There’s a huge misconception about minimalism, and it’s in regards of graphical minimalism and workflow minimalism. Whether you’re on a PC or a Mac, one of the most popular trends of the ’00s has been that of adopting a minimal and simple approach to computing. As the trend went by and people even wrote books and essays about it, the original purpose of the whole concept slowly faded away, leaving place to users who only care about making their computers minimal and simple to their eyes. Yet the original purpose is still there, and I want to focus on that.

iDeskCal Winners Announced

By Federico Viticci

Thanks everyone who entered the iDeskCal giveaway. Also, we’d like to thank the Hashbang Industries developers for the licenses they gave to MacStories.

Here are the winners:

Radada

Cameron Dunlop

Pier Luigi

You’ll receive the license in your inbox in a matter of a few hours.

Cheers!

iPad Release Date Announced, But Still No Words About iPad-only Apps

By Federico Viticci

Reading Apple’s press release about the iPad’s official release date, I haven’t been able to found references to the “iPad-only” App Store, or the place where we’ll find the applications that will run only on the new device.

From the press release:

“The App Store on iPad lets you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world’s largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 150,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. Developers are already creating exciting new apps designed for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.”

The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3, with additional countries added later this year.”

My best guess is that, just like Marco Arment wrote some weeks ago, we won’t see iPad native apps on day one and the iPad App Store will open with pre-approved apps by the WWDC in June. We’ll see.

iPad Available in US on April 3

By Federico Viticci

Link

“Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.”

[RUMOR] Steam for Mac to Be Released on March 11, Launch Title Will Be Portal 2

By Federico Viticci

Rumor has it this is the official date. More as this develops.

UPDATE:

Will Shipley, original author of this tweet, claims that “there are tons of clues in the newest version of Portal.” These are: GlaDOS version 3.11, March 11th being during GDC and Gabe Newell getting the Pioneer award that day. (tweet)

UPDATE #2

After spending some time on the official Steam forums it turns out Valve released a lot of hints pointing towards the 3/11 date and the “Pioneer” awards, including references to the Apollo space program (and hence the Pioneer Plaque ). See some of the forums posts here and here.

Waiting for further proofs.