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.

[email protected]

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Fusion and Carbon Productivity Bundle: 10 Lovely Apps for $29.99

‘Tis the season for Mac app bundles. Some are good, others are great and few are good enough to “fall in love with.” Fusion and Carbon have put together a productivity bundle appropriately described as “10 Reasons to Fall in Love and Get Things Done.” The bundle includes some of MacStories’ favorite Mac apps including Evernote & Sparrow Mail. If you tried purchasing the included apps individually you’d be paying nearly $360, so if you’re looking to add to your collection of Mac apps this is a terrific deal at just $29.99. The deal is only good for 6 more days, so share the love!

The Productivity Bundle includes:

  • Evernote Pro - Capture anything from pictures, notes, audio; access it anywhere you have access to a computer or mobile device; find everything fast with advanced tagging. The bundle deal includes 3 months of their Pro subscription (standard subscription is free). (our review)
  • Strongspace - A great backup solution to the cloud. Your precious data is always backed up, turn it on and you’re done. It even lets you share your files or a folder with one click. Like Time Machine, it also captures full snapshots of your data and if you need something you deleted, simply roll back.
  • Sparrow Mail - A minimal and fantastic alternative to Apple’s Mail.app. Sparrow has multiple account support and a unified inbox plus full IMAP support, notifications and more. (our review)
  • Carousel - Okay, maybe not every app in this bundle is for being productive but one needs a break, right? Browse your Instagram Feed, Popular and Profile photos with a choice of great app themes. Follow and explore users, like, comment, moderate comments, and more. Keyboard shortcuts to quickly traverse your feed, like, comment, and more. Drag & drop to save full-size photos to your Mac, or iPhoto. (our review)
  • Alarms - A super minimal alarm app that’s simple to use and fun. It notifies you of birthdays, sync tasks with iCal, supports Growl and has customizable keyboard shortcuts. (our review)
  • Flow - A web-based task management app that works in your browser, iPhone or email. There’s no syncing required and you can collaborate with anyone such as family, friends, and coworkers, all in one place. The bundle gives a 1 year subscription to new Flow users.
  • Koku - Easily manage all your personal finances by keeping track using the Direct Connect to safely download your transactions as they occur. You can also have your purchases tagged automatically.
  • Grasshopper - A virtual phone system designed for entrepreneurs that includes a toll free and local number with unlimited extensions. Call forwarding and voicemail is also included. Manage your account online or by phone with no hardware to purchase. The bundle gives your $100 credit towards their $9.95 and higher monthly plans.
  • Nottingham - Need an elegant notepad for your Mac? This app is designed to be lightweight and easy to use and it keeps all your data safe by syncing to your iPhone and the web via Simplenote.
  • Inbox Assistant - Extract meetings, tasks and other important events out of your emails while it automatically adds them to your calendar. Use Natural Language Processing for entry as well.

 

Get Cooking with Belkin iPad Kitchen Accessories

Building a new house involves more decisions that an NFL season, seriously. For anyone that has done it, you know what I mean. One of the biggest decisions for our new house was the design of the kitchen, we wanted it to be very open and face the great room. It has given my wife and I many opportunities to explore new options for our home including modern household technologies. My wife loves to cook and she’s a great cook at that. She cooks healthy and finds alternative ways to twist a classic recipe into a killer meal while keeping your waistline from exploding. Being a good cook is more than knowing what spices and ingredients to use, it’s the tools that you use that makes you more efficient, just like computing on a Mac or iOS device.

Belkin has just released 3 new iPad kitchen accessories and they look great! The Chef Stand + Stylus includes a washable stand that is designed to get a little dirty from food, etc. It includes a stylus that has a utensil-like end that provides an easy grip and lets you navigate recipes on your iPad without having to touch the screen. The magnetic tip can be used to wake up an iPad 2 as well. The Chef Stand + Stylus is $39.99

The next kitchen accessory is the Fridge Mount for iPad 2. It can be mounted on your fridge’s door (or anywhere actually) by using 3M Command Strips, and it uses the iPad 2′s magnets to hold it in place. The Fridge Mount is $39.99

The third accessory is the Kitchen Cabinet Mount. It is easily installed without any tools by clamping to any cabinet or shelf while holding the iPad in place and away from the counter top and lets you work without having to hold your iPad. The Cabinet Mount is $49.99

Cooking apps certainly have a niche in the app market: there are many people that use their iPad for storing and exploring their recipe collections. Both the Cabinet Mount and the Chef Stand + Stylus look very appealing for our new kitchen and I think they would look great sitting on our bar or under the cabinet next to the pantry. The stylus is what I like the best, it’s universal to all these accessories. It doesn’t need to be pencil thin, and having a wide grip like a great kitchen utensil is welcome in our kitchen any day. While these won’t make you a better cook, they give you an extra hand in the kitchen. I don’t think I can coerce my wife into transferring her grandmother’s hand written cake recipes over to digital, but we can agree that these will be great additions to our new kitchen.

Belkin’s new kitchen accessories get even sweeter. Starting today through September 30th, all Belkin accessories, including these new kitchen items, are 50% off with coupon code FB50. Head over to Belkin and cash in on this great deal!

[via MacRumors]

Belkin Reveals New Thunderbolt Express Dock

Today at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Belkin unveiled the Thunderbolt Express Dock featuring 3 USB ports, a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining, a Firewire port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. DailyTech notes that this is the same port setup that’s found on the new 27″ Apple Thunderbolt Display – it seems very convenient that it’s the same arrangement as what Apple is already using.

The Belkin Express Dock could be very handy for Mac users wanting to expand their current port offering and don’t want to pay $999 for a Thunderbolt display. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced but the price should be reasonably below the cost of a Thunderbolt display. The next question is, will Belkin also include a Thunderbolt cable so you don’t have to dish out an extra $50 for one? [DailyTech]

mLogic’s mDock and mBack Offer Unique Backup Solutions for the Mac

mLogic has introduced two new accessories targeted toward iMacs and MacBook Pros - the mBack and mDock.

The mDock is a docking station and backup solution for your MacBook Pro. It eliminates repetitive plugging and unplugging of your peripherals, backs up your system when the MacBook Pro is docked (much like your iOS device), has front-mounted USB and headphone ports and also charges your iOS device via the “Amigo” that attaches to the back and adds an iPod/iPhone dock and a holder for the MagSafe power adapter. You can plug in such things as monitors, speakers and printers, and it comes with 500 GB or 1 TB of storage for your Time Machine backups. The mDock is $219 for 500 GB and $299 for the 1 TB option.

The mBack attaches onto the back of your iMac’s (or Thunderbolt Display) support stand and is Time Machine-compatible. It comes in 1, 2 & 3 TB versions with USB 2.0 interface. The mBack is $169 for 1 TB, $209 for 2 TB, or $349 for 3 TB.

mLogic was established by industry veteran Roger S. Mabon founder & CEO of G-Technology, Inc. – a leading provider of external disk storage solutions for Apple computers and now part of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (recently purchased by Western Digital Corporation). Their mission is to provide innovative and exciting add-on products for Mac computers. These are very unique and reasonably priced hardware for your Macs that offer multiple solutions all in one device. If this is only the beginning for mLogic, they’ve hit the ground running. We can’t wait to see what else is down the road for mLogic. [via SlashGear]