Posts in mac

ZeroNinetyNine’s Mac App Store “Bundle”

Here’s a unique offer for all you bundleheads — ZeroNinetyNine is offering “The First Mac App Store Bundle” today only. Since the Mac App Store doesn’t allow apps to be bundled and sold together, ZeroNinetyNine has found a unique way to do so by designing a holding page with all the applications in their “bundle”. Several independent developers have simultaneously dropped the price of their apps for one day sale on Mac App Store for just 99¢ per app.

One could find these price discounts by searching the Mac App Store and our own MacStoriesDeals posts, but what fun is that? Well, actually our MacStoriesDeals is great if I say so myself! ZeroNinetyNine has done the hard work for you and presented it in a well-designed page.

The apps that are included in this one-day 99¢ sale are MacPaw’s Ensoul and Hider, Coppertino’s Focus, and Apparent Software’s Blast Utility. Other apps included are Alarm Pro, Inpaint, Compartments, iResizer, Virus Barrier Plus, Washing Machine and Intego Backup Express.

ZeroNinetyNine has done a great job coordinating this independent “bundle,” there are many great apps at a great price — 99¢ a piece. This is not a one time affair either, ZeroNinetyNine will be doing these types of bundles once a month.

Gradient for Mac 1.0 Giveaway

Back in September we showed you a beta preview of Gradient by JUMPZERO. As I said before, it’s a simple yet powerful Mac app that lets you easily create CSS gradients with a beautiful user interface. Gradient was officially released yesterday and the JUMPZERO team has a little surprise for MacStories’ readers.

Gradient 1.0 is well polished for a 1.0 release — their time and effort really shows. Since the beta stage, JUMPZERO has improved some of the UI elements and improved the overall user experience. It will be a great tool for web designers looking for a simple yet intuitive way to create CSS gradients. Gradient is now in the Mac App Store for an intro price of just $4.99, get it here.

Read more

How to Get Apple’s Black Friday Prices All Year Long→

How to Get Apple’s Black Friday Prices All Year Long

The Apple Store’s refurb section features an inexact and unreliable supply. You never know when it’s going to be flush with a bunch of desirable models and when it’s going to be mostly barren. But even so, it can be a lot like hunting for exactly what you want on Craigslist, except with AppleCare backing you up instead of a search for a well-lit, public drop zone. Patience pays dividends, especially if you can’t afford full price—and you can set up an email alert for when new products are added to the store.

Gizmodo’s got good advice. If you want to save a good chunk of cash on a new Macintosh, you won’t be shorted by purchasing a refurbished model. You won’t get the same pretty white box (you’ll get cardboard bulk packaging in its place), but you will get a Mac with often brand new guts and the same warranty you’d get with buying a new computer off the shelf online or at an Apple Retail Store. As explained on podcasts like Mac Geek Gab, Apple is pretty generous when it comes to swapping out parts for new — this applies for repairs and of course the refurbished Macs sold online through Apple. It’s a good thing to keep in mind and share with relatives who’re looking for additional savings if they’re planning on purchasing a Mac as a gift or getting one themselves for the holidays. When it comes time to purchase my next Mac, this is probably the route I’ll take.

Permalink

iA Writer for iPad and Mac Updated with iCloud

Sometimes you kids ask me about what writing app is shown off in my iPad screenshots or photos. More often than not it’s iA Writer, and it’s an awesome little thing.

If you can’t live without iA Writer, you should start checking both the iOS and Mac App Stores for an available update that includes improved Dropbox integration, and now iCloud support that works between Mac and iOS.

Here’s how it works. On the iPad side you can save a document to iCloud. Saving and managing documents is a completely enhanced experience: You can move documents between the local iPad, any Dropbox folder of your choice, or iCloud for shared and cloud storage.

When you open up iA Writer on the Mac, a new iCloud submenu appears under the file menu. You can pull your documents from the cloud. Just so we’re being clear — these documents are copied to your Mac in the library folder, but they’re not available in your documents folder. You’ll get a good idea about how iCloud sandboxing works here.

If you want to save a document to iCloud from your Mac, you need to save your document somewhere first. Only afterwards can you move it to the iCloud, where it will be moved out of its original location and into your Library. So technically you’re not supposed to know where these documents exist, but everything works as advertised.

iA Writer is a custom text editor that features FocusMode and a barebones writing environment with a giant blue cursor. Currently, iA Writer is 50% for both iPad and Mac versions — if you want the app, now would be a really good time to pick it up since you can get the suite for around $10.

App Store: iA Writer for the iPad | iA Writer for Mac

The MacLegion Winter Bundle 2011

I stumbled onto MacLegion earlier this year when they offered their first bundle back in April. They offer very good bundles with quality Mac apps at great bundled prices. Their new bundle is just as great. The MacLegion Winter Bundle 2011 consists of 10 quality Mac apps for $49.99 (a $480 value). We’ve seen a lot of bundles similar to this price point, but this one stands out above many of the others.

As always, MacLegion bundles focus on quality, practical and every-day apps that people enjoy using. The hand-picked line-up ensures that all applications featured within it are the latest versions each developer has to offer. Read more