Sublime Text 2 and Markdown: Tips, Tricks, and Links

After a brief stint with TextMate 2, I recently started playing around with Sublime Text 2 for writing, and I thought I’d share the links and tips I’ve collected so far. I use Sublime Text 2 for both writing (in Markdown) and coding (that is, the basics of Python that I’m learning), but the links I’ve collected are primarily Markdown-related, as that’s how I spend most of my time on a computer: writing.

To begin, download Sublime Text 2. Or, download the Dev build, which will get you access to the latest features. Read more

Control OS X Function Keys with Palua→

Control OS X Function Keys with Palua

In fiddling around with Sublime Text 2 today, at one point I stumbled upon a command that needed F2 and F3 keys to be executed. I remember I once heard about a Mac app that let you easily toggle between “Function mode” and “Apple mode” for the F keys, so I went to Google, and eventually ended up back on MacStories.

In May 2011, our Cody Fink covered Palua, a menubar utility to do exactly that:

If you are going to be making use of the functions while working in a specific app, Palua for Mac allows you to toggle the function keys on and off so you don’t have to mash the fn key with each command. More interested in getting use out of those function keys than changing the volume? From the menubar or a simple ⌥⌘⇥ (option-command-tab) keystroke, Palua will activate and deactivate the function keys as needed when working in various projects.

The app has gotten much better since Cody’s original article. Version 3.0 adds an option to rely on Palua automatically by “app mode”, which is what I was looking for. Essentially, you can enable a “Smart Mode” to always use a mode in a specific app. So, for instance, I can default to “Apple mode” in every app, but activate “Function mode” only in Sublime Text. This means I can have my F2 shortcut in Sublime Text by directly hitting the key; in the Finder, Safari, and every other app, “Apple mode” will let me change volume, brightness, and all the other functions associated with those keys.

Palua is another example of a simple utility that does one thing extremely well. It scratches an itch and solves a problem with elegance, a variety of options, and unobtrusiveness. Best of all, it’s only $0.99 on the Mac App Store.

For more information and videos, check out the detailed explanations at Palua’s website.

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Evernote Teases Major 5.0 Redesign of Mac App

“Remember Everything” platform Evernote has today announced the next version of their Mac client: Evernote 5. With an extensive preview on Evernote’s website, the company has revealed some of the features and design choices behind the complete redesign of the desktop app.

Evernote 5 will primarily focus on improving the way users manage and access their notes, tags, and notebooks. With a new sidebar, users can drag items into the Shortcuts area; user shortcuts are accessible using CMD+1/9 keyboard shortcuts – just like bookmarks in Safari. Advanced users will still be able to “show lists” in the sidebar, but, overall, according to Evernote, the redesign will be focused on making the sidebar more visual, compact, and easier to use. In fact, the new sidebar will also list the five most recent notes for quick access.

Evernote says there are over 100 new features in v5.0. These include a new iPad-like Cards view for notes, improved sharing, a new look for the notes editor, more keyboard shortcuts, new views for tags and notebooks, and more.

Evernote highlights Atlas, a completely new feature to browse notes by location on a visual map.

Atlas is a brand new way to visually explore your notes in Evernote. Evernote helps you remember where you were when you took notes to help you have richer, more vibrant memories. Evernote Atlas reads the location where your notes were created and intelligently presents them to you on Place Cards based upon their proximity to each other.

Evernote 5 will undoubtedly be a major upgrade; hopefully the company won’t take away features from power users in its focus to make the app more accessible for everyone. Furthermore, Evernote says Atlas will work with notes created by Food and Hello, but it’s not clear if and how Evernote plans to better integrate version 5.0 with its ecosystem of apps – namely Skitch and Penultimate, acquired in the past year.

A beta of Evernote 5.0 will be available next week. Check out the feature list over at Evernote’s website, and a first teaser video below. Read more

Improve iOS Screenshots with Status Magic

Status Magic is not a “mainstream” app: you’ll only need it if you care about quality and precision in your iOS screenshots.

I write about a lot of apps on a daily basis. For these apps, I take screenshots, which, when it comes to iPhone apps, are automatically resized and combined with a Keyboard Maestro macro. But, sometimes, the screenshots I take aren’t perfect, in that the status bar is cluttered with icons or, even worse, showing a red battery indicator. Personally, I think showing a red battery in screenshots is a sign of poor attention to detail and quality. This is where Status Magic comes in.

Status Magic lets you replace the status bar in a screenshot with a clean one in just two clicks. It can apply clean status bars to multiple screenshots at once, and it works with the latest Apple devices such as the iPhone 5 and Retina iPad. Read more

Tweetbot for iPhone 2.6 Adds Custom POIs, Header Images→

Tweetbot for iPhone 2.6 Adds Custom POIs, Header Images

Tweetbot 2.6 is out today on the iPhone, and it’s a minor update from the previous 2.5 version. There are, however, two changes I would like to cover.

Tweetbot 2.6 comes with support for Twitter’s new header images for profiles. You’ll have to upload them directly from Twitter’s website – you can’t upload new ones in Tweetbot – but the app will display them nicely in user profiles, just like Tapbots’ other app, Netbot.

Tweetbot 2.6 also lets you create custom POIs for locations. If you think a location is incorrect, or simply would like to customize the location Tweetbot finds, click on the location in the compose screen, and create a custom POI. Be aware that other Tweetbot users will then be able to use the POI, as it’s based on Twitter’s geolocation features and the address of the location.

Tweetbot 2.6 is a minor, but nice update. Get it from the App Store.

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GTA: Vice City Coming To iOS This Fall→

GTA: Vice City Coming To iOS This Fall

As reported by Polygon, Rockstar has announced a special 10th anniversary edition of GTA: Vice City coming “later this fall” to iOS and Android devices.

The touch-controlled ports, which Rockstar says will “[bring] the full experience to mobile devices, featuring native high-resolution graphics and several enhancements unique to the iOS and Android platforms,” will be available “later this fall.” Last year, Rockstar highlighted the 10th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3 in the same way, with updated versions for iOS and Android that launched in mid-December.

Originally released on PlayStation 2 in October 2002, Vice City is regarded by many fans of Rockstar as one of the highest points ever touched by the series. With a satirical look at Miami in the 80’s, Vice City went on to become one of the best episodes of GTA thanks to a mix of “open world” gameplay and engaging plot.

Last year, Rockstar brought Vice City’s predecessor, GTA III, to iOS devices, but hasn’t updated the game for the iPhone 5 and Retina iPad yet. Hopefully the port of Vice City will be natively optimized for Apple’s latest devices. According to Rockstar, the game will feature “native high-resolution graphics and several enhancements unique to the iOS and Android platforms”.

Check out the full press release here.

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Apple Changing App Store Prices for Several Countries

Section on VAT clarified, more updates at the bottom of the article.

As pointed out by several readers on Twitter, Apple appears to be changing pricing tiers of App Store applications in several European countries. Specifically, the lowest price used to be €0.79, which has today been bumped to €0.89. We’ve been able to confirm this is indeed the case, as shown in the screenshot above, taken from the Italian App Store.

So far, we’ve received notices of App Store pricing changes in:

  • Italy
  • Spain
  • Netherlands
  • Portugal
  • Greece
  • Poland
  • Germany
  • France
  • Belgium
  • Austria
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Luxembourg
  • Hungary
  • Russia
  • Ireland
  • Finland

Read more

Apple Q4 2012 Results: $36 Billion Revenue, 26.9 Million iPhones, 14 Million iPads, 4.9 Million Macs Sold

Apple has just posted their Q4 2012 financial results for the quarter that ended on September 29, 2012. The company posted revenue of $36 billion ($8.67 per diluted share), with 14 million iPads, 26.9 million iPhones and million 4.9 Macs sold. Apple sold 5.3 million iPods. The company reported quarterly net profit of $8.2 billion. Gross margin was 40.0 percent compared to 40.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In this quarter, Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock.

The dividend is payable on November 15, 2012, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 12, 2012.

From the press release:

We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.

We’re pleased to have generated over $41 billion in net income and over $50 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2012,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75.

Estimates and Previous Quarters

For Q4 2012, Apple had set its guidance at revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $7.65.

The Street consensus’ average estimate was earnings of $8.75 per share and revenue of $35.80 billion.

On October 24, 2012, both independent and “pro” analysts polled by Fortune (68 in total) forecasted earnings and revenue higher than Apple’s guidance, as it often happens.

After getting clobbered quarter after quarter for nearly four years by a bunch of bloggers, day traders and other amateur analysts, the professionals seem to be giving their clients more realistic numbers. And having badly misjudged two of the last four quarters, the more bullish independents have, for the most part, started to come back to earth.

In Fortune’s poll, the “pros” averaged earnings per share of $8.82 on sales of $36.02 billion; the independent analysts forecasted earnings of $10.14 on sales of $38.8 billion.

Horace Dediu of Asymco also published his forecast for Apple’s fourth fiscal quarter on September 20, 10 days before the quarter (and fiscal year) ended. As he notes, it’ll be difficult to predict iPhone sales for the quarter as consumers have been probably holding off their purchase due to rumors of a product refresh. Furthermore, the iPhone 5 has only been on sale during the quarter for 8 days: the device went on sale in 9 countries on September 21, and 22 more on September 28. Apple only stated that iPhone 5 sales topped over 5 million units during the opening weekend.

The iPhone is going to be extremely difficult to project. On one hand we have the launch of the i5 which will account for about 10 million units in the quarter, on the other, chances are that sales were very weak prior to the launch as purchases were being deferred even more than during the last quarter.

Horace Dediu’s forecast was the following:

  • iPhone units: 27.8 million (62%)
  • Macs: 5.6 million (15%)
  • iPads: 18.8 million (69%)
  • iPods: 5.6 million (–15%)
  • Music (incl. app) rev. growth: 40%
  • Peripherals rev. growth: 10%
  • Software rev. growth: 15%
  • Total revenues: $39.5 billion (40%)
  • GM: 42%
  • EPS: $9.75 (38%)

A better picture of iPhone 5 sales, as well as those from the iPad mini, iPad 4, and recently-updated Macs, will be offered by Apple’s current holiday quarter – Q1 2013.

In the previous quarter, Q3 2012, Apple posted revenue of $35 billion, with 17 million iPads, 26 million iPhones and 4 million Macs sold. iPhone represented a 28 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter, while iPad reported a 84 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 6.8 million iPods, a 10 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The company posted quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In the year-ago-quarter, Q4 2011, Apple posted record-breaking revenue of $28.27 billion, with 11.12 million iPads, 17.07 million iPhones and 4.89 million Macs sold.

Apple will provide a live audio feed of its Q4 2012 conference call at 2:00 PM PT, and we’ll update this story with the conference highlights. You can find the full press release and a graphical visualization of Apple’s Q4 2012 after the break. Read more