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Posts tagged with "mac"

Move Your Browser Tabs Across Mac and iOS Devices

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to worry to manually trigger any sync process. Everything would happen in the background, in your local wireless network or over-the-air, and manual sync would be an option to customize contents and options. In today’s world, and especially if we happen to have multiple iOS devices, we’re stuck with cables and fragmented databases.

Several developers are trying to put an end to this by supporting online sync services such as Dropbox in their mobile apps, some devs are even trying to do this on the desktop. Apple, on the other hand, still forces you to sync music, apps and movies with the cable, in iTunes, on your computer. Read more

Macworld’s 26th Annual Editors’ Choice Awards→

Macworld’s 26th Annual Editors’ Choice Awards

2010 was a big year for the Mac. The beginning of the year was all about the iPad—followed by the iPhone. But the buzz and success of those two products trickled down to the Mac. Later in the year, we saw upgrades to the Mac lineup, as well as solid signs from Apple that the Mac hasn’t been forgotten. With record sales of Macs posted by Apple, it’s a very good time to make products for the Mac.

Some curious choices, but I’m glad gems like Instapaper, Text Expander and Pogoplug Pro made the list. I wonder if Tweetie 2 for Mac will be there next year.

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MacStories Giveaway: Win A Copy of djay for iPad and Mac

djay by Algoriddim is an excellent music making / mixing software for OS X that recently made its way to the iPad, with an app that takes full advantage of the new features introduced in iOS 4.2. From our review:

…the great value of djay lies in its own software nature: it’s not a complicated piece of hardware you have to set up and manually wire, it’s a great app that can be used in professional environments and by casual users like me at the same time. I’m sure “pro” users will delve deeper into the app to test all the impressive tech that’s behind it, but for someone like me — who’s not really a DJ nor does know all the terminology necessary to understand all the features of djay — this is just so cool, and useful.

We have two copies of djay to give away: one for the iPad, one for the Mac. Check out the giveaway rules below. Good luck! Read more

Reeder for Mac Vs. Fitts’s Law→

Reeder for Mac Vs. Fitts’s Law

It’s finally happened. Someone came out with a Mac OS application that’s clearly a touch UI crowbarred into a point-and-click universe.

And it doesn’t work.

The application in question is Reeder, a Google Reader client for Mac OS X. Yes, it looks pretty, and I feel kind of bad for making an example of it, especially since it’s in early beta.

The whole analysis is basically about the “misplacement” or “small size” of Reeder’s sharing and feed management buttons. Honestly, I haven’t really ever clicked on the wrong button because of this use of the laws, nor do I know of other users complaining about this very specific problem.

But hey, it’s in early beta. Perhaps Silvio Rizzi will follow Fitts’s Law come the final version. You know, just to prove that with the correct adjustments, apps coming from iOS can work on the Mac. [via Daring Fireball]

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Is This The Finder You Want in OS X Lion?

With the Mac App Store reportedly around the corner and OS X Lion set to ship sometimes next summer, we are going to see hundreds of new apps coming to the Mac in the next months. Thanks to a unified purchase system modeled after the insanely successful iOS App Store and all the excitement around a major new version of OS X, developers are jumping to the Mac once again. The interesting apps released in these past weeks confirm that the Mac is far from “dead”.

Still, there’s one application users would like Apple to slightly tweak and / or completely change: the Finder. Some would be fine with a tweaked version inspired by TotalFinder, some claim Apple is going after a Finder-less model just like on iOS. And while we don’t think Apple is going to kill the Finder just yet, we’re definitely playing around with the idea of a massive update to OS X default file manager come Lion next year. Read more

TotalFinder 1.1 Brings Cut & Paste To OS X, Available at $9 on MacUpdate

TotalFinder is a must-have plugin for your Mac’s Finder we reviewed months ago here. TotalFinder, developed by Binary Age, brings a lot of additional functionalities to Apple’s default file manager, including the possibility to open multiple tabs, a “visor” feature to open the Terminal as a transparent layer on top of any window, folders on top, dual mode and many other tweaks.

It’s a massive extension to the original Finder which I’ve been using for months now, and haven’t really looked back. It doesn’t get in the way like many other alternative file managers do, as it perfectly blends with the Finder itself.

Today Binary Age released a major update to TotalFinder, introducing a variety of bug fixes and improvements but, most of all, a new icon and proper cut & paste support. To activate cut & paste for files in the Finder (which doesn’t ship by default with OS X machines) you just have to open the preferences and check an option. Once activated, you’ll find a cut & paste menu in the Finder’s default contextual menu. The 1.1 update also brings much smoother tabs animations, sidebar tweaks in dual mode, fast toolbar hiding.

TotalFinder was a must-have on its version 1.0, and it still is now that the first major update is out. Actually, I can’t recommend this more now that cut & paste is a go and lots of bugs have been squashed. Plus, the app is available today at $9 on MacUpdate Promo – you can’t miss it.

Mac App Store To Launch Next Week?

According to a rumor posted by Appletell, Apple may launch the Mac App Store as early as next week:

An inside source has just told us that Apple is targeting a Monday, December 13th launch of the Mac App Store. The company apparently told developers to have their software prepared for a launch as early as Monday the 6th of this month, but our contact would be shocked if that happened at this point. Apple has made no official announcements regarding this, and delays could always happen, but there’s a push to be launched before Christmas, well ahead of the previously estimated January release. Guess from where this push has come.

The website claims that Apple is ahead of its schedule for the new store opening, and Steve Jobs wanted a December 6th launch, but it didn’t happen. We didn’t hear anything from developers about a December 6th release, we just know that there’s a deadline for apps to be submitted that should end sometimes later this month.

At the Back to the Mac event on October 20th, Steve Jobs said the Mac App Store would launch in 90 days – which made us think of a late January 2011 opening. Last week, Apple seeded a new build of OS X 10.6.6 to developers to ensure Mac App Store compatibility and even clarified its position on the availability of trials and beta apps in the new Store.

[via MacRumors]

Legendary Transparent Mac SE Doesn’t Last Long On eBay

This Mac SE wasn’t meant for public release, it was a special unit designed for Apple’s employees – and most specifically, designers – so they could look at the actual components while using the machine. A transparent Mac SE coming straight from the late ’80s, sold on eBay for more than $25,000.

The item has been sold pretty quickly (heck, Jobs himself might have bought it feeling the nostalgia), and it comes from an ex-Apple employee who worked at the R&D team back in the day. Whoever bought it will have to boot it off of an 800k floppy, as the hard disk boot isn’t working anymore.

So, new transparent Mac SE owner: congratulations. You own a very rare piece of Apple’s history now. [Gizmodo via eBay]