Remember how Mac App Store links wouldn’t redirect to the web, instead opening the app? Now they do. It’s official folks: You can share links with your friends without having them worry about whether they have a Mac or a PC. Just in case the web preview annoys you by opening the actual app, you download the NoMoreiTunes Safari extension. On Google Chrome, just deny the pop-up message.
Promises Kept: MacHeist Offers Exclusive Access To Secret Twitter Features
Purchased the second nanoBundle from MacHeist? You were promised a beta of Tweetie 2, but since that never happened, Twitter for Mac arrived with no signs of exclusive benefits right? Think again. MacHeist has kept their promise by giving purchasers exclusive access to beta, or features in progress for Twitter for Mac. Users who didn’t buy the nanoBundle cannot have access due to the how enabling the secret features work. MacHeist members, keep an eye on your email for how to activate your beta features for Twitter for Mac.
[via MacHeist]
Developer Heads Up: Don’t Forget About Receipt Validation In The Mac App Store→
Developer Heads Up: Don’t Forget About Receipt Validation In The Mac App Store
You can add receipt validation code to your application to prevent unauthorized copies of your application from running. Refer to the license agreement and the review guidelines for specific information about what your application may and may not do to implement copy protection.
Receipt validation requires an understanding of cryptography and a variety of secure coding techniques. It’s important that you employ a solution that is unique to your application.
You should perform receipt validation immediately after your application is launched, before displaying any user interface or spawning any child processes. Ideally, this check should happen in main, before NSApplicationMain is called. For additional security, you may repeat this check periodically while your application is running.
Otherwise, you could just download a paid application from the App Store, and freely distribute it to your friends. We want to make developers aware of the issue before you sell your app: Apple does not take care of this for you.
iPhone 3GS To Drop Price, $49 Tomorrow At AT&T
Will the iPhone drop price to compete with Android? Well maybe not for those reasons, but the last generation iPhone 3GS will be on the shelves for $49 tomorrow on contract. The last generation iPhone is still an excellent choice if you’re looking to save a buck: you still get all the fancy features of the latest iOS sans only the best smartphone camera around. The new price applies to both new customers and those looking to upgrade from their previous phone – I find this to be especially appealing to teenagers and college students wanting to get a head start on a good smartphone at an affordable price.
[via MobileCrunch]
Everything You Need To Know About The Mac App Store
You’ll find that the coolest thing about the Mac App Store is simply how easy it is to find great software. Upon updating to 10.6.6, a new Mac App Store icon is presented next to the Finder. We can’t promise you’ll like the icon if you were disappointed with iTunes 10, but I think you’ll definitely like what’s inside. This morning we’ve got a quick walkthrough so everyone can see what all the hype is about, and how great it is to have an App Store outside of iTunes.
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Preview: Chronos Is A Simple Time Tracking Utility Heading To The Mac App Store
While we’re literally mere hours from the Mac App Store launch in MacStories time, I wanted to show you all a nifty little utility that you can get your hands on tomorrow. While I don’t like the idea of developers simply porting iOS apps to the desktop (I’m afraid of “gunking up” OS X), I do like the idea that small developers such as myself can get encourage to just start making things and have almost instant visibility. Chronos is one of those apps, a tool made to fill a missing spot on the OS X desktop that keeps track of how long you spend on a project, and its various tasks. What’s really neat is that it’s super simple to use: add a project, a few tasks, and start the timer. If you need to, you can add time to an existing task just in case you forgot to set the clock when you began coding away. Little indie apps like this are what I’ll be looking forward to: I like seeing good ideas that fill a gap and can be improved on over time.
Echofon Acquired By PostUp (Who’ve Previously Acquired Twidroyd)
When Tweetie started to fall on the feature front, I immediately switched to Echofon and haven’t looked back. Why would you settle with an old, featureless, and bulky Twitter client like Tweetie when you can have a fast, streamlined, and full fledged app like Echofon? (It looked pretty, but I was never a fan of the original Tweetie.) Once the Streaming APIs hit the client a few months ago, it’s been one of my favorite apps on the Mac. Today, the company who develops Echofon, Naan Studio Inc., has been acquired by PostUp to compliment their previous purchase of Android’s Twidroyd. PostUp has a Twitter search algorithm that’s implemented on many sites to watch topics (our source TechCrunch uses it for example), and we can’t wait to see what exciting changes PostUp plans to make to improve Echofon.
[via TechCrunch]
iWork Update 5 Includes iWork.com, Keynote Updates Galore
Time to head over to Software Update iWork users: There’s a huge iWork 5 update in queue with your name on it. Most prominently featured is a major Keynote upgrade which allows you to play presentations over iWork.com with support for fifteen Steve Jobs’ approved animations. Keynote Remote 1.2 gets an upgrade as well, so you can playback hi-def slides on your iPhone during those killer presentation (eyeballs rejoice!). Some improvements have been made to the export of ePub files on Pages, but most importantly we’ll have public and private sharing options available for all iWork documents via iWork.com. You can read more about version 9.0.5 here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4386
Native Union Is Perfect For Cranky CEOs, Moms Who Want A Wireless House Phone
Remember those wireless house phones? Me neither. Native Union thinks you’ll want to take calls with the familiar shape and feel of a household handset through the power of bluetooth. Coming out of the 90s, we might fondly remember the angry clack of the phone as your mother hung up on your step-dad, or the times we spent talking to the girl down the street until the batteries went dead. Well you can relive those moments and charge your iPhone at the same time, and possibly power some wicked desktop speakers thanks to the 3.5mm output jack. Even more badass is your color choice of black or white, but unfortunately for Native Union, that white model might not sell until a matching white iPhone makes an appearance. This plastic block is $150, which I think is way overpriced for what you get. I’m calling it: “dead on arrival.”
[via Engadget]