Chris Herbert

730 posts on MacStories since September 2010

Vector & pixel trafficker for Seymour Midwest LLC, regular MacStories contributor, Hip-Hop junkie all day long; Apple addict circa 1976.

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MacPaw Giveaway: Ensoul and Hider Codes Up for Grabs

It’s time for a new MacStories giveaway and this time we’re featuring MacPaw. We’re giving away 5 copies of MacPaw’s great Mac software, Ensoul and Hider. Ensoul lets you make bigger, better and more beautiful contact photos, make custom iPhone wallpapers from your iPhoto library, Photo Booth, Apeture or any folder on your Mac. It’s non-destructive, easy, and editing takes seconds to do. Hider is the cutting edge solution for hiding your private data on your Mac. If you’re concerned about privacy, Hider provides a user-friendly application that password-protects and hides all your personal files and folders; Hider can also organize them to keep your desktop uncluttered. It’s plugged into your Mac’s Finder and allows you to quickly hides files simply by using a contextual menu.

Be sure to check out the full feature lists of Ensoul and Hider on the MacPaw site. Ensoul ($9.99) and Hider ($9.99) can both be purchased from the Mac App Store. However if you are interested in winning one of the 5 copies of MacPaw’s popular apps that we are giving away, be sure to jump the break for all the details. Read more

Western Digital Unveils Next Generation of My Passport Portable Drives

Today Western Digital introduced its newest generation of the popular My Passport portable hard drives for Mac users. They’re more compact and elegant than before with slim, all-metal designs. The My Passport Studio is a great portable solution for photographers, videographers, graphic artists or any creative that needs large amounts of storage data. It offers storage up to 1TB and has multiple connectivity options with two FireWire 800 ports and one USB 2 port. The FireWire port on the device allows for daisy-chaining with other devices such as HD camcorders, as well as Apple’s new Thunderbolt Display (which features Thunderbolt, FireWire, USB, and Ethernet ports).

The My Passport for Mac is another option for students and users that don’t need FireWire ports but still demand up to 1TB of storage.

Whether you are a member of the creative community or simply use your Mac to enjoy digital content on-the-go, users will find the perfect portable storage solution with WD’s My Passport Studio and My Passport for Mac high-capacity portable hard drives,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. “We know the value our customers place on their digital content, which is why we set demanding requirements for durability, security, and long-term reliability, with all our drives.

These two drives are available right now via the WD Store (and other retails) and start at $99 for the 500 GB My Passport for Mac, and $129 for the 500GB My Passport Studio.

In-App Purchase Revenue Growing as Developers Adopt “Freemium” Model

Many developers build iOS software hoping that their app will be the next Angry Birds, but they struggle at what price to sell it. A free app can bring downloads but your pockets are still empty. Maybe you should consider adding in-app purchases to your app, no matter the base price. Distimo has released a new report that suggests that in-app purchases are the way to go if you want to make money in the App Store. In-app purchases account for 72% of revenue, improving from 28% at this time last year. Here’s another stunning number, only 4% of apps in the App Store even offer in-app purchases.

Freemium apps (free to download, but require an in-app purchase to expand the app) are growing particularly faster in the in-app purchasing paradise. Free app downloads have increased by 34% since 2010 while paid downloads only grew 7% in the same time frame. Distimo’s research only covered the Top 200 in each category, but that’s a strong selection of the App Store’s money makers.

Freemium apps made up 48% of total App Store revenue while paid apps with in-app purchases accounted for 24%; the remaining 28% came from paid apps. If you look at the top grossing apps for the iPhone (iPod Touch) and iPad App Stores, freemium games take up several spots. Freemium apps also account for 65% of the Top 100 grossing games in the US App Store.

Besides games offering in-app purchases, comic apps are also making waves, especially in the iPad App Store. Magazines are one more category that is taking advantage of the freemium pricing model.

GigaOM didn’t envision this exactly back in February when Apple let in-app subscriptions into the stores. “Essentially, it looks like more and more developers are embracing the idea that making recurring payments an attractive option for App Store shoppers is the key to coming up with a sustainable business model. Apple’s isn’t the only store where developers are figuring that out, either. In-app purchases are already in use by 68 percent of the 25 top grossing Android apps, despite only being introduced in March of this year.”

Could we possibly see the day when there aren’t “regular” paid apps in the Top 300 grossing list? What do you prefer as a user – a one-time fee to buy the entire app, or having to keep putting quarters into your Apple arcade machine? [via GigaOM]