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Macworld Lab Tests The 2011 BTO Mac mini→

Macworld Lab Tests The 2011 BTO Mac mini

Macworld takes a look at a build-to-order (BTO) Mac mini with a 2.7GHz dual-core Core i7 processor, and 256 GB solid state drive. At $300 more than a standard 21.5-inch 2.5GHz Core i5 iMac (both machines come equipped with 4 GB of RAM), the maxed-out Mac mini was faster than the iMac at disk-intensive tests like file duplication, whereas performances on Apple’s recently updated small desktop box started to take a hit with graphic-intensive tasks such as playing Portal 2 or running Cinebench tests.

Not surprisingly, the BTO Mac mini with its SSD blazed past the iMac in disk-intensive tests such as the 2GB folder duplication (31 percent faster) and 4GB file unzip (42 percent faster). The BTO Mac mini also beat the iMac in our 4GB zip test (5 percent faster), our Pages import Word doc test (20 percent faster), and our Parallels WorldBench multitask test (4 percent faster).

Macworld concludes that the BTO Mac mini is a “pricey proposition” and the iMac is still faster at most tasks, though some users would prefer the Mac mini’s simple configuration in that they won’t end up with an additional screen, trackpad, and so forth.

Considering that you don’t get several important items with the Mac mini that you do get with the iMac—a keyboard, mouse/trackpad, display—the BTO Mac mini we tested is a pricey proposition. However, some people may not want a new display (or don’t like the iMac’s glass-covered displays) and new input devices, and the Mac mini’s small case is preferable than the Mac Pro’s bulky tower. For general use, the BTO Mac mini can keep up with the 21.5-inch 2.5GHz Core i5 iMac. But the iMac fares better with software that can take advantage of multiple cores or graphic-intensive tasks.

By getting rid of the optical drive and making room for an additional hard drive in the aluminum enclosure, Apple has turned the 2011 Mac mini into the most lightweight and configurable consumer-oriented Mac ever made. Check out Macworld’s full tests here.

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Watchlater 2.0 Improves Video Collection and Adds iPhone App

Back in March I reviewed Watchlater, an iPad app that I described as “an Instapaper for video” in the way it allowed users to save videos for later viewing using a simple browser bookmarklet. Whereas nothing has changed concept-wise since the original release, the much-improved version 2.0 of Watchlater addresses pretty much every issue I had with 1.0, adding support for more video providers, a better interface, as well as a redesigned web app and iPhone version.

First off, Watchlater slashed the price of in-app credits (used as “minutes” to cache offline videos) to $0.99 for 150 minutes, and $2.99 to have an additional 300 minutes to cache videos from Vimeo, TED, FunnyOrDie, and many others (you can check out the full list here). Unfortunately, as I noted in my first review, YouTube videos still can’t be saved offline due to copyright issues, however the developers have worked on improving the way these videos are loaded in a new window, so that YouTube’s mobile player scales gracefully both on the iPhone or iPad. This is also true for Vimeo material, and I’ve noticed a general trend towards polishing the overall UI which includes folder icons on iOS, and a completely revamped web app that turns your video queue into something” nice” to look at.

Videos from iOS devices can now be moved around folders, shared on Facebook and Twitter or forwarded to Safari, whilst the web app allows you to edit and manage folders, “search the web and add instantly”,  or switch from list to grid view.

Perhaps the biggest change in version 2.0, iPhone app aside, is the inclusion of Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader as sources for your videos. The new “connect & collect” feature lets you automatically build a video queue based on videos found in your Twitter and Facebook timelines or Google Reader feeds – whereas the “normal” Watchlater experience requires you to manually use a bookmarklet to “curate” videos you want to save for later, this new functionality will aggregate all videos related to your accounts, with the downside being that perhaps you don’t want any kind of video to show up in Watchlater. You can delete these videos, obviously, but it’d be nice to have filtering options to make sure that only some videos get forwarded to Watchlater. Speaking of the bookmarklet, it now works much better with videos embedded on web pages, and it supports more providers.

Watchlater is my favorite app to collect and organize videos I don’t have time to check out right away. You can get the app for free on the App Store, and unlock minutes through in-app purchases. Read more

Saver For iPhone Giveaway: 10 Copies Of The Delightful Expense Tracker

After a big bug-squashing and feature-adding update last week to Saver, the developers have decided to run another giveaway of their excellent expense-tracking app. I reviewed Saver for iPhone about two months ago where I raved about its excellent and loving design which made the usually dull task of expense tracking a more exciting and vibrant experience. The genius of Saver though is that unlike many other apps on the market, its design keeps things simple whilst still being powerful enough for what most users will need out of an expense-tracker.

The developers are running their own giveaway of Saver where they are giving away 3 copies of the app everyday from today till next Monday, but MacStories readers have another chance to win the app because they have been kind enough to give us 10 copies to give away! Make sure to read our full review of Saver, but jump the break for all the details on how to enter our giveaway of 10 copies of Saver.

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Adobe Releases CreatePDF for iOS

Earlier today Adobe added another application to its iOS portfolio with the release of CreatePDF for iOS, a $9.99 universal app aimed at letting users easily create PDFs on their iPhones or iPads. According to Adobe, “CreatePDF brings the same high-quality PDF creation as Adobe Acrobat” to iOS devices, with PDF documents that look “exactly” like the original files they were generated from; the app uses Adobe’s online services for performance and quality, creating PDFs that preserve quality and accessibility standards with the inclusion of links, images, footnotes, and more.

The app supports the following formats:

  • MS Word (docx, doc), Excel(xlsx, xls), PowerPoint (pptx, ppt)
  • Adobe Illustrator (ai), Photoshop (psd) and InDesign (indd)
  • Images – JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF
  • RTF, Text and WordPerfect
  • OpenOffice and StarOffice documents

CreatePDF works through iOS’s default “Open In…” menu, which allows third party apps to communicate with each other by sending documents to other applications that support specific file types, such as PDF, .doc, or plain text. For instance, the feature was recently introduced in the Omni Group’s OmniOutliner, letting the app export outlines as plain text or OPML to other iOS software installed on device. CreatePDF registers as an app capable of opening (and converting) the file types listed above, and in my first tests it’s proven to be a fast and reliable solution to convert plain text documents, images and PSDs to the PDF format. From any app that supports sending files, you can choose CreatePDF from the “Open In…” menu, and wait for the app to finish the conversion process to PDF. For reference, the app took a few minutes to convert a 12 MB PSD to PDF, with good results. Similarly, a .docx document forwarded to me via email and sent from the iPad’s Mail app to CreatePDF took less than 30 seconds to become a PDF.

CreatePDF looks like a solid solution to convert files to PDFs, although I wouldn’t mind having more sharing options inside the app itself. Currently, CreatePDF can only “open in” other apps, send via email, or print. It’d be nice to have, say, direct Dropbox integration or more online exporting options in the future. The $9.99 price tag might be a little steep for the average iOS users, but quality of converted documents looked superior to me than other apps I tried in the past, and support for Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign documents is also very welcome.

You can get CreatePDF at $9.99 on the App Store. Read more

Use Your iPad As A Digital Portfolio With The Excellent Foliozo

One of the iPad’s biggest strengths is the ease to which you can show various pictures, videos or websites to the people around you - its sleek form factor and large display makes it feel much more natural and personal than a laptop or desktop would. It is that inherit trait of the iPad that Apple is taking further advantage of with iOS 5 and its Photo Stream feature that lets you take pictures with your friends and family at the beach on your iPhone and then show those pictures on your iPad after a family dinner because Photo Stream effortlessly syncs photos between the two devices. Our own Federico recently wrote about how it removed the effort of manually syncing photos after he used the feature extensively on a recent summer holiday.

So we know the iPad is great (and will get better with Photo Stream in iOS 5) for sharing pictures and videos with our families and friends, but surely this experience could also translate into the professional realm. The true fact is that it does, with many firms already using the iPad as a portfolio to show concepts, photos and designs to clients and there are already a number of apps in the App Store that make this process easier. Today, however, I’m reviewing Foliozo which is a new entrant to the ‘digital portfolio’ app market, and one I think that stands above the pack.

Jump the break for the full review, screenshots and their promo video.

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Apple Removes TV Rentals from iTunes - Customers “Overwhelmingly Prefer Buying TV Shows”→

Apple Removes TV Rentals from iTunes - Customers “Overwhelmingly Prefer Buying TV Shows”

As first noted by AppleInsider, Apple has removed all options related to TV show rentals on iTunes, the Apple TV’s dedicated interface and its website, deleting a support document that detailed how users could rent episodes using credit in their iTunes accounts. .99-cent TV show rentals were unveiled last September as part of the Apple TV 2nd gen announcement, and touted as a big new feature from Apple with both ABC and Fox on board with their shows. Others, however, dismissed the initiative as a threat to the TV business model – prices were too low according to TV studios. TV shows could be rented from the iTunes Store and watched on a Mac or Windows PC, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV. Users had 30 days to begin watching a TV show, and 48 hours to complete it.

Today, Apple confirmed to AllThingsD that, as customers prefer buying TV shows, they’ve canceled the rental program entirely. Instead, Apple is now recommending iTunes in the Cloud, an iCloud functionality already live for customers that allows for re-watching and streaming of any previously purchased content on any device. The option was introduced with the latest Apple TV software update.

iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. “iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.

Apple is rumored to be working on a new technology to deliver video to televisions, but right now, the only option for purchasing, streaming and re-downloading TV shows remains iTunes in the Cloud.

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Sparrow Developers Working on “Sparrow for iPhone”

As revealed by Dominique Leca to Business Insider, the company he co-founded is now working on an iPhone version of Sparrow, which is in the very early stages of development and simply known as “Sparrow for iPhone” at the moment. For those not familiar with the Mac app, Sparrow is an alternative email client for OS that started out as a mix between classic email and Tweetie-like UI to deliver a fresh Gmail experience on the desktop, and eventually evolved into a powerful solution to access Gmail (including features like shortcuts, stars, and labels) as well as classic IMAP. The app got more social and better integrated with Lion, adding full-screen mode and a completely redesigned sidebar for navigating through your inboxes. Some people say Sparrow’s success is due to the fact that the app does email, but it doesn’t feel like email; Sparrow is sold at $9.99 on the Mac App Store with a lite version available, and a licensed version also up on the devs’ website.

We previously reported on Sparrow adding Twitter’s Loren Brichter to the team of advisors, raising $250,000 in funding over the last months; according to Leca, Sparrow has made more than half a million dollars since the Mac App Store release, although they don’t like the fact that Apple’s store for OS X apps lists both indie software and applications from Apple such as Final Cut Pro X, iWork, or OS X Lion.

In the interview, Leca also reveals they’ve started working on an iPhone version of Sparrow, aimed at enhancing Apple’s Mail experience with a different and faster UI, attachments from the compose view, and lots more. If we had to speculate on Sparrow’s focus for iOS, we’d say porting the Gmail integration that has characterized the desktop app to iOS would be a good idea.

Still, the problem for Sparrow is that Apple has always been reluctant in accepting apps that “duplicate functionality”, such as email applications. That’s why Google hasn’t released an official Gmail app for iOS yet, whilst Android has one. Apple does, however, accept third-party browsers for iOS, albeit they’re based on the same engine of Safari – they can’t use their own interpreters. This is the reason behind the lack of a real Firefox version for the iPhone – the Firefox Home that Mozilla ships is actually based on WebKit, like any other alternative browser for iOS. They’re basically skins on top of Safari’s engine, with different functions and interfaces. Same applies to photo album management apps, which are simply connected to the Camera Roll (and Apple’s Photos app) through an API. An API or similar technique doesn’t exist for email messages, thus the lack of third-party email apps for iOS. Much has changed since 2008 (for instance, Apple now accepts web app wrappers such as MailWrangler), but native third-party email apps still haven’t made it to the App Store.

Leca seems somewhat confident in Apple’s intention to start opening up iOS soon to approve apps like Sparrow for iPhone, which in order to work would have to feature its own email assets in order to directly work with Gmail, out of Mail app, with a different UI and compose view. From the interview:

BI: So do you think they’ll approve it?

DL: I think they will. They’re accepting third party browsers, so why not mail? This would be really inconsistent. Opera has a browser out there, and I think Mozilla has one coming too.

BI: So you think it’s only a matter of time until Apple loosens the chains?

DL: Yeah, I guess so. In regards to apps that compete with their own apps, I think iOS is sufficiently settled and I think people have been evangelized enough now so Apple will feel more secure opening it up.

The current iPhone mail app is just about perfect, but we’re just making things faster in terms of UI, and we’re adding a lot of small details for power users, like attaching images straight from the compose window.

We’re looking forward to Sparrow’s upcoming features on the Mac and mobile version, although I’m personally not sure as to whether Apple could really decide to let others sell email apps or real browsers in the App Store. Sure, the platform is mature enough to let users easily differentiate between Apple’s default solutions and standalone apps, but that would mean giving up a bit of control on the ecosystem, something that Apple has carefully nurtured in the past three years. I believe Sparrow would also be a great addition to the iPad – which I use regularly to manage and respond to emails – but, again, I don’t know why and how could Apple free developers from the ties of Safari and Mail in the near future. [Business Insider via MacRumors]

Latest Dropbox Build Gets Nicer on Lion

If there’s something Dropbox, the popular online file syncing service with a strong iOS / OS X presence, should get better at in the future, that would be a new way of informing users of available updates. Or, as Shawn Blanc recently put it, you’d think of all the apps that automatically update themselves, “Dropbox would be a chief at it”. Unfortunately, in spite of its always-connected nature, Dropbox’s internal update mechanism is far from perfect. Too many users downloaded Dropbox months ago, and never updated to faster and more stable builds because of a lack of notifications, sticking with older versions that are likely causing problems.

This problem is especially true on Lion, which required the Dropbox team to rewrite parts of the app to integrate with the new Finder. Whilst TUAW noted last week that another “silent” Dropbox update added Lion support, the latest forum build – version 1.2.28 released yesterday – goes even further and brings a new icon for the Finder sidebar, new setup images, and more bug fixes. The changes are minor, but it’s nice to see Dropbox finally having a good-looking shortcut in Lion’s Finder.

Full changelog:

  • Finder Integration: Make Favorites Dropbox icon pretty
  • New tour images for Lion.
  • Fix DNS lookup problem when using a SOCKS5 proxy.
  • Delay upload of 0 byte files so that users don’t get useless transfers.
  • Fix small occurrence of now Resume option after pausing Dropbox in Linux
  • Fix to very rare bug that would prevent directories from being uploaded.
  • Fix bug that would cause auto-update to incorrectly ask for UAC elevation.
  • Fix rare missing sidebar item.

You can download Dropbox 1.2.28 (which, again, is an experimental forum build that, although stable, still isn’t an “official” release) over at Dropbox Forums.

Apple Releases New 10.7.2, iCloud, iPhoto 9.2 Dev Builds

Exactly one week after the latest iOS 5 beta, Apple has released new developer builds of OS X Lion 10.7.2, iCloud beta, and iPhoto 9.2. iCloud beta and 10.7.2 were last updated alongside iOS 5 beta 6 on August 19, which brings today’s releases to:

  • iCloud for OS X Lion beta 9
  • iPhoto 9.2 beta 3
  • OS X Lion 10.7.2 Update (11C43)

Apple is expected to introduce iCloud this fall, and 10.7.2 is in fact being seeded to developers for testing purposes through the separate iCloud installer. iPhoto 9.2 will introduce Photo Stream, a new way of syncing photos from iOS’ camera roll to iCloud, and have the most recent ones always available on all devices including the Mac (indeed, with iPhoto) and Windows PCs.