Acorn is my favorite image editor for OS X (I liked the changes in version 4.0) because it’s powerful but easy to use. The way that Acorn organizes filters and layers and lets you interact with them in the tools palette just makes sense for the way I want my image editor to work. Version 4.2, released last week for website customers, brings some welcome additions – I’m especially a fan of the Share menu and tweaks to selections.

The technical changes are also worth noting:

Pixels get to the screen so much faster now that everything is drawn through OpenGL.  Not only that, but Acorn takes advantage of OpenCL by virtue of using Core Image. Acorn also uses custom OpenCL kernels I hand coded to speed up other operations.  Acorn incorporates some super fast algorithms combined with GCD to minimize the amount of drawing that happens. Less drawing means longer battery life and overall things go faster.

I had mentioned in a previous post that I was reworking the compositing engine.  I’m not done with that yet, but the progress I have made is promising.  So with a bit more work and time, things are going to get even faster for Acorn.

Our thanks to Smile for sponsoring MacStories this week with the PDFpen family of products for iOS and OS X.

PDFpen isn’t just an app – it’s a family of powerful apps for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad that let you edit, sign, scan, and OCR your documents anywhere. On iOS, PDFpen for iPad allows you to sign contracts, make changes, and fill forms when you’re out of the office or on the go; all these features are also available on the iPhone’s smaller screen with PDFpen for iPhone, which comes with all the functionalities of the iPad version.

On the Mac, PDFpen can perform OCR (Optical Character Recognition) so that pictures of text in your document will be turned into real text that you can use; with PDFpen Pro, the advanced version of PDFpen,  you have the ability to create a PDF form, build a table of contents, and convert HTML files to PDF. Recently, Smile added support for PDF stamps: you can browse a library of standard business stamps (e.g. Approved, Confidential, Sign Here) to quickly apply to your documents without complex editing required.

All versions of PDFpen for iOS and OS X can sync documents and changes using iCloud and Dropbox, and you can also exchange documents via Box, Evernote, Google, and other services. To easily get new documents into PDFpen for iOS, you can use the new PDFpen Scan+ app, a utility that lets you scan documents, articles, receipts, and more, using your iPhone or iPad camera with OCR and support for 16 languages.

PDFpen is a fantastic example of a suite of apps that work seamlessly across platforms and take advantage of each device’s unique features to augment the user experience. You can learn more about the PDFpen suite of apps here.

From the Associated Press:

On Friday, Apple Inc. began using the technology at its 254 U.S. stores to send you messages about products, events and other information — tailored to where you are inside, provided you have downloaded the Apple Store app and have given Apple permission to track you.

Using the iBeacon feature, the app will notify you if the computer you ordered is ready for pickup, for example. Show a clerk your screen with the order number, and the clerk will get it for you. Walking by an iPhone table? You may get a message asking if you want to upgrade, check your upgrade availability and see if you can get money for trading in your old phone.

If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, TidBITS published a great piece on iBeacons back in September.

If you can’t settle with Rdio, find a happy home at Spotify, or are satisfied with Google Play Music All Access, there’s a new music streaming service coming from the same guys who make those bass heavy Beats headphones. Matt Panzarino at TechCrunch writes:

… It’s in an internal, private beta with ‘people who know and love music’. It’s also rolled out to some ‘artists and other influencers’ in order to get feedback, so celebs are playing with it as we speak. Rogers says they’re tweaking the service based on the feedback that they’re getting, and re-iterates that the service is set to launch in January.

If you want to grab your username, sign up here.

How does a streaming service like this differentiate? Do you make a service and launch with mobile apps that give you the most options like Rdio and Google, or differentiate in a specific way as Spotify does with playlists, Spotify Apps, and sharing? Considering who’s behind the project, I’m both curious and excited to see the end result.

David Smith’s lightweight podcast app now has a web companion in beta.

Today I’m rolling out a beta version of website integration for Pod Wrangler right on feedwrangler.net. You can now listen to your podcasts from within any modern browser. Playback position is synced up with Pod Wrangler so you shouldn’t need to fuss with finding your place. This works great for finishing off that episode you were listening to on your drive into work or in a context when you just can’t use your iPhone.

If you don’t like listening to podcasts in iTunes or in Apple’s Podcast app, give Pod Wrangler a try. It’s not an app that’s big on looks, but it’s fast and functional. If you run or listen to podcasts on your daily commute, Pod Wrangler recently added On-the-Go which makes playback controls big and easy to tap. You’ll have to become a full member by making an in-app purchase in the iPhone app to gain access to the web version, but being able to listen to your favorite podcasts from any of your desktops and laptops is really nice.