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Search results for "Ecoute"

Best Apps Of 2011: Giveaway Details

Last Friday we started the voting period for our search for the best iPhone, iPad and Mac Apps and Games of 2011. As part of that we also announced that we were conducting the biggest giveaway we have ever run on MacStories. Today we are giving everyone more details on what apps we are giving away and when. But first, a quick reminder that you can enter the giveaway by doing one (or all three) of the following:

  1. Vote (when you vote we first ask for your email address, just enter a valid email address and you go into the running to win some free apps).
  2. Tweet about the poll (use the text quoted below).
  3. Let your friends or family know about the poll and have them enter your email or Twitter handle in the referral box that is on the voting page.

MacStories Best Apps of 2011: vote now and enter our huge iOS & Mac app giveaway! http://mcstr.net/rVDwy8

Every day this week (from today till Friday) we will be giving out a number of (single) licence codes to apps in addition to 3 bundle packs which include codes for three apps - details can be seen below the break. In total, this represents of 250 codes that will be given away!

Vote Early

We’ll be randomly drawing entries for the giveaways once a day - but we won’t be limiting the selection to just those who voted on that day. Every vote will have a chance of winning every day. This means that if you enter before the end of today (Monday) you will have five chances at some codes - but if you enter on Friday you will only have one chance at winning.

Remember that you can also increase your chances by tweeting about this poll and by telling your friends and family about the poll (and getting them to put your email address in the referral box).

 

Sorry, voting is now closed. Winners will be announced on Saturday, 24th.

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Best Apps Of 2011: Vote For Your Favorite + A Huge Giveaway

iOS and Mac apps are the cornerstone of what we cover on MacStories, we love trying new apps, sharing news about them and then reviewing them for you all. The past 12 months have been a spectacular year for new apps and big app updates that have seen both the diversity and calibre of iOS and Mac apps increase significantly. It is with this in mind that we want to recognise the very best apps that were released or received major updates in 2011.

The whole team at MacStories has worked together to come up with a short list of iPhone, iPad and Mac apps as well as a short list of games that we believe were the best to come out in 2011. Now we need your help to decide which of these apps are the best from each category. To do so, we are running a poll that we want you to take, and we want you to cast your vote for what you think was the best app of 2011.

The Biggest MacStories Giveaway Ever!

However, this event isn’t just about rewarding the very best iOS and Mac developers, we want to reward you for being readers of MacStories this year and for taking the time to help us choose the best apps of 2011. This giveaway, as the header states, is the biggest we have ever run - and by quite a stretch. We’re going to be giving away over two-hundred license codes for apps that have made it into our short lists - and there may still be more to come! Some of the apps we will be giving away include:

  • Alfred
  • Fantastical
  • iA Writer
  • Instacast
  • Mr. Reader
  • Tweetbot
  • and many, many more…

How To Enter The Giveaway

There are three ways to be in the running for some of these licenses:

  1. Vote (when you vote we first ask for your email address, just enter a valid email address and you go into the running to win some free apps).
  2. Tweet about this contest (just make sure you have this article’s URL in the tweet, or just use the example tweet below).
  3. Let your friends or family know about the poll and have them enter your email or Twitter handle in the referral box that is on the voting page.

MacStories Best Apps of 2011: vote now and enter our huge iOS & Mac app giveaway! http://mcstr.net/rVDwy8

Rules & More Information

  • You can only vote once, this is why we require an email address when you vote. If you enter an invalid email address or vote multiple times your vote(s) will not count.
  • Please don’t spam your Twitter followers, friends or family, asking them to vote and add you to the referral box. It’s not nice and we don’t want to come across as being the source of this spam - if we see such spam we will ensure you don’t receive any licenses.
  • Some licences will be given out during the voting process, whilst the rest will be given after voting closes.
  • Once voting closes, no more entries for the giveaway will be accepted.
  • Because of the limited number of licences we have per app, you might not get the app you really wanted if you are a winner - but we will try to be as flexible as possible!

 

Sorry, voting is now closed. Winners will be announced Saturday, 24th.

The winning apps will be announced on Saturday, December 24th (Christmas Eve).


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Take Five for Mac Updated to Give You More Control

Back in March we covered Take Five for Mac from the Iconfactory crew. The app is simple and efficient and does one thing and does it very well – stopping and restarting your music so you don’t have to remember.

Today, Take Five has been updated to version 1.1 which may sound like a minor update but in actuality is very significant. Version 1.1 brings two new and requested features; one is the ability to pause music in the following apps/services: iTunes, Ecoute, Pulsar, Radium, Rdio and Spotify. The other is that Take Five can also now pause your music without a timer by holding down the option key while clicking the pause button. The update also addresses a bug where Take Five would stop responding when used with CoverSutra.

I am a heavy Ecoute user (and future Spotify user if it ever gets service in the US) and the additional control within the new Take Five is welcome. Spotify and Rdio users will also love the 1.1 update as well as users of the other services listed. Take Five is only $3.99 in the Mac App Store, or if you’re already a Take Five user, check for updates.

Prycast: Pandora Radio Player Review & Giveaway

While I don’t think Pandora itself needs any introduction, you may not be familiar with one of the latest Mac Apps to bring your Pandora account to your desktop. Pyrcast is a menu bar radio player for your Pandora stations, allotting access to all of your favorite music and controls that can be tucked away into a standalone player, or via a drop-down menu. Pyrcast allows for global keyboard shortcuts for restarting the song, liking and disliking the current track, and for play/pausing. Additionally accessibility has been added with Growl support, though I found the Rate Up and Rate Down icons to be unintuitive in the player (just bring over the thumbs up and thumbs down guys). Pyrcast looks similar to Ecoute in terms of navigation, though you can just quickly jump to another station by clicking “Stations” at any time. Pyrcast is $4.99 in the App Store, and we’re giving away three copies in a quick giveaway to a few lucky readers. Jump past the break for contest rules.

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#MacStoriesDeals - Friday

If you didn’t catch all the deals we had yesterday, here’s a link back to the page. Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

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Create an iTunes Music Queue with “Next”

If you’re anything like me, you’re browsing through iTunes or Spotify all day searching for some music in your collection to send to your room’s speakers. Sometimes you spend so much time browsing albums and singles you own you even forget about the songs you wanted to play. Next, a $2.99 utility available in the Mac App Store, aims at solving this issue by providing a way to create a queue for your iTunes library so you’ll never forget about songs you want to listen to again. At the same time, it offers a neat solution to build a queue for artists and songs you’d like to check out in a specific orders.

The app plugs into your iTunes library with no setup required. It also looks very simple (perhaps a little too much) with only a list view being provided and that’s it. You can pick a song from iTunes and hit the Queue button to play it “next”. Another button lets you clear the queue entirely and Next can run in the menubar as well. The menubar icon has a shortcut to the song you’ve selected to play next, and if no song was picked the menu will display a “Random” button.

Next is a very easy way to manage songs in your iTunes queue, but I wish there was more attention to detail and UI design to make the app look better next to beautiful software like Ecoute or Spotify. Anyway, it does exactly what it’s supposed to, so you should give it a try.

Twitter for Mac: ‘Tweet’ from Anywhere in OS X

Just a few days ago everyone (including us) was talking about a simple bookmarklet for Safari that sends the site title and link to Twitter for Mac (Tweetie 2). Last night, I even found a Safari extension that did the same thing but also adds a tweet option in the contextual menu (right click) within Safari. Right after I tweeted the link, @SebastienPeek told me “who needs that when you can highlight anything, right click and it’ll show Tweet?” I had no idea what he was talking about, do you? I asked him if it was Safari only and he went one step more and said that it’s system wide, you can do it with a right click and highlight of any text. @BoltClock is credited with pointing me to this discovery. It’s system-wide for all apps that support Mac OS X’s contextual menu item additions. Here’s some visual goodness:

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