This Week's Sponsor:

BetterTouchTool

Now with a Powerful Launcher for Your Mac

Logitech Unveils New Keyboard Accessories for iPad Air→

From the Logitech blog:

The three keyboard products each feature a built-in Bluetooth keyboard with maximized key size for a fast and fluid typing experience. The Logitech Folio Protective Case offers tablet protection without a keyboard, and is Logitech’s thinnest and lightest folio for the iPad Air. It has a water-repellent skin for two-sided protection against bumps, scratches sand spills, and doubles as a stand, adapting to hold your tablet at the right angle for reading, viewing or playing games.

The FabricSkin Keyboard Folio looks nice. Personally, I’d just love if the old special keys started working again on iOS 7 with my Logitech tablet keyboard.

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Terminology [Sponsor]→

Our thanks to Agile Tortoise for sponsoring MacStories this week with Terminology.

Terminology is an app for anyone who loves words. A Universal app for iPad and iPhone, Terminology is part dictionary, part thesaurus and part research tool. Terminology starts with a great offline dictionary with concise definitions, and extends the dictionary with deep word relations. Find the right word by browsing more and less specific words, and more. If what you need is not in the dictionary, Terminology offers customizable actions to integrate with other reference website and apps.

Get Terminology today for $2.99 on the App Store, or find out more at agiletortoise.com.

Federico’s note: I use Terminology on my iPhone and iPad, and I’m a fan of the design changes and actions that were introduced with version 3.0, which I reviewed here. Gabe Weatherhead has some great examples of how you can make Terminology work for you with custom actions.

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Dispatch 1.3 Gets Unified Inbox, Dropbox and Droplr Integration, Action and URL Scheme Improvements

Dispatch is my favorite third-party email client for the iPhone. Released in June, Dispatch stood out from similar apps as it implemented a powerful feature set that took advantage of native iOS apps to bring inter-app communication and snippets to mobile email. In September, the app was updated with iOS 7 background fetch, message search, and a change to individual message links that allowed iOS apps to open specific messages directly in Dispatch. Thanks other several minor features and details (such as custom salutations and link actions), Dispatch became a fantastic alternative to Apple’s Mail app for users who wanted more out of their iPhone email client.

With today’s 1.3 update, Dispatch gets even more powerful and versatile with the addition of a unified inbox: a feature that I had been asking for since the first version of the app, unified inbox is a new top-level item in the app’s sidebar and it groups all, unread, and starred messages from all your configured accounts’ inboxes. From the All Inboxes view, you can manage and respond to messages as usual, but you can also search and compose a new message without switching to an individual account’s view. Read more

iPad mini For Content Creation

iPad mini

iPad mini

I’ve seen an argument being made in the past week: that the iPad mini is for “consumption”, whereas the iPad Air is for “creation”. This idea has been reinforced by Apple’s announcements: with both iPads now carrying the same hardware, the difference between the mini and the Air comes down to the fact that one is for consuming media and the other for creating content. I disagree. Read more

Serenity Caldwell’s Hands-On With The New iMovie→

Apple’s new version of iMovie is sleek and sophisticated both on the Mac and on iOS devices. It retains a lot of advanced features from prior versions, but keeps its interface clutter- and confusion-free for newer users. And it’s added a new avenue for easily sharing movies to your computer and Apple TV. I could go on like this for awhile, but instead of writing a whole review here, I’m going to cut to the juicy parts and focus on twenty new and improved features in iMovie for the Mac and on iOS.

If you’re looking for an article that covers all the changes and new features in iMovie, Serenity has a great overview. I can’t wait to get an iPhone 5s to try the slow-motion editing.

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iWork and Automation→

Peter Cohen:

But this whole issue unveils a more fundamental problem: by neglecting AppleScript support in iWork apps, Apple underserves customers who would otherwise use their products - not just big companies with IT departments, but freelance workers who want to save time, small and medium-sized businesses that benefit from workflow automation tools, and others. AppleScript may be techy, but it’s pretty democratic - anyone who wants to use it should be able to use it.

I don’t buy the idea that, because they are a “rewrite”, the new iWork apps can’t have AppleScript. As Peter says, an automation tool that freelancers and small businesses relied upon is gone, and Apple isn’t providing an alternative. Unless you keep the old iWork apps installed.

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(RED) Mac Pro→

“Selected and customised” by Jony Ive and Marc Newson (the duo also behind the special edition Leica M camera).

From the description:

The new Mac Pro is the most powerful, yet radical Mac that Apple has ever designed. Architected around an innovative, unified thermal core, the new Mac Pro features dual workstation graphics cards, the latest Xeon processors, ultra-fast flash storage, and incredibly high performance I/O. A precisely machined and polished enclosure houses this advanced technology in an extraordinary design that stands just 9.9 inches tall and 6.6 inches in diameter. This one-of-a-kind model, made with red anodised aluminium, has been crafted exclusively for the (RED) Auction.

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Pixelmator 3→

On Tuesday, the Pixelmator Team released a significant update to their app that continues to make it faster while adding lots of new tools. Instead of rehashing the press releasing, I’ll direct you to their announcement instead.

The Pixelmator Team today announced Pixelmator 3.0 FX, the most advanced version of Pixelmator to date, featuring Layer Styles, Liquify Tools, and support for new features in OS X Mavericks, delivering blazing fast performance with its new, state-of-the-art image editing engine. Pixelmator 3.0 FX is available today as a free upgrade from the Mac App Store.

Between the Mac App Store and the colorful row of icons for iWork sits Pixelmator, which I consistently use for making quick touch ups to screen grabs and photos. I don’t have any real talent as an artist, nor do I understand the intricacies of all the tools, but it’s been indispensable for what I do on the site.

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