete audio and visual engagement with the audience because I’m not just clicking a mouse,” she says, adding “I’m actively using these apps and mixing beats.”

This link points to a 10 minute clip of music Sobhany created during a recent set at the House of Blues in LA. It was mixed live on two iPads with one additional synth/drum machine controller powered by an iPhone.

[FastCompany]

The best multi-IM client on the Mac got a meaty update over the weekend and now at version 1.4, Adium is quacking louder and prouder than ever before.

The biggest new feature in Adium 1.4 is Twitter support. I have to say, having played around with it, it’s not about to replace YoruFokurou as my go-to Twitter client. Like IRC support for it before it, Adium’s trying to shoehorn functionality in that doesn’t really fit. Adium’s Twitter implementation simply crams your timeline of Tweets into an always-open IM window, like a big group chat. That might work for some with more manageable Twitter contact lists, but for me, I quickly turned off Adium’s Twitter support.

There’s more to the new Adium than Twitter support too. It also gains full IRC support, improved group chat, bookmarks for persistent chats and many other tweaks and fixes. You’ll need OS X 10.5.8 or greater, and the new version is roughly a 25MB download.

I want to like MobileMe.  It’s the Apple-sanctioned slice of cloud computing, integrated with the Mac and iOS operating systems.  The setup is simple, the price is reasonable, and despite the unprofessional name and lack of phone support, when all is humming along things just work.

Except MobileMe doesn’t keep working.  It stops syncing.  It loses data.  And Apple provides little or no advance warning of potential problems, nor easy ways to fix issues that occur.  Apple TV may have moved on to a professional product stage with the latest iteration, but from a business perspective MobileMe is still a “hobby” for Apple.

Remember that issue with Skype for Mac 2.8.x that prevented you from logging on to your new MacBook Air? Seems like that issue actually applied to all new Skype for Mac installs, but not to worry: a very insistent member of Skype’s PR team has just sent us an email, clarifying that Skupe for Mac 2.8.0.863 fixes the issue once and for all. You can download it here. All is well in the world.

Time Sink is a new tool from Many Tricks, who also make cool things like Butler and Witch.

Time Sink monitors how you use your Mac – which applications you use, and how long you use them for. It collates and aggregates this data over time, displaying it an attractive chart.

Earlier this month, Microsoft promised that Mac owners born with mental aberrations grave enough to compel them to buy a Windows Phone 7 handset over an iPhone would be facilitated in their madness by native OS X syncing software, and what do you know, Microsoft was as good as its word.

The software is called Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac, and it will allow you to sync content including music, photos, video and podcasts from your Mac to your Windows Phone 7 handset. You can read a review of the software here.

If you’re a regular user of Skype and you’re considering picking up a MacBook Air, be warned: for some reason, Skype version 2.8.x just does not want to play nice with Apple’s new, wafer-thin notebook.

It’s not clear what is causing the problem, but the symptom is obvious: when you first open Skype, the login phase never fully resolves itself. Instead, users find themselves stuck staring at the login window until they quit the app.

Next Monday is November 1st and for us would-be wordsmiths, that date has special import as the first day of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Over the next thirty days, tens of thousands of would-be novelists will smash out as much prose as they can, trying to finish the first draft of a short, complete novel before the clock strikes midnight on November 30th.

In order to help novelists prepare for the orgy of fiction that will all but consume the lives of Mac-using NaNoWriMo next month, Scrivener — our favorite project planner for writers and novelists — has seen fit to release the public preview of the much anticipated 2.0 update… and it’ll be completely free to use until December 7th.

Last week, Microsoft released the anticipated Office 2011 for Mac update, the first OS X version of their popular Office suite for several years. It’s getting good reviews, but you know who hates it? David Pogue, who describes it as utterly broken in a lengthy review.

The whole thing’s worth reading, but here’s the takeaway:

[I]t’s sad to see such unpolished work from Microsoft’s Mac team. Looks like they had their eye on the big-ticket items—and simply left the smaller cookies to crumble.

I have no thoughts to share yet on the matter, except to say that I wanted to dump sewage all over Steve Ballmer’s head when I installed the application suite and it immediately dumped seven or eight hideous icons into my dock without once consulting me.

At this point, we’re not really surprised when Apple’s new software drops support for old PowerPC Macs. Apple’s been building PCs on Intel hardware for four years now: at some point, going through all the expense and bother of coding for obsolete hardware just stops being worth it.

So when iLife ’11 dropped PowerPC support, we weren’t surprised. It’s not really a big deal: the previous version of iLife works just fine on the PowerPC architecture, and if you’re going to work on a five year old computer, you can live with a two year old media productivity suite, we reckon.

More surprising to us is iLife ’11’s strict requirement for a minimum OS install of Snow Leopard. That’s more than a little strange, although during the presentation, Jobs did mention that iLife ’11 was built upon many of the core technologies introduced in Snow Leopard.

The forthcoming Mac App Store is pretty exciting news, but one thing I didn’t really get a good handle on during Steve Jobs’ keynote is if apps were distinct from programs in Apple’s mind. For me, an app is a smaller bit of less fully-functioned code, easily digested, while a program affords a much more substantial suite of functionality. Would the Mac App Store just be selling tinier programs, eschewing beefier applications like Photoshop or even Apple’s own iLife and iWork suite? I wasn’t quite sure.

It seems, though, that Apple answered my question during their own presentation. During Wednesday’s “Back to Mac” event, the keen-eyed fellows over at Electric Pig spotted iPhoto, GarageBand and iMovie as being apps on sale in the Mac App Store, each for a price of $14.99.

Apple has released the following updates in order to support iLife ’11 more effectively: ProKit Update 6.0.1, and Aperture Update 3.1. In addition to those updates Apple has also release Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3 in order to better support ava SE 6 to 1.6.0_22.

The updates were made available earlier today. Just launch Software Update on your Mac to download and install these now.

Click the read link below for details on these new updates that were provided by Apple.

Crap! You just popped for a new MacBook Pro two weeks ago, and now Apple goes and releases the superfabulous iLife ’11, meaning you’ve gotta fork over another $49 for a copy (or $79 for the five-computer Family Pack), right?

Nope! Apple is letting recent Mac buyers upgrade from the previous version of iLife for $7, so long as they bought the Mac(s) on or after Oct. 1; same deal applies to anyone buying a Mac now or in the future without iLife ’11. Bummer: The $7 upgrade is only available online, so you’ll have to wait for it in the mail — or wince as you pay for a $49 copy from an Apple Store, if you’re in a hurry.

Despite a massive lion lurking in the background of the press invite for today’s event, the big news didn’t have much to do with OS X 10.7 (now officially “Lion”); instead, the big news was about the new MacBook Air pair, the Mac App Store, FaceTime for Mac — and iLife ’11

In fact, iLife almost stole the thunder from the later “one more thing” MacBook Air announcement. And for good reason: There’re some really impressive features included in this round of what is quite possibly the best software suite to ever come standard on a manufacturer’s entire product line.

Professional post-production photo effects software complete with hundreds of detailed, fine-grained controls to create virtually unlimited artistic styles for under a hundred bucks?

No way, you say.

Way.

PostworkShop is software from Xycod, a small Hungarian company that has built creative artists — of whom a number use Macs, apparently — a tool that so exceeds its cost in value, it’s nearly as breathtaking as some of the work it can be used to create.

iBooks is plenty impressive, but despite Apple’s own leap into the realm of e-books, Amazon is going strong with the Kindle platform. They’ve managed to price the Kindle affordably enough at this point that few who only want an e-reader are likely to spend another few hundred on an iPad, and they’ve successfully managed to leverage their real strength against iBooks time and time again: if you buy a book through Amazon, you will not only be able to read it on every gadget out there, whether you have a Kindle, an Android smartphone, or a Mac… but thanks to their Whispersync technology, you’ll even be able to keep your bookmarks and annotations synced across every platform forever.

It’s nice to see Amazon fighting so ably against the competition of iBooks to their empire, and even nicer to see a new update to their Kindle for Mac software come down the pipeline which adds improved Whispersync functionality, which will allow you to keep your notes and highlighted passages synced across all your devices. There’s also a refreshed interface which looks much more Mac-like than previously.

If you buy Kindle over iBooks — and there’s absolutely no shame in that — go grab the latest update now.

Obihai Technology, a tiny Cupertino start-up, this month brought to market its first product, the OBi110 — an unassuming $70 box with blinky lights that may well prove to be the most disruptive telephony device to come along in a decade.

The OBi110 is the physical hub in a multi-layered communications model the company believes can revolutionize the way consumers use their mobile, Internet and fixed-line telephony services, bringing emerging social networking behaviors together with maturing Voice over IP (VoIP) technology to create total communication freedom at the personal level.

With web and mobile-based software products, including an iPhone app presently in Beta testing, Obihai is poised to show the millions of consumers who’ve bought magicJacks and all 237 of them who’ve bought an Ooma just how IP telephony can be done.

If you’ve ever spent any time exploring the world of OS X notebook applications, you’ll have bumped up against Eastgate Systems’ Tinderbox, without doubt one of the most powerful of them all.

It’s also one of the most expensive, and the one that polarises opinion most often. Tinderbox fans simply love the advanced features it comes with; critics point to the difficulty newcomers will have in getting to grips with them.

So, enter stage right: Twig, which although I’ve thought long and hard for a better term, is perhaps best described as “Tinderbox lite”. So what is it, exactly?

Yojimbo users, here’s the news you’ve been waiting for.

Yojimbo 3.0 is out today, and with it comes a companion iPad application that lets you take your Yojimbo database to go.

Next week on October 20th, we can take it pretty much for granted that Apple is going to unveil the next iteration of OS X, 10.7 codenamed ‘Lion’, along with their annual October MacBook refreshes. What about iLife ’11, though, which we’ve been seeing burbling up for months now in the form of Idiot’s Guides and instruction manuals on Amazon and the like? Can we expect that to be announced as well?

It’s looking good. Apparently, retail employees of Apple’s stores are running low on their supplies of the last iLife software suite, with no new stock due to come in. This is in addition to seeing prices drop on Amazon: an inventory clear out that usually serves as precursor to a new iLife launch.

What’s new in iLife ’11? Hard to say for sure, but rumor has it that iDVD may go the way of the iDodo and the whole suite may have been rewritten from the ground up for 64-bit. There’s also rumors about beefier iOS integration and maybe even FaceTime support. We’ll all know next Wednesday.