You may have noticed that I haven’t written much lately. In mid-March, I decided I needed to take some time off the site to rest and focus on some ideas and changes for MacStories that I’ve been thinking about for quite a while. I came to the conclusion that I need to be able to share more links to interesting news, apps, and articles here on MacStories. I want MacStories to be the place where readers can find our own articles as well as cool stuff produced by others. (more…)

Apple has on three seperate occasions announced that the iPhone 5 will have the fastest international rollout of any iPhone ever – at the announcement keynote, during the Q4 earnings call, and in their press release announcing opening weekend sales of the iPhone 5 in China. The claim was, no doubt, meant to impress investors, press and the general public, but I was curious as to how fast it really was compared to previous iPhone rollouts. So I decided to track down the launch schedules of all the iPhones to date and then again with the iPad. In the end I found a few trends, some oddities and that Apple’s claim was (mostly) true.

iPhone 5 will be available in more than 100 countries by the end of December, making it the fastest iPhone rollout ever.

- Apple Press Release

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Developers willing to promote their company or product on MacStories have always been able to buy ad spots on our site.

Today we’re introducing weekly sponsorships.

The exclusive and week-long sponsorship is the best way to promote your app or service to MacStories’ fine, clever, and influential readership. MacStories’ audience includes creative, professional and tech-savvy readers who care about quality software designed for Macs, iOS devices, and the web, as well as detailed reviews and editorials.

MacStories’ readership consists of:

• Over 1.3 million monthly page views
• Over 23,000 daily RSS subscribers
• 40,000 followers across our Twitter accounts

At the start of the week, we will publish a thank-you post telling our readers that you are the sponsor for the week and also informing then about your company or product(s). During the week of the sponsorship, your company or product will also be linked in the site’s sidebar. Two tweets will be sent — one at the start and one at the end of the week — thanking the sponsor.

To schedule a sponsorship or for additional information, please email us. BackBeat Media is taking care of this for us, and you’re in good hands with John, Jeff or Dave there.

Three years ago, I started MacStories because I didn’t have a job. Along the way, the “hobby” became a new job in itself, and it now allows me to run a site read by millions of people every month. More importantly, the site has allowed me to get to know some amazing people: my co-workers, developers and designers, and you, our readers.

Three years is not an incredible milestone. Yet, because April 20, 2009, feels so distant to us, I thought it would be appropriate to quickly look back at things we’ve done, and lay out a foundation for the plans we’re excited to execute in the future.

We’re not perfect. We have been guilty of focusing too much on “quick” news reporting and speculation about Apple in the past years, and, in retrospect, I think we could have handled some things differently. But I also like to look at this differently: along the way, we’ve found our style. It’s not perfect, but at least it’s what we love to do. It’s the very notion of “getting better” that implies starting from somewhere. And if not everyone will agree that the articles we publish today are better than the ones from 2009, we are surely happier with the words we post in 2012.

On a personal note, I want to thank the MacStories team for allowing me to turn a passion into my dream job. Cody, Chris, Graham, Don, and the most recent additions to the crew, Gabe and Lukas, are amazing colleagues and, more importantly, friends that, like me, share a common goal: to write about the devices and software we love, and the ecosystem of stories and people around them.

As a team, we’d like to thank you, our readers, for showing up every day and allowing us, with your opinions and support, to run MacStories exactly the way we want to: with passion and a shared sentiment that, ultimately, people are always interested in a good story.

We want to keep bringing you the news, reviews, stories and everything in between that you’re now used to seeing on MacStories. In three years, we hope to be able to look back at this article, and say that we’ve gotten “better”.

We hope to have as much fun along the way as we have had in the past three years. That’s why we created a small list of the stuff we’re proud of (you can find it below): to remember we had fun, but that we can also do better.

It’s our goal to make MacStories a better site in every aspect: more readable, with more quality content, more stories, and new options for our readers to enjoy our articles on any device. We’ll be making some changes to the site soon, and we hope you’ll enjoy them.

Thanks for reading MacStories. Here’s to the next three years, starting today.

- Federico

Our first post, and original logo from 2009:

And our version 2.0 design for 2009-2010:

Reviews

• Sparrow for iPhone Review
• Camera+ 3.0 Review
• Adobe Photoshop Touch Review
• Review: Osfoora for Mac
• Clear: A Delightful and Clever Todo App
• Tweetbot for iPad Review
• Read It Later Reborn: Pocket Saves Everything “For Later”
• A New Cat To Tame: OS X Lion Review
• Instacast HD Review: It’s Incredible

Hardware Reviews

• iPad (3) Review: You Won’t Believe It Until You See It
• iPhone 4S Review
• 13-inch MacBook Air Review (2011)

Editorials & Analysis

• The Problem With The iOS Home Screen
• iCloud’s First Six Months: The Developers Weigh In
• iOS 6 Wishes
• The iOS-ification Of Apple’s Ecosystem
• On iPads and Personal Computers: A Post-PC Retrospective
• Comparing My Favorite iOS Text Editors
• The Apple Community
• The Apple Community, Part II
• The State Of iCloud-enabled Apps
• Greed and Entitlements
• The Case for an iOS Aperture
• New Twitter Clients
• Mac App Store: Year One
• My Educated Guess On What The Next Apple TV Will Be
• A Trusted System
• Apple Q4 2011 Results: $28.27 Billion Revenue, 17.07 Million iPhones, 11.12 Million iPads, 4.89 Million Macs Sold
• Apple Q1 2012 Results: $46.33 Billion Revenue, 37.04 Million iPhones, 15.43 Million iPads Sold
• All The Statistics And Insights That Apple Revealed In Their Earnings Call
• Understanding The Agency Model And The DOJ’s Allegations Against Apple And Those Publishers
• It’s Time To Change iTunes
• The (Semi)Skeuomorphism
• Regarding Apple’s Edge and the new Apple TV Interface

Miscellaneous

• Apple Reveals New “All-Time Top Apps” Following 25 Billion Downloads
• Steve Jobs Resigns, Tim Cook Named New CEO of Apple
• OS X Mountain Lion: The iOS-ification Continues This Summer
• iOS 5: Tips, Tricks & Hidden Features
• My Must-Have iPad Apps, 2011 Edition
• Screen Sharing For Alfred Brings VNC To Your Fingertips
• Best Apps Of 2011: Vote For Your Favorite + A Huge Giveaway

Sections

• MacStories Interviews
• MacStories Reading List
• App Journal
• MacStories Deals
• Month In Review
• Inspiring UIs

We’ve had a great response to our search for the best iPhone App, iPad App, Mac App and iOS/Mac Game with votes numbering in the thousands and people really excited about the huge giveaway that we ran alongside the vote. We’ve given away most of the codes but the final winners will be emailed over the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

We’ve tallied the votes and figured out who you, our readers, have deemed as the best apps and games of iOS and Mac. The winners may be largely what is expected, but it is interesting to see who the runner-ups were – there are a few interesting results there.

Just a quick note to all those who voted; thank you! We didn’t know whether you would embrace this idea or not, and we’re thrilled that so many of you voted and that we got such a large sample of our reader’s opinions on the best apps and games of 2011.

Jump the break to find out who all those winners and runner-ups all are.

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UPDATE: Voting is now closed. Winners will be announced tomorrow, Saturday 24th of December.

Last Friday we opened up the poll’s, to hear what you thought was the best iPhone, iPad and Mac App – as well as the best Game for the Mac/iOS from 2011. As part of it, we put together the biggest giveaway we have ever run on MacStories – with around 250 codes to give away.

We’ve had a great response with votes numbering in the thousands and people have loved the huge giveaway. But now we are on the home stretch, as of posting there are just 10 hours left of voting, with the poll closing at 7:00 PM EST (New York time) tonight. Click here to see how long away, exactly, that is.

So if you haven’t yet voted, get a move on and vote right now – you’ll also go in the running for some of the apps we are giving away today — the final day of the giveaway! We’re giving away some truly excellent apps today, in fact, a spectacular bunch of apps:

• Tweetbot (iPhone)
• Fantastical (Mac)
• Reeder (Mac)
• Pixelmator (Mac)
• PDF Expert (iPad)
• Reckless Getaway (iOS)
• Ecoute (Mac)
• iA Writer (Mac)
• AirServer (Mac)
• Triple-Pack Bundle: Mr. Reader (iPad), iA Writer (iPad), AirServer (Mac)

View more details on how to enter the giveaway
View all the short listed apps

Last Friday we started the voting period for our search for the best iPhone, iPad and Mac Apps and Games of 2011. As part of that we also announced that we were conducting the biggest giveaway we have ever run on MacStories. Today we are giving everyone more details on what apps we are giving away and when. But first, a quick reminder that you can enter the giveaway by doing one (or all three) of the following:

1. Vote (when you vote we first ask for your email address, just enter a valid email address and you go into the running to win some free apps).
2. Tweet about the poll (use the text quoted below).
3. Let your friends or family know about the poll and have them enter your email or Twitter handle in the referral box that is on the voting page.

MacStories Best Apps of 2011: vote now and enter our huge iOS & Mac app giveaway! http://mcstr.net/rVDwy8

Every day this week (from today till Friday) we will be giving out a number of (single) licence codes to apps in addition to 3 bundle packs which include codes for three apps – details can be seen below the break. In total, this represents of 250 codes that will be given away!

Vote Early

We’ll be randomly drawing entries for the giveaways once a day – but we won’t be limiting the selection to just those who voted on that day. Every vote will have a chance of winning every day. This means that if you enter before the end of today (Monday) you will have five chances at some codes – but if you enter on Friday you will only have one chance at winning.

Remember that you can also increase your chances by tweeting about this poll and by telling your friends and family about the poll (and getting them to put your email address in the referral box).

Sorry, voting is now closed. Winners will be announced on Saturday, 24th.

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iOS and Mac apps are the cornerstone of what we cover on MacStories, we love trying new apps, sharing news about them and then reviewing them for you all. The past 12 months have been a spectacular year for new apps and big app updates that have seen both the diversity and calibre of iOS and Mac apps increase significantly. It is with this in mind that we want to recognise the very best apps that were released or received major updates in 2011.

The whole team at MacStories has worked together to come up with a short list of iPhone, iPad and Mac apps as well as a short list of games that we believe were the best to come out in 2011. Now we need your help to decide which of these apps are the best from each category. To do so, we are running a poll that we want you to take, and we want you to cast your vote for what you think was the best app of 2011.

The Biggest MacStories Giveaway Ever!

However, this event isn’t just about rewarding the very best iOS and Mac developers, we want to reward you for being readers of MacStories this year and for taking the time to help us choose the best apps of 2011. This giveaway, as the header states, is the biggest we have ever run – and by quite a stretch. We’re going to be giving away over two-hundred license codes for apps that have made it into our short lists – and there may still be more to come! Some of the apps we will be giving away include:

• Alfred
• Fantastical
• iA Writer
• Instacast
• Mr. Reader
• Tweetbot
• and many, many more…

How To Enter The Giveaway

There are three ways to be in the running for some of these licenses:

1. Vote (when you vote we first ask for your email address, just enter a valid email address and you go into the running to win some free apps).
2. Tweet about this contest (just make sure you have this article’s URL in the tweet, or just use the example tweet below).
3. Let your friends or family know about the poll and have them enter your email or Twitter handle in the referral box that is on the voting page.

MacStories Best Apps of 2011: vote now and enter our huge iOS & Mac app giveaway! http://mcstr.net/rVDwy8

Rules & More Information

• You can only vote once, this is why we require an email address when you vote. If you enter an invalid email address or vote multiple times your vote(s) will not count.
• Please don’t spam your Twitter followers, friends or family, asking them to vote and add you to the referral box. It’s not nice and we don’t want to come across as being the source of this spam – if we see such spam we will ensure you don’t receive any licenses.
• Some licences will be given out during the voting process, whilst the rest will be given after voting closes.
• Once voting closes, no more entries for the giveaway will be accepted.
• Because of the limited number of licences we have per app, you might not get the app you really wanted if you are a winner – but we will try to be as flexible as possible!

Sorry, voting is now closed. Winners will be announced Saturday, 24th.

The winning apps will be announced on Saturday, December 24th (Christmas Eve).

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The great thing about working at MacStories is we get exposed to a ton of brilliant applications that solidify our workflows and give us different perspectives on how to get things done. All of us have various tools that work for us, and just as we like to share our findings we occasionally tussle over our tools of choice. Any of us could get by with just the basics, but the Mac is made so much better when you come to appreciate and enjoy all the great software that’s available to us. The four of us working at MacStories put our heads together and picked out five of our favorite applications to share with you guys in hopes of loading up your summer Macs with a great selection of productive software. As you can see in the banner, we have a great lineup we’d love to share with you.

Reeder for the Mac (Up to 5 winners): Certainly we have the occasional NNW vs. Reeder clash behind the scenes, but all of us agree that Reeder is something really special for the Mac. It takes your RSS feeds and puts them in a beautiful interface that can be as minimal or expanded as you need it to be, and it works fluidly with gestures on newer Macs. My favorite feature: Readability works extremely well with linked posts, formatting the original article for Reeder without distracting web nonsense. If you love it for the iPad and iPhone, Reeder for Mac is a must have.

Notefile for iOS (Up to 3 winners): When it comes down to it, we just want an easy way to sync notes, reminders, and to-do lists between our Macs and iOS devices. Dropbox is nice, but it’s not as automatic as Junecloud’s Notefile. You’d think it already had iCloud support, pulling down your most recent notes from the Dashboard widget or onto your iPhone. We think this is a great replacement for Apple’s Notes, and we absolutely love how simple Notefile is in its entirety.

Alfred Powerpack for Mac (Up to 3 winners): Alfred is really fantastic for Mac users who want to take it to the next level. If you’re looking for an edge in productivity, Alfred is a swiss-army knife that’ll launch documents, recall snippets from the clipboard, and call on apps with a few simple keystrokes. Search Amazon, Google, Wikipedia, and the IMDb right from your desktop. Alfred is free to download, but the Powerpack adds file system navigation, clipboard history, terminal control, an iTunes remote, and email integration to the already powerful launcher.

Fantastical for Mac (Up to 5 winners): Fantastical is the iCal companion that makes it easy to manage your schedule of meetings, client reviews, and other events through plain english. If you wanted to meet me at Brian’s Bar and Grill at four o’clock on Saturday, you could totally just type that in… and it’d just work. Fantastical is amazing.

Courier for Mac (Up to 5 winners): Productivity doesn’t always have to extend into the workplace. We’re always looking for better ways to get files online, and Courier for the Mac allows us to do just that. Simply drag and drop pictures and movies to upload them to your personal accounts such as Facebook and Flickr — web interfaces are a thing of the past.

We’re giving out a total of twenty one apps to twenty one lucky winners, and we want to thank all of the developers for hooking us up and helping us give you guys some great software. For your chance to win one of these great apps, you’ll need to check out the giveaway rules past the break!

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