App Journal, Episode 2: Boxee for iPad, Notesy, Note & Share, Writing Kit

App Journal is a weekly series aimed at showcasing apps we have enjoyed using on our iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but decided not to feature in a standalone, lengthy review here on MacStories. App Journal is a mix of classic reviews, weekly app recommendations, and a diary of our experiences with apps that still deserve a proper mention.

For this week’s App Journal episode, I’m taking a look at four iOS apps: Boxee for iPad, Writing Kit, Notesy and Note & Share. You may notice three of them are note-taking apps – in fact, I’ve been playing with several apps of this kind recently, and have yet to decide which one suits better my writing workflow when it comes to quick notes for, say, Dropbox, or longer pieces written in Markdown.

Stay tuned for more App Journal episodes in the next weeks. Read more

Apple Could Already Be Planning A Third Campus To Cope With Employee Growth

Cupertino City officials will tonight be holding a meeting on Apple’s new ‘spaceship’ campus that was revealed by Steve Jobs himself back in June of this year. It will be the first opportunity that Cupertino residents will be able to raise issues about the project for the City to consider before approval is given for construction. But already, Apple may be planning the construction of a third campus with expected employee growth to be greater than the 13,000 this new ‘spaceship’ campus can hold.

This is according to Cupertino Mayor, Gilbert Wong, who told the Contra Costa Times that Apple Executives have informed him that they are expecting to start working on a third campus at an unknown location after they finish the ‘spaceship’ campus in 2015. Gilbert also notes that within Apple the campuses may just be named as simply as the iPad and iPhone product lines, with this forthcoming ‘spaceship’ campus simply dubbed “Apple 2”.

“I think it makes sense to call it Apple 2,” Mayor Gilbert Wong said Wednesday. “They have iPad 1 and iPad 2; iPhone 1 and iPhone 2. This building is probably going to have much more innovative technologies and products than what they have at” their first campus, also in Cupertino.

You’ll be able to watch tonight’s Cupertino City Council meeting either live in person or online where a broadcast will be streamed.

[Contra Costa Times via The Next Web]

Adobe Sees 45% Growth Of Premiere Pro On The Mac, Credits Final Cut Pro X

According to a report in The Loop, Adobe will today announce that sales of its professional video production tools have skyrocketed year-over-year. Which, in large part has been driven by growth on the Mac platform with disillusioned Final Cut Pro users moving over to alternative products after Apple released the controversial Final Cut Pro X version earlier this year.

As the backlash began from professional video editors, Adobe targeted them, giving discounts for Premiere Pro (Adobe’s alternative to Final Cut Pro) and publishing video tutorials and documents to ease the transition. This appears to have payed off with a 45% growth of Adobe’s video production tools on the Mac and total year-on-year growth across both the PC and Mac platforms at 22%.

In comparison to Adobe’s efforts, Apple hasn’t done much to quell concerns apart from release a Q&A article, refund customers for the purchase and only last week they began selling Final Cut Pro 7 again but at the standard $999 price.

[Via The Loop]

Adobe Unveils “Carousel” To Sync & Edit Photos Across Mac and iOS

Today Adobe introduced a new product that could bring photographers’ favorite Adobe app, Lightroom, to a reality; it’s called Carousel. Carousel could be Adobe’s answer to Apple’s Photo Stream service, although Adobe’s solution is not integrated into the OS like Apple’s iCloud service. Carousel will let you enhance and share all of your photos across your Mac and iOS devices (Android & Windows versions are in development).

Carousel “brings a highly tuned version of the Lightroom/Camera Raw engine to mobile devices, combining it with excellent multi-device syncing.” Other Carousel options are:

  • You get access to all your images on all your devices.
  • All edits are non-destructive: tweak a setting on one device & you’ll see the edit ripple through your other devices.
  • It’s easy to collaborate with friends & family: people you invite to share a photo catalog can view photos, add new ones, apply adjustments and preset “looks,” and flag favorites.
  • You can easily publish to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

The iOS and Mac versions are not yet available but based on John Nack’s blog post, it may have already been submitted to Apple. All the applications will be free but the service will be subscription based - $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year will get you unlimited storage and photos but if you’re an early adopter the price will be $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year.

The ability to edit your photos and have them sync everywhere is a feature that Apple’s Photo Stream does not currently have, it simply syncs photos taken with your iOS camera to the stream but it will be free.

Demo video after the break.

Read more

Apple Working on Logic Pro X Major Release?

According to a new report by Japanese website Macotakara, Apple may be working on a new version of its Logic Studio suite, called Logic Pro X. The report doesn’t delve in the details and it says the source comes from a “customer interview” with the Logic Team. Apple’s last major Logic release dates back to mid-2009, when Logic 9 was released. Since then, Apple brought 64-bit support to the software, and pushed minor updates for Logic Pro and Logic Express.

The release of a “Logic Pro X” application would certainly make sense considering Apple’s recent rewrite of Final Cut Studio as a single app known as Final Cut Pro X, sold on the Mac App Store alongside other components like Motion and Compressor. Macotakara claims that Soundtrack Pro’s development has “finished” and that it’s unclear whether there will be a replacement in the new Logic Pro X; the site adds, however, that the WaveBurner component will be integrated, whilst MainStage will be sold separately, presumably just like Motion 5 and Compressor on the Mac App Store as Final Cut Pro X companions. Last, the report notes there will be no “confusion” because Logic Pro and plugins have already been developed as 64-bit applications – thus suggesting Logic Pro X will be fully 64-bit compatible like Final Cut Pro X.

Macotakara has a mixed track record when it comes to Apple rumors (the site correctly predicted the iPad 2’s bigger speaker design, media event and launch, as well as Final Cut Pro X introduction; they incorrectly reported Apple would adopt a new type of NAND Flash memory in the 2011 MacBook Air), although this rumor seems to fall in line with Apple’s rebranding and rewrite of Final Cut Studio and Express as Final Cut Pro X, available exclusively on the Mac App Store. As a side note, Apple recently made the old Final Cut Studio available for sale again, in what has been described as an effort to ease the transition process to FCP X following a criticized launch. [Macotakara via MacRumors]

Saks 5th Ave. Storefront Features 64 iPads→

Saks 5th Ave. Storefront Features 64 iPads

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop:

To celebrate Fashion’s Night Out, Saks and Stylelist.com have partnered to create an interactive storefront at Saks’ flagship 5th Avenue store.

Designed, developed and built by Gin Lane Media the three-window display features 64 iPad 2s in the center window and nine 27-inch Cinema Displays in each of the two side windows.

Looking at the photos, it’s another reminder of what’s possible to achieve with the right combination of apps and hardware. Back in April, we saw how 40 iPads could be connected on a network to form a single, giant whiteboard for collaborative efforts. Saks’ display will be used for Stylelist images, videos, and tweet aggregation through a specific hashtag. An iPad app was built specifically for this occasion, allowing for nice and smooth animations as well as simple setup and control on the network.

Perhaps not one of the iPad uses Apple imagined, but still an example of the versatility of the device, which “disappears” in the storefront once content – its glass screen – is the focus.

Permalink

WebMarker Brings Tweet Marker Support To Google Chrome

While many are still wishfully hoping Twitter will update its official Mac and iOS client with support for Manton Reece’s excellent Tweet Marker service, the reality is third-party developers are once again leapfrogging Twitter in terms of innovation, experimentation, and willingness to improve existing solutions with new techniques and add-ons. Such is Tweet Marker, a web service for syncing timelines across Twitter clients. By implementing the service’s free API, clients like Twitterrific and Tweetbot have gained the capability of syncing the “last read” tweet in user timelines and mentions, with lists and direct messages soon to be supported as well. You can read more about how Tweet Marker actually works in our previous Twitterrific 4.3 and Tweetbot 1.6 coverage.

WebMarker is a new Chrome extension that brings Tweet Marker integration on Twitter.com. Whereas many may quickly dismiss this extension because “really, no one uses Twitter’s website anymore these days”, I believe that’s not the case. Twitter.com still provides a great alternative to desktop clients in some specific scenarios – MacStories’ favorite deals hunter Chris, for instance, is forced to use a Windows PC at work, and he prefers to use Twitter.com rather than a third-party Windows client. Wouldn’t it be great if all office workers could sync their Twitter status while at work, and come back home to find their Tweetbots and Twitterrifics ready to pick up where they left off?

Being a Chrome extension, WebMarker works on any platform Google’s browser is available on. Once installed, the app will redirect you to Twitter.com for OAuth access (good choice), then it’ll sit in Chrome’s Omnibar, waiting for you to visit Twitter.com. Here’s how it works:

When you open Twitter or refresh your open page you should see the app icon right in the Omnibar. If it’s colored, a click will scroll you down to the last marked tweet. If it’s gray it scrolls to bottom to let Twitter load more tweets until the marked tweet is found (for a maximum of 3 trys).

Current tweet reading position will be set if page is in idle, or tab is inactive, for at least 10 seconds.

I tested WebMarker on Google Chrome Canary for the Mac, and it worked as expected. I was able to sync my “last read tweet” back to Twitterrific and Tweetbot once Chrome’s tab became idle, and the extension’s icon in the Omnibar allowed me to quickly jump back to Tweet Marker’s synced status with ease.

WebMarker is a nice addition to Tweet Marker’s growing ecosystem, and a useful way to keep your timelines in sync if you happen to use Twitter.com in your daily workflow. Download it here.

MacUpdate Bundle: A Fine Selection Of 11 Mac Apps For Just $50

Following Monday’s Bundlehunt package of 11 great Mac apps and various ‘design goodies’, today there is a new MacUpdate Bundle which also comes with a selection of top-notch Mac apps and utilities for just $49.99. The bundle includes some of MacStories’ favourite Mac apps including the excellent Fantastical (review here), the informative iStat Menus and the useful Printopia (review here). If you tried purchasing the included apps individually you’d be paying nearly $500, so if you’re looking to beef up your collection of Mac apps this is a terrific deal at just $49.99.

The MacUpdate Bundle includes:

  • Toast 11 Titanium - if you need to do more than the basic disc burning that the iLife software provides, Toast is an excellent option. It also has a solid set of video conversion tools as well as supporting the ability to burn copies of recorded video from EyeTV and copying CDs and DVDs with no fuss.
  • Printopia - only available to the first 10,000 purchasers of the MacUpdate Bundle, Printopia allows you to share your printers connected to a Mac (physically or over a network) with an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch - allowing you to print from an iOS device to virtually any printer (as opposed to the limited selection of HP printers that are natively supported).
  • Data Rescue - this is an advanced piece of digital data recovery software for the Mac, allowing you to safely recover previously deleted files.
  • FX Photo Studio Pro - this Mac post-processing image editor comes loaded with over 150 image effects and comes with some substantial customizations options, allowing you to mix and match effects to perfect an image.
  • Fantastical - this is a powerful Calendar application that sits in your menu bar, working with existing calendars and comes with a powerful natural language engine that can create an event from a simple phrase (e.g. Lunch with Matt on Wednesday 1pm).
  • iStat Menus - monitor all of your Mac’s vital statistics with just one glance to the menubar, it supports monitoring everything from CPU usage to component temperatures to network usage and more.
  • Phoneview - access and export various pieces of data from your iPhone or other iOS device from call history, text messages, photos, voice memos and more.
  • Concealer - conceal important snippets of data in an encrypted archive - everything from license keys to diary entries can be concealed.
  • EarthDesk - replace a boring desktop background with a live-updating image of the Earth with real time movement of the sun and even cloud coverage.
  • Mellel - a powerful word processor that is appreciated by scholars, students and those writing technical documentation.
  • Bookends - for professionals and students this is an extremely powerful reference management application (and it integrates perfectly with Mellel)

 

Disclaimer: For every bundle purchased through MacStories, we receive a small kickback. If you’re interested in the bundle and supporting the MacStories crew, please use the link here or any of the affiliate links above.