Ah Monday, so will we see new MacBooks this week? Tuesdays are usually hardware update days for Apple. 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!
Posts tagged with "mac"
#MacStoriesDeals - Monday
PDF Hero Combines Images, PDF Documents
Available as a limited time offer at $0.99 in the Mac App Store, PDF Hero is a Mac app to combine images and PDF files into a single document you can consequently export as PDF from within the app.
The concept is simple: PDF Hero acts as a “bucket” where you can drop multiple images and PDF files at once. With these files, the app will create a single document where each page contains the files you attached. It should come in handy for those who daily manage dozens of PDFs and find themselves constantly forwarding them to their colleagues or clients, or users who do a lot of image -> PDF converting. In this way, with just a drag & drop, you can create a single document containing everything you need. Please note that the current version of PDF Hero only supports PDFs and images – sadly, .txt or .rtf files won’t be attached. But there is a nice trick I noticed (fluid animations when flicking through attached files aside), and it’s the possibility to keep attaching files to an existing set without having to start over (see screenshot above).
That said, PDF Hero won’t get you to the top of PDF editing and management, but it’s a cool utility to merge images and other documents in seconds. Give it a try.
Apple Implementing Light Peak Technology In The Near Future?
CNet yesterday reported that Apple is expected to be one of the first adopters of Intel’s Light Peak technology, possibly starting with next week’s rumored MacBook upgrades. The technology is touted by Intel as a way to eliminate the many different cables that computers use such as USB, HDMI and FireWire, creating an all-in-one connectivity solution and Intel has detailed that a first half of 2011 launch is expected.
A source told CNet that Apple intends to adopt the technology in the near future but will supposedly brand the connection under a different name to Light Peak. Whilst CNet couldn’t deduce whether or not the rumoured MacBook update on February 24 would include a Light Peak announcement or inclusion, there has been rumors of more than just a spec-bump in the next update of the MacBooks, possibly suggesting the inclusion of Light Peak.
#MacStoriesDeals - Super Saturday Special Edition!
Friday wasn’t so great for iOS deals so we’ve added a special Saturday edition today! 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!
#MacStoriesDeals - Friday
New Chrome Beta Is Faster, Includes Revamped Settings UI
Today Google released a major update to Chrome beta for Mac and Windows, which includes features that have been available in the developer channel for a few weeks. Namely, Chrome beta now comes with encrypted sync for passwords (sync happens through your Google account and can handle passwords, bookmarks, extensions, history and settings on every machine running Chrome), improvements in Javascript speeds and a completely redesigned settings UI.
The new settings sport a much cleaner design organized in three different tabs sitting in a vertical panel on the left. Most of all, the Settings now open as a new Chrome tab and not as a standalone popup window. Buttons have been redesigned as well and now look more in line with other Google products. You can search through settings items with a search field on the left, copy a direct URL to a specific settings page without having to re-navigate manually through menus and tabs.
As for Javascript improvements, the official Google Chrome blog reports:
In our new beta release, JavaScript is as quick as a bunny. With a new speed boost that we previewed in December, Chrome’s JavaScript engine V8 runs compute-intensive JavaScript applications even more quickly than before. In fact, this beta release sports a whopping 66% improvement on the V8 benchmark suite over our current stable release.
The new beta also introduces preliminary support for GPU-accelerated video; Google claims content in full-screen mode should see a decrease of CPU usage “by as much as 80%”. Of course you’d have to be running compatible graphics hardware to see the benefits of GPU acceleration.
You can go download the Chrome beta for Mac here. Check out the demo video of the new settings UI below. Read more
A Must-Have Mac Utility: App Tamer
Over the past weeks, I’ve noticed my MacBook Pro (unibody late 2008) has started feeling the weight of the years of intensive usage. I replaced my internal hard drive with an SSD last year, and while overall performances have increased (especially when open and closing applications or large files) clearly the computer’s fans aren’t the same anymore. I might hold to buy a new computer until this one really dies, but in the meantime I’ve begun looking out for some utilities that could help me better manage the software running on my Mac all the time. Read more
Fifth Beta of OS X 10.6.7 (10J858) Seeded To Developers
As noted by MacRumors, today Apple seeded the fifth beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7 to developers. Build number is 10J858 and, contrary to previous releases, Safari has been added to the focus areas for testing the new version of OS X, which already included Bonjour, Mac App Store, AirPort, SMB and Graphic Drivers. The new build is available now in the OS X Dev Center. No known issues have been listed in the documentation and the update weighs 20MB than the previous download.
Fourth beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7 (10J855) was released on February 11th. Apple has been seeding betas of 10.6.7 since January, and it is still unclear at this point when they’re planning on publicly releasing the update.
Video of the Day: Grandparents Using Photo Booth
Here’s a video for a bit of Thursday evening fun. Remember Photo Booth? The app that ships by default with every Mac and allows you to take funny snapshots of yourself through the iSight camera using effects like squeeze, fisheye, dent and many others. Well, now imagine if your grandparents, not exactly the usual Mac geeks, discovered Photo Booth and started recording videos with it.
That’s exactly what the video below (via Thought Catalog) is all about. Grandparents using Photo Booth. It’s genuinely funny, and made me fire up Photo Booth to take some photos with my dad right away. Check it out after the break. Read more