Snap for Mac Assigns Keyboard Shortcuts to Apps In Your Dock

If you use the OS X Dock as much as I do, then it’s likely that you’ve always wondered why there’s no easy way to assign a keyboard shortcut for apps placed in the Dock. Snap, a $0.99 app available in the Mac App Store, solves this problem by providing an easy solution to cycle through Dock apps using the keyboard.

Once downloaded, Snap will let you assign numeric shortcuts to Dock apps starting from the Finder and the app right next to it. All you have to do is choose a modifier key that, together with the numbers, will enable you to switch between apps in seconds. The modifier key can be Command, Control, Shift or Option. Personally, I chose Option so I can switch between tabs in Chrome using CMD. If you don’t want to have shortcuts for Dock apps, however, you can also manually pick an app from the “Other” menu and virtually create shortcuts for any app on your Mac.

I like Snap because it’s simple and allows me to quickly open apps using easy to remember shortcuts – always faster than heading over an icon with your mouse cursor. Go download it here.

New µTorrent Beta for Mac Adds Remote Web Access, Scheduler

Popular BitTorrent client µTorrent was updated in its beta version for Mac last night adding support for a series of features that have made the app a must-have among Windows users. Namely, the latest beta for Mac adds the ability to control torrents remotely from any desktop or mobile browser, without having to mess with complicated network and firewall settings. It’s quite handy if you’re that kind of user who likes checking on his torrents on the go and wouldn’t mind adding new ones as well. Everything happens with a Web interface that’s completely accessible from anywhere. Together with the web UI, the application’s design has been improved as well.

Other important features in the 1.5 beta include feeds and the scheduler. While the second option is pretty obvious as it lets you schedule start and stop times for µTorrent (so your internet service provider will be happy), the RSS support is interesting. It allows you to subscribe to torrents’ feeds to automatically download them as new ones become available.

µTorrent is a free download for Mac, and the beta version is available here. [via Cult of Mac]

Personal Hotspot Limited To 3 Devices on AT&T?

AT&T has confirmed it will offer the Personal Hotspot functionality starting March 11 with the release of iOS 4.3, but it looks like the functionality will be modified to work only with connections up to 3 devices. By default, Apple’s Personal Hotspot allows up to 5 devices to connect to a single iPhone sharing its 3G connection. A picture of an internal AT&T document posted by Engadget in fact suggests the carrier is going to restrict the usage of Personal Hotspot to only 3 incoming connections.

While it’s highly unlikely that you’ll end up letting 5 people connect to your iPhone on a daily basis, it’s still interesting to study the possibility of AT&T limiting a feature so heavily promoted by Apple. Guess carriers do have some kind of control on the iPhone, after all. (Personally, I’m just happy 3 Italia is going to keep Personal Hotspot free to use for every iPhone owner)

Update: the image shared by Engadget doesn’t specify whether or not AT&T is simply following Apple’s implementation of Personal Hotspot, which allows 3 devices to connect using WiFi. It’s not clear from the leaked photo if AT&T didn’t mention the additional Bluetooth and USB connections, or is really enforcing Personal Hotspot on 3 devices simultaneously.

From Apple’s website:

You can share your connection with up to five devices at once over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB — with up to three of those connections using Wi-Fi.4 Every connection is password protected and secure. And it’s power friendly, too. iPhone detects when your Personal Hotspot is no longer in use and turns it off to save battery life.

iPad 2: Apple’s Smart Iteration

By now you’ve probably heard and read everything you need to know about the iPad 2. The second generation tablet that’s thinner, lighter (not so much, after all), has cameras and also happens to come with fancy (some people say revolutionary) Smart Covers to protect and clean your device without putting it entirely into a case. Pretty much as I wrote in November, this is the iPad upgrade I was expecting.

But is this the iPad 2 I was hoping for? Or rather, was March 2 the iPad 2 event I was looking forward to? I would say yes, and no.

I’m going to get an iPad 2 from the United States on March 11. 16 GB WiFi model with a $39 Smart Cover. I guess that’s what most consumers will end up with, and I’m happy to stick with my last year’s choice of “just” 16 GBs of storage considering how it’s possible that Apple will slowly move to cloud storage, always available at any time with a simple Internet connection. Which brings me to the second point: the geek in me was hoping for a brief mention of iOS 5 at the iPad 2 event which, you might have seen, didn’t happen. I can see, though, why Apple decided to keep iOS 5 for a dedicated event in Cupertino. Read more

Here, File File! Updated with Retina Graphics, Background Audio

Here, File File! is an iPhone app we reviewed a year ago that eventually disappeared from our radar. The app, mixing a beautiful interface design with a weird and funny name, allowed you to browse the contents of your Mac (read: file system) from a native iPhone UI. You only needed to install a desktop server app in order to connect from the iPhone both through WiFi and 3G. In Here, File File! you could browser and open folders, preview images and documents, play music and video and even search with Spotlight from the iPhone itself. It was a gem.

The iPhone 4 came out last summer and an update to Here, File File! to support iOS 4 and the new device was nowhere to be seen. Not to mention the iPad, which would be perfect for an app like HFF.

This silence has been interrupted today with the release of version 1.2 that brings Retina Display graphics for iPhone 4, bug fixes, background audio support and several enhancements. An iPad app is in the works too, and beta testing should start soon after today’s release of HFF for iPhone. So how’s the update? The app looks beautiful on the iPhone 4 display and much more responsive than before. I also tweaked the desktop application to work with a global DNS hostname so I can access my files from anywhere. Background audio works as expected and you get a nice HFF icon in the multitasking tray to send music across your room to AirPlay speakers. These music files are on your Mac.

Here, File File! is the same great app as before, only it looks beautiful on the iPhone 4. While waiting for the iPad app to come out, go check out the iPhone version here. More screenshots below. Read more

To-Do App Dropkick Gets Even Better with Lists Support - All In The Cloud

Dropkick is a simple, elegant iPhone app we covered a while ago that lets you manage to-dos and sync them back through the cloud to a free Mac companion application. Dropkick, in fact, is free if you want to enter up to 10 tasks, and it goes paid to unlock unlimited access to task management. The app is really minimal and focused on entering new tasks, and completing them. Cloud sync happens through a free Dropkick account, and it’s really fast. For many, Dropkick has become the best way to quickly capture and manage to-dos, keeping them always available thanks to the comfort and reliability of online sync. Read more

They’re Back: Banned iPad 2 Promo Video

Last year, a US-based agency known as jLE made the rounds of the Internet with a series of fake “banned promo videos” for Apple products. They did videos for the white iPhone 4, the iPad, and even the iPhone 4 Antennagate. They were hilarious and spot-on, and now they’re back to their usual game with a banned iPad 2 promo video.

Once again, it’s funny. The “only Apple black employee” complains and jokes about the availability of a white iPad 2 at launch, other fake Apple executives comment on the two cameras they managed to put in the iPad 2, or the Photo Booth app that allows you to take “silly pictures with two heads”. There’s even a Charlie Sheen joke in there.

Check it out below. Once again, we love it. Read more

Personal Hotspot Lets Another iPhone Connect and Use FaceTime Over 3G

Here’s an interesting feature we didn’t know had been implemented on iOS 4.3 that has been brought to our attention this morning by German blog Macerkopf.de [Google Translation]: on the iOS 4.3 GM (released last night) you can start Personal Hotspot and let a second iPhone connect to use FaceTime over 3G.

Personal Hotspot creates a WiFi connection, but we know that’s actually a shared 3G one. Starting with an active 3G connection on the first iPhone running iOS 4.3, up to 5 other devices can connect to the Personal Hotspot, which is recognized in the Settings as a WiFi network. Macerkopf speculates that the fact that iPhones can connect to Personal Hotspot and use FaceTime is new to the 4.3 GM build seeded to developers yesterday.

I’ve tested this with my two iPhone 4s and a Mac running FaceTime, and it works. With the first iPhone, I made sure I had 3G active and created a WiFi network with Personal Hotspot. With the second iPhone 4, I connected to Personal Hotspot and called my Mac using FaceTime. It worked the other way around as well. Video quality and sound weren’t excellent (like I said, it’s a 3G connection) but definitely acceptable.

This is an interesting little detail because Apple doesn’t want you to use FaceTime over 3G. A number of Cydia tweaks surfaced in the past to overcome Apple’s restrictions, like Facebreak and My3G. But if you happen to have two iPhones (say, your wife’s) and you really need to use FaceTime on the go to call someone, Personal Hotspot will let you do that. Even if it’s actually a 3G connection, it appears that as long as the iPhone “sees” the network as a WiFi one, it’s fine. Clearly the second iPhone isn’t able to tell whether the connection comes from 3G or not.

We don’t know if this was possible on the previous betas of iOS 4.3, so if you’re still running one of those and the method works, please let us know in the comments below.