software - page 22

Adobe’s just released a new version of their Flash Player for Mac into the wild. Called “Square,” the latest version enables native 64-bit support on OS X, which Adobe hopes will result in a substantial speed boost for users running modern Macs.

On our end, we haven’t seen much improvement, short of a marginal (and perhaps imaginary) performance boost under 64-bit Safari. It still seems to take up just as many system resources as before.

Are any of our readers experiencing varying mileage with Adobe Flash Square? Let us know in the comments: we keep on rooting for Adobe to prove Steve Jobs wrong, but it still remains a slow and unacceptable system hog.

If you’re a DevonThink user and an iPad owner, here’s some good news: the forthcoming DevonThink To Go app will let you take entire DT databases with you.

Just as you can with the desktop application, it’s possible to add notes into each database’s inbox while you’re out and about, and sort and categorize them later. Everything gets synced to your computer over a local wifi network when it suits you.

Although intended as a companion for the desktop, there’s no reason why you can’t use DevonThink To Go as a standalone iPad notebook and document storage box.

For a better idea of what’s to come, check out the screenshots gallery.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2I-jCY4N9I&feature=player_embedded

The Parallels Desktop
has been updated to version six today, bringing over eighty new features to the Windows virtualization program, including enhanced performance and vastly improved 3D graphics rendering speeds…. but maybe it’s neatest trick is finally letting you run Windows 7 on your iOS device.

Well, kind of. Parallels isn’t actually virtualizing Windows on your iPhone or iPad. Rather, the Parallels Mobile App is basically a VNC, allowing you to seamlessly connect and control your Parallels Windows install from any network-connected iOS device. Fair warning, though: things get a bit cramped trying to drive Windows from your iPhone.

Parallels Mobile is a free download from the App Store, while Parallels Desktop 6 costs $80, or $50 if you already own version 5.

OmmWriter, the curious word processor that we first mentioned here back in November 2009, has just been updated with a new version, OmmWriter Dana.

OmmWriter is different from other writing apps. It sees writing as a completely immersive activity, and tries to provide the writer with an environment worth getting immersed in. Not just full screen text, but also attractive background images, and soothing ambient sounds.

You either love it or you hate it. Some Cult readers loved it so much they voted it as one of the best new applications of last year.

If you work with multiple monitors, the following scenario might strike a chord: you’re busy working on a document in a secondary monitor, and you need to apply some software widget to the stuff you’ve just selected. You struggle to remember the keyboard shortcut but can’t; so you have to use the Menu Bar.

Problem is, the Menu Bar is back where your computer left it, on your primary monitor. Once in a while this might not be a problem, but if it’s a common occurrence in your workflow, it’s going to start getting irritating.

Binary Bakery’s MenuEverywhere is an application designed to solve this problem.

Let’s dispel here and now any notion that the next great guitar solo or hit record will be produced or recorded using Apple’s mobile devices or the myriad amplifier emulating and recording applications available for them today.

Will. Not. Happen.

That said, for the casual music enthusiast and app dabbler, a few interesting peripheral/app combinations continue to highlight the versatility of Apple’s mobile development platform — and point the way to a future in which talented individuals won’t have to invest thousands of dollars in equipment and studio time in order to produce professional sounding music recordings.

We’ve spent the past several weeks playing with three of these, from Agile Partners, Frontier Design Group, and IK Multimedia. Our report contains a decidedly mixed bag.

The Bundleeicious folks are back with a $10 bundle of six Mac apps, worth over $100 if each were bought separately.

Included are the $29 iDatabase, a database app that has a companion iPhone app (available separately for $3) and Punakea, a $25 app that allows users to organize files with tags.

The bundle will be around for nine more days before disappearing. Hit the jump for a preview of what else is included:

Ever been singing along to a new song and wondered just what the heck the lyrics really are? Searching for the lyrics on the internet isn’t the fastest of solutions to avoid lyric confusion. Here we’re going to show you how to utilize scripts and a widget to search out the lyrics for all of the songs in your iTunes library and automatically save them to song’s meta data, so that next time you can correct your friend when they sing “where’s my Asian friend,” when the lyrics really are, “what’s my age again.”

All Mac applications and system functions have preferences, but there are often more options available than are accessible via the User Interface.  Using the Terminal in Mac OS X in conjunction with the defaults write command, you can control behavior of the Finder, iTunes, etc. in ways that you otherwise can’t.

We noted the use of this command with the iTunes 10 button fix last week:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window 1

Following is a list of some other useful commands I’ve compiled which will work in Snow Leopard.

iPods are great nifty little devices that allow you to take music off of your computer and carry  it around town with you inside a magical Apple electronic device. But what happens when you want to transfer the music that’s on your iPod and put it back on your Mac? Despite all of its friendliness, iTunes is unwilling to pry the music of your iPod or iPhone. In this walk-through we’ll show you how to reclaim your music from your iPod and get it back on your Mac.

HP soon intends to relaunch their Palm-acquired webOS mobile operating system with a major new version, which they intend to use in a new lineup of devices to compete directly with iOS devices like the iPad. One new addition to the webOS arsenal of software features is pretty head-scratching, though: according to leaked screenshots of the software beta, the next version of webOS will sport MobileMe integration.

Huh. We don’t get it. Sure, Palm has done its dance with Apple before, giving Pre owners the ability to sync their media libraries through iTunes until Cupertino dropped the banhammer. But in that case, the benefits made sense. What does MobileMe integration get someone who has opted to buy a webOS phone or tablet instead of an iPhone or iPad… and just as importantly, what does it get HP, and will Apple kick?

[via Boy Genius Report]

If you fancy a computer reboot to start off your day in exchange for some better WebKit stability and security, Apple has just pushed a new Safari update down the pipeline, fixing a stable of bugs and freshly revealed security vulnerabilities, including:

• Fixes an issue that could prevent users from submitting web forms

• Fixes an issue that could cause web content to display incorrectly when viewing a Google Image result with Flash 10.1 installed

• Establishes an encrypted, authenticated connection to the Safari Extensions Gallery

The 39MB Safari 5.0.2 update is available through Software Update now, or directly from Apple… and if you’re still stuck on Tiger, Apple’s even gone the extra mile and snuck out a 4.1.2 update for you throwbacks.

Here are three of the best alternative iTunes 10 icons so far, and instructions how to install them:

PlayNice from PocketMac is a new utility that enables syncing between Windows and Mac OS X. It is designed to be a replacement for MobileMe syncing and it doesn’t require an annual subscription.  You can sync contacts, calendars, and tasks between iCal and Address Book on Mac OS X and Outlook on Windows.

Loathe — absolutely loathe — the new iTunes 10 look? The grayscale sidebar icons? The hypocritically wonky horizontal windows controls? That ghastly new CD-less icon? ^*Damien Erambert has put together a handy new package which allows you to roll back iTunes 10’s more egregious changes back to a more palatable iTunes-9-style aesthetic bliss. Not that that looked all that great either, you understand.

* – Okay, this download won’t change the icon… but it’s easy enough to do.

When Steve Jobs announced the new palm-sized AppleTV on Wednesday, replete with AirPlay-streaming functionality from your computer’s iTunes library, 720p high-def video and Netflix capability, many of us wondered if Cupertino would (or even be able) to extend the new functionality back down the line to the older, drive-based model.

Nope, says Ars Technica. An Apple spokesperson confirmed to them that there will be no software updates to bring the new AppleTV functionality to the last generation model.

To be honest, I wasn’t suspecting anything different. According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, even though the AppleTV doesn’t look like it is running iOS, it is… an assertion supported by the new AppleTV’s A4 CPU. The new software probably doesn’t even work on old AppleTVs, and rolling out a major software update for the obsolete model would essentially require coding the functionality from scratch.

Still, it’s disappointing. I, like many AppleTV owners, gave Apple my money for their “hobbyist” device, supporting and defending it for years even while Apple ignored it. Now that they are taking the device seriously and finally bringing the AppleTV brand up to spec, though, Apple’s quick to abandon us.

[via 9to5Mac]

It seems the situation is more confused than I thought; some people have been able to connect Facebook with Ping, and other haven’t. See end of post for a number of updates.

OK, I give up. I’m confused. I have no idea what’s going on with Ping and Facebook.

On the one hand, we have the above screenshot, taken from Apple’s own Ping web page just this morning.

It clearly says you can connect Ping to Facebook. But. You can’t.

Here’s iTunes 10, and the first thing you’ll notice is a sleeker, cleaner look. There are fewer lines, there’s a little more space. The application is still bloated with far too much stuff, but at least it looks a little less crowded now.

Steve Jobs confirmed in his press conference today that iOS 4.1 contains several bug fixes, including a fix addressing the poor performance of iOS4 on the iPhone 3G.  Alas we have to wait another week for the update to be released.  It will be hitting my iPhone as soon as iTunes says it is available.

I think it was notable that Jobs addressed this point very early in his presentation; the bugs mentioned are all major issues and need to be resolved.  The new Gaming Center and real-time graphics rendering of the A4 chip are impressive, but we 3G laggards are just looking to be able to send email and make calls again!

No comments about whether iOS 4.2 will support the 3G and older iPod touch models, the presentation merely included an asterisk that noted *not all models.   I think a cutoff at iOS 4.1 is appropriate for these devices if the performance problems are finally fixed.

Doornail dead on the Mac for almost twenty years, Autodesk has just announced that they will finally be bringing their multi-dimension engineering and architectural design software AutoCAD back to Apple customers through a native OS X port.

Starting in October, Mac owners will again get to design their minds-eye mansions and skyscrapers without ever dropping to Boot Camp, while taking advantage of native Mac features like multitouch gestures. Of course, professional software like this isn’t cheap, and Mac-friendly architects can expect to drop $4000 for the trouble… but might be a small price to pay to migrate your architecture firm back to the Mac.

AutoDesk isn’t stopping there: they’re also reportedly working on an IOS version of AutoCAD called AutoCAD WS, a free download that will allow you to view (but not make major changes) on your iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone. Possibly a death blow to the profitable architecture paper roll and blue ink industry!

This week’s must-haves include applications to view and manage your CloudApp account, keep track of your to-dos in style and translate tweets from your foreign friends. Check out Cult of Mac’s favorites from the past week after the break!

Apple has today released version 9.0.4 of its iWork productivity suite. With it comes several bug fixes for Keynote, Pages and Numbers, and a new feature which allows for the exporting of Pages documents in the ePub format for use on their own iBooks iOS application.

The full list of changes, as detailed in the support document includes:

Keynote 5.0.4

• Addresses an issue when printing handouts with rule lines.
• Fixes an issue with the slide switcher.
• Resolves an issue when automatically resizing some images while changing slide size.
• Fixes an issue with tables.

Pages 4.0.4

• Fixes an issue with tables.
• Includes compatibility with the standard ePub file format (for use with iBooks) when exporting.

Numbers 2.0.4

• Fixes an issue with tables.

This update is for users with iWork 9.0, 9.0.1, 9.0.2, and 9.0.3. You can download the update through Software Update on your Mac, or directly from the Apple website here.

The application runs in the Mac OS X Menu Bar and will allow you to locate and change the names of files in Finder so they can be copied to Windows OS based systems,  drives, and cloud services like Dropbox. Anytime a file with an incompatible filename is created the program will warn you via a Growl notification. Filenames that are deemed incompatible begin with a space character or contain one of the following characters: \ / : * ? ” < > |.

The application will allow you to work with multiple files and has some filtering options to prevent warnings popping up on files in specific folders. You set those folders to be ignored and you can set others to be watched. Files drag and dropped into the watched folders will be checked for compatibility.

Filerr is available as a single-user license for $6.95 and requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. You can download a free trial here.

For those of us poor souls still feeling for the ghost of Google-gobbled SimplifyMedia and looking for a way to easily share our media across our computers and social networks, Libox has stepped in to fit the bill.

Think of Libox as a personal P2P streaming application for your media. You simply download the software for the PC or Mac and let it scan your computer for media like movies, music and images. Once it’s done, any medial then be available for streaming on any computer you own, or even on your iPhone or iPad through a free (and attractive) universal app.

Want to share your media with friends? That’s easy enough too: just add them as contacts and they’ll be able to play any media you select to share. You can even selectively share media: Leander can take a look at my movie collection, sure, but he’s not getting access to the porn directory.

There’s something heartwarming about a Mac software developer so dedicated to maintaining the quality of his product that, discovering a pirated version of his software on the Pirate Bay that had been shoddily cracked at the expense of the user experience, he actually told the cracker how to do it more elegantly.

That’s just what Coding Robots dev Dmitry Chestnykh did when he found a version of his journal-taking application, Mémoires, up on the popular Bittorrent search site.

Incensed at the crumminess of the crack, Chestnykh wrote the following to the Pirate Bay.