Kickstarter: Snuglet Keeps the Latest MagSafe in Place

Apple’s MagSafe 2 connectors and are probably the best thing we have going for laptops right now. Your dog can trip over the cable, get run over by the vaccum, or yanked out by kids running around the house, and the cord just magically detaches itself from the MacBook without sending the machine to the floor. Which is great — that’s exactly what we want.

Unlike their first generation counterparts, the redesigned MagSafe connectors are not very forgiving when charging a laptop in your lap, on the bed, or on the sofa. In attempt to better balance the strength of the MagSafe connector, Tetrio has developed the Snuglet, a small ring that tightens the MagSafe connector just enough so that it stays in place when we’re using it, but is still supposed to come out of the laptop when it accidentally gets pulled. It pops into the charging port on your MacBook and is later removed with a removal tool (it looks kinda like a SIM tray ejector tool).

I won’t lie. I’m admittedly super skeptical of this particular KickStater because if it fails to prevent a falling MacBook then it’s really not that useful. I would love to see a proper demo video showing that the MagSafe 2 still works to save your MacBook’s skin when the cord is tripped on, especially with a laptop as light as the MacBook Air.

Tetrio are asking for $9,000 for their campaign, raising $2,977 so far. The first 250 backers can pre-order a pair of Snuglets for $12, while the second batch of 250 can pre-order it for $15. Everyone else can pledge $19 for their very own pair of Snuglets. Learn more about this Kickstarter and back the Snuglet here.

Apple’s 2013 ‘Back to School’ Promotion

Apple’s ‘Back to School’ promotion is live in the United States for the 2013 school year, offering incentives in the form of App Store gift cards to students who purchase a Mac, iPad, or iPhone. In addition to an education discout for qualifying Macs, students who purchase a Mac will receive a $100 gift card, and students who purchase an iPad, iPad mini, or iPhone will receive a $50 gift card. You can use these gift cards for iTunes purchases, to buy things like text books in the iBookstore, or to purchase apps from the App Store.

The promotion is open to any student, parent or staff member or a K-12 or higher education school with any purchase made between July 2nd and September 6th, 2013. If you order online, Apple is offering free shipping on orders over $50. Apple is also suggesting various back to school accessories like backpacks and cases on the ‘Back to School’ promotional page.

Oh Hai→

So ‘Oh Hai’ was the eventual outcome. It makes use of iOS face detection and to address our bugbear, we removed the need to interact directly the photo by including two sliders (one for eyes and the other for the mouth). These enable fine adjustments to be made with a complete and uninterrupted view of the results. The final working version was technically finished after more or less three days of work.

A simple, fun app by ustwo. I tested it over the weekend, and it does exactly one thing, quite well, with a straightforward design. The iOS face detection technology behind it is smart and accurate. Free on the App Store.

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Apple’s Desktop Pictures→

The public unveiling of each new version of Mac OS X has brought a new default desktop picture, and a new hunt to find a full-res copy of that wallpaper before the official release. The introduction of OS X Mavericks was no different, only this time instead of a space-themed galaxy or nebula, Apple decided to bring Mac’s default look and feel back to earth.

Thomas Brand takes a look back at Apple’s history with Mac OS and OS X default desktop pictures.

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Sponsor: ReadKit

Our thanks goes out to Webin for sponsoring MacStories this week with ReadKit.

If you want to read articles from Instapaper, Pinboard, and your favorite site feeds all in one place, look no further than ReadKit on the Mac. ReadKit supports read later apps like Pocket and Readability, and connects with feed readers like NewsBlur, Newsbin, Fever, and Feed Wrangler. Plus ReadKit has its own feed engine for reading your favorite sites locally. Not only is it versatile, but it’s beautiful as well. ReadKit looks like it was built just for the Mac, and lets you read articles without page elements like spammy links with Focus mode. One of our favorite features is smart folders, which let you group together related articles from your feeds based on a custom set of rules. You can even tag articles and bookmarks to find related things later.

ReadKit manages to bring together the web’s best services for saving and sharing the articles, images, and videos you save online under one roof. Download ReadKit from the Mac App Store for $4.99, or learn more here.

Reeder 3.2 Brings Feedly, Feed Wrangler Sync

As announced last month, an update to RSS client Reeder for iPhone has been released today on the App Store, adding support for Feedly and Feed Wrangler. Arriving just in time for Google’s shutdown of Reader, the latest Reeder update for iPhone brings the app’s supported sync services to four (previously added Feedbin, Feedly, Feed Wrangler, and Fever) and removes Google Reader from the “Add Account” screen (existing accounts won’t be deleted from the app).

Feedly and Feed Wrangler integration in Reeder is solid, but it lacks some features. While I have been generally happy with Reeder’s speed in syncing with Feedly and Feed Wrangler, the app lacks support for Smart Streams – a key functionality of Feed Wrangler that’s already supported by clients like ReadKit and Mr. Reader. To access Smart Streams on the iPhone, my recommendation still goes to Feed Wrangler’s official app, which may not be as polished as Reeder, but that works perfectly with the service’s Smart Streams.

Reeder, a longtime MacStories favorite, is moving into the post-Reader era with an iPhone update that should work for most people and major iPad and OS X updates on the horizon. Developer Silvio Rizzi hasn’t provided a release date yet, but he announced the iPad version will be a completely redesigned app. Due to the lack of compatibility updates, both Reeder for iPad and Reeder for Mac have been removed from the App Store.