Chances are, you’ll want to keep track of how your computer is working. There are many apps out there to help you visualize this info, like the app we talked about a couple of weeks ago, MiStat. Today’s tip app does a similar function with a much lighter interface.
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.
OS X has been undergoing a gradual process of iOS-ification ever since Lion was released last year, and that process will continue with this year’s Mountain Lion. A new rumor states, however, that it won’t end there, and iPhoto ’12 will be packed with features lifted from iPhoto for iOS when it is released on the Mac App Store this summer.
If you’ve ever wanted to know the pros and cons of jailbreaking your iPhone or iPad, episode 9 of The CultCast just hit iTunes, and you’re not going to want to miss our breakdown of everything jailbreak. Interestingly, Apple seems to have covered up the word “Jailbreak” in the show title on iTunes, but you should see the full word when you actually download the show. (Apple can’t have the big bad j*******k word in its iTunes Store, now can it?)
And speaking of iPads, is your new retina-beauty plagued with the same yellow-tinted screen others on the web are experiencing? We’ll tell you what the problem is and what to do about.
All that, iPad mini rumors, and a whole lot more on this week’s CultCast — subscribe now on iTunes!
I can think of a ton of reasons to use a timer: boiling eggs, practicing times tables, timing a shower to conserver water, and a host of other tasks both domestic and official. Most of us have a timer, either on our iPhone or on a microwave in the kitchen. What if you wanted to time several things at once, though? Luckily, we’ve got you covered with today’s tip.
Apple has changed its mind about DragonDrop, the file moving utility that we reviewed here a few weeks ago, and granted the app a place in the Mac App Store after initially saying it would never back down.
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.
Ticket to Ride has become one of the most popular board games adapted for iOS devices, selling 800,000 copies and picking up a whole host of accolades since its debut back in November 2011. It has now made the leap from iOS to the Mac and is available to purchase from the Mac App Store from today.
Apple has released iPhoto 9.2.3 today, a minor update which adds no new features, but promises to improve stability and address an issue that could cause the application to quit unexpectedly on machines with multiple user accounts.
Apple has released updates to its Logic Pro and Logic Express music editing software today, improving the stability of both applications and addressing minor issues that may have plagued some users in the previous release. The version 9.1.7 updates are available to download now from the Mac App Store, or via Software Update.
If you know your Apple history, you’ll probably know that NeXTSTEP, the grandfather of modern OS X, had a clever feature called the Shelf, a placeholder where you could temporarily drop files while dragging them from one location to another. Sadly, Mac OS X has never replicated this in Finder.
So today there’s a brand new app for OS X that seeks to fix this. It’s called DragonDrop, and you can buy it for five bucks.
Developer Mark Christian released it independently today after weeks of trying to get it into the Mac App Store. Apple weren’t interested, and rejected it every time.
One of the new features of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion has been the addition of Gatekeeper. By only allowing apps to be installed from the Mac App Store, Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper feature gives users a new level of security from malicious software.
Some users feel Gatekeeper is a sign that Apple is moving toward a completely closed desktop operating system that will only allow apps from the Mac App Store to be installed. Easing concerns of this draconian controversy, this afternoon Apple announced the Developer ID program that will help third-party developers distribute their apps safely outside of the Mac App Store.
Apple hasn’t made the Mac App Store the only source for Mac software, but the company is nudging both developers and users in the store’s direction. That’s fine for consumers, but it may create problems for businesses that need to buy software in bulk and distribute it to a large number of Macs.
One of the most beautiful games on the Mac App Store, Trine, is on sale for a limited time only for just $0.99. You should get it.
Sometimes the morass of Mail windows on a Mac can just become too much. Various apps have tried to help manage this in various ways: Sparrow by bringing the streamlined Tweetie aesthetic to mail, Postbox by in-line quick replies, and so on.
Even so, more often than not, when I close Mail for the day, I’m closing about a dozen or two blank or half-written email windows that have been opened during the day, then forgotten. Why can’t sending an email be as painlessly fire-and-forget as sending an IM? Enter QuickMailer.
Were you one of the people who freaked out about OS X Lion not shipping on DVD? Did you get outraged that the cost of a OS X Lion USB thumb drive cost $69.00, more than double the price of Lion through the App Store? Well, prepare to be incensed, because when OS X Mountain Lion ships, it’ll be a Mac App Store exclusive. That means it won’t even ship on a thumb drive anymore.
Yesterday we showed you how in OS X Mountain Lion, Software Update has shifted from its own app to the Mac App Store. But how will that work with updating apps that weren’t purchased through the App Store, but were instead bundled with your Mac at point-of-sale or installed from a DVD?
As you can see in the screenshot above, Apple’s got it covered: the Mountain Lion App Store will automatically detect any app that has historically been updated through Software Update and ask to register it to your Apple ID, along with a unique hardware identifier.
Osfoora, a popular Twitter client that made its debut on the iPhone, has made the leap from iOS to the Mac. It is now contending with the likes of Echofon, Twitterific, and Twitter in the Mac App Store, but is it worth its $4.99 price tag?
This is interesting. With OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has ditched Software Update as a standalone application, and instead baked its functionality into the Mac App Store’s “Updates” panel. Now if you hit Software Update, the Mac App Store loads and all of the integral software updates are found under a drop-down box under OS X Update.
Mountain Lion’s GateKeeper feature is designed to improve Mac security by harnessing the power of the Mac App Store and through a new developer program in which Apple will offer Developer IDs to members of its Mac Developer Program. Those IDs will let developers digitally sign their applications so that Mountain Lion Macs can verify an app’s authenticity and security before running it.
While this may seem like a new approach and an extension of the Mac App Store model, it’s actually based on technology that has been part of OS X since the release of Leopard.
GateKeeper is one of the big new features in Mountain Lion. It’s designed to protect against malware by limiting what kinds of software gets installed on your Mac. GateKeeper offers Mac users three levels of security: Mac App Store purchases (which have been fully vetted by Apple), Developer ID apps purchased outside the Mac App Store that are digitally signed so your Mac can verify their authenticity via Apple, and apps from all other sources.
The GateKeeper model looks great from the perspective of an individual user or family – easy to understand and use while being fairly effective at leveraging Apple’s developer program as a security solution. How it will stack up in business and enterprise environments, where mass deployment are commonplace, may be a different story.
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?
Apple has issued what it describes a “significant” update to its Final Cut Pro X software today, adding a number of features that many users missed with the initial release. Those features include multicam editing, XML support, advanced chroma editing, and more.
If you thought there would be little interest in an Apple event that didn’t include new hardware, think again. Following the unveiling of iBooks 2 with support for textbooks last week, Apple saw an incredible 350,000 textbook downloads in just three days of availability.
Tree is an outliner with a difference – it offers an unusual horizontal view of your document alongside a host of useful outlining features.
