Posts tagged with "mac app store"

ReadNow Brings Instapaper & Read It Later to your Desktop

While Instapaper and Read It Later have their own web apps where you can browse your saved articles, I’m not a big fan of keeping an open tab in my browser just for the five or so minutes I want to kill. The biggest thing for me is that I like this kind of stuff to be really frictionless — the reason I use a desktop app over Twitter on the web is so I don’t have to log in each time. The same thing can be said for plucking out a quick article to read, and ReadNow for OS X is a simple menubar utility that can contains your Instapaper or Read It Later articles in convenient popover.

ReadNow allows you to preview your Unread or Archived articles, and Instapaper users can even take advantage of ReadNow’s article view to read articles with the clutter of web ads (provided you sign up for Instapaper’s subscription service). It’s almost like having Instapaper on the Mac since you can like, share, and archive articles in a simple UI. Read It Later users will have their articles opened in a web browser, but in both cases you can opt for options you’ll be familiar with if you use the services on your iPad. ReadNow supports offline reading if you want to download your hundreds of unread articles (great for the airport), and can be configured to automatically archive articles as you open items from your list. A convenient search bar will search titles for everything about the “MacBook Air” or “iPhone” for example. Articles you find interesting can be posted to Twitter, and you can even grab the article’s short link to paste into an email body or blog, and ReadNow also supports custom bit.ly URLs. Right-clicking messages give you some additional options (also accessible via keyboard shortcuts) for optionally deleting articles, which is fantastic for accidental login saves.

My favorite features of ReadNow (after search) are keyboard shortcuts and the interface. You can open ReadNow with a keyboard shortcut, use the up and down arrows to scroll through articles, and hit the return key when you want to browse an article. The best part is that even if you just want the short URL, you can hit option+B and command+V to paste it immediately. If you wanted to share a reading list online, you could probably do some wild things with Keyboard Maestro to insert your five newest articles into your Tumblr feed for example. ReadNow’s hud interface is lightweight, and reminds me of the old Twitterrific for Mac in a lot of ways — I like there isn’t a lot of chrome. Perhaps it’s nostalgia.

I generally don’t like clutter in my menubar, but ReadNow’s tag is pretty okay. I’d say it’d be nice to autolaunch with something like MarcoPolo when you’re away from your local network. It’s convenient, and offers quick access to all of your saved articles in your favorite online service. To my knowledge you can’t use both Instapaper and Read It Later at the same time, but I think most people likely choose one or the other. ReadNow is $3.99 in the Mac App Store.

*Edit: You can get the article view for Read It Later just like Instacast. Simply choose offline reading, and you’re off running!

Flexiglass: The Dock & Menubar Utility That Makes Window Management a Breeze

One of the old habits Apple kept around in Snow Leopard was the handle that’s used to resize windows from the bottom right corner. While convenient out of habit, my transition to the Mac from Windows back in 2008 was met with a few minor complaints with window resizing and “snapping” being two convenient features I missed. Other oddities, such as the close button (which is really a close window button) and the zoom button (which questionably works as a maximize button) took some getting used to, although I’ve adopted the common command-Q reflex.

While Spaces manage the slew of windows I’ll open during the workday, there is an occasional need to sort between multiple windows in the same place and to group work or school related content together. The problem is that it’s not always easy getting everything just the way you want it, and as I drag windows to each side of the screen for some crazy dual setup, I would gripe before grabbing the corner, then snatching the titlebar and dragging the window to the left or right side of the display. It’s not always a problem, but boy it would be convenient if…

Flexiglass! Oh yes, we have yet another utility designed to manage your windows as efficiently as possible. I’ve covered my fair share of “window controllers” including MercuryMover, SizeUp, Cinch, Zooom/2, DoublePane, WindowFlow and I’m sure there are many others to solve a switcher’s common complaints. Flexiglass meets a nice middle ground. While MercuryMover and SizeUp are clearly geared towards power users who can’t keep their fingers off the keyboard, Cinch and DoublePane were designed for the everyday Joe wanting to replicate basic Windows features. Flexiglass contains a little bit of everything, and I think it’s one of the most approachable, yet tricked out window managers I’ve seen. It doesn’t overwhelm users with a handful of keyboard shortcuts, and it does a good job of striking a balance between mouse and keyboard interactivity.

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Why the $100 gift card is better than an iPod

This year, Apple isn’t offering an iPod touch with the purchase of a new Mac. Instead, Apple is handing out a $100 gift card, advertising that the extra money is best spent on apps from the Mac App Store. You could argue that a $229 iPod touch is more valuable since you can resell it, but that ends up being a hassle as you have to buy the device upfront, mail in a rebate, and receive a check from Apple at a later date. Some might want the free iPod touch, but you could argue that a majority of senior high and college students already have one (or an iPhone), and wouldn’t benefit from an additional model. Apple no longer needs to make the iPod touch popular. By giving students a $100 gift card instead of offering a physical device, Apple is getting students to invest in the future. While the past decade was primarily about the iPod, this decade’s focus is shifting towards apps and Apple’s iCloud.

Apple is leveraging this year’s Back to School promotion to make the Mac App Store popular. While the credit can be spent in the App Store, iTunes Store, or the iBookstore, Apple wants you to load up your Mac with new software. In a matter of minutes, students can open their Macs, create an Apple ID, and download the entire iWork suite with little effort. Developers should be incredibly happy about this: Apple is giving potential customers money to spend on their applications. I would be coming out of my socks right now if I was the developer of Smartr or iStudiez Pro. This is a huge win-win for everyone involved. By handing out a $100 gift card, Apple accomplishes three things:

  1. Students have the opportunity to load up their Macs with paid software at no cost from the Mac App Store.
  2. Apple is aiding developers in the sales of their apps.
  3. Apple takes a 30% cut of each app downloaded.

By teaching students to purchase apps from the Mac App Store, Apple can lock new customers into their ecosystem, and get people used to the idea that software doesn’t come on a disc. Developers will be getting a lot of exposure during the duration of this program, although I think Apple will benefit again when the iWork suite will likely be the first thing students download. The beauty of handing students $100 worth of credit for apps, music, and books is that Apple will eventually make thirty percent of that credit back if students spend the entirety their cards in the Mac App Store or otherwise. Apple is investing in students to use their products, in developers to develop new apps on the Mac, and in their own ecosystem in one fell swoop. This is a great marketing strategy by Apple.

Lion Server to be $49.99 From the Mac App Store

What was thought of as an extension to OS X Lion will be a full blown upgrade for $49.99 from the Mac App Store: Apple has just launched a brand new Lion Server page detailing all of the management features you can expect from the Server App to Xsan support.

Let’s start with the basics: you get to manage AirPort wireless base stations and Time Capsules, monitor traffic and bandwidth, all while controlling who gets access to the server with simple account management options. The server supports VPN for encrypted access to your network, an internal wiki, private iChat services, Time Machine for company backups, calendaring, file sharing, email support, and contact sharing all in one place.

For iPad file sharing, there’s webDAV file sharing (which doesn’t sound as tasty as the features iCloud promises), but there are push notifications so Lion Server can notify users of important email or assigned meetings. Time Machine backs up on the server can be conducted for WiFi, ensuring everyone’s company essential goods are backed up in a safe place.

iCal Server 3 and Mail Server 3 are updated to take advantage of push notifications in Lion Server. While iCal Server 3 gives anyone the power to update a schedule or a meeting (which is subsequently updated on everyone else’s devices), Mail Server 3 allows you to search attachments on the server, and also includes a webmail component so you can check those corporate messages outside of the office in a secure environment.

Wiki Server 3 is another big feature in Lion Server that’s a cross between your standard wiki and 37 Signal’s Backpack, giving users the ability to upload files to a page and download them when needed. Wikis can contain information about people, podcasts, specific company pages, and more that can be easily navigated from the navigation bar. A special People Browser gives you web browser and computer independence for looking up contact information that can be browsed anywhere.

Lion Server also includes a profile manager that allows you to remotely manage iPhones and iPads from a central location. If you’re away from the office, the profile manager is available from a web browser so you can manage devices from anywhere.

Look for Lion Server to be released with Lion this July.

[via Apple]

App Stores and iTunes Showing Trouble Worldwide [Update: Back Online!]

If you wanted to download Angry Birds, take a gander at Apple’s new WWDC app, or download Lady Gaga’s newest album, you may have noticed that iTunes and the App Store ecosystems are failing to download or accept purchases worldwide. While content may still be accessible to browse, Engadget first noticed that the podcast section of iTunes has gone offline, followed by failure by many to download apps from the iOS and Mac App Stores. The most common issue right now is that users can’t download apps from the iPhone or iPad, with symptoms of slow loading times, download failures, and general errors popping up in several countries worldwide. Several users are reporting problems, so either Apple is working on the backend (perhaps this service disruption as something to do with iCloud), or a server or two have decided to bite the dust at the wrong time. Apple Discussion forums such as this one are starting to crop up during this moment of inconvenience, and we’ll keep you updated as the afternoon progresses.

[Updating…]

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iA Writer Launches on the Mac App Store

Fans of the well focused Writer for iPad can now find their favorite editor on the Mac App Store. Writer for the Mac has no settings, with your only available options to write in a window or full screen mode. Unlike Byword, there is no support for a dark or light interface, however, Writer does have some syntax formatting for Markdown. Like the iPad, Writer also allows you to focus on a single line of text at a time, the idea being that you’ll be more focus on writing (finishing the sentence and moving on) than being distracted by editing, rereading, and revisiting previously written lines of text in the draft process. Writer is entering the market a premium price of $17.99 (and that’s with the entry 10% off discount), and we’ll be certainly be giving the text editor a thorough test before publishing our definitive review. After the break, we’ve included a short demo-video showcasing the app’s features. For more information, you can also check out the announcement on the IA blog.

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The Story Behind Hype, An Interactive HTML5 Animation Builder For OS X

Last Friday, a bunch of ex-Apple employees launched Hype, an HTML5 animation builder for OS X. The application aims to let users easily build interactive sites that rival those built with Flash. Already the idea and the implementation has proved successful amongst consumers, with the app currently ranking as the highest grossing app on the Mac App Store. The Startup Foundry met with one of the cofounders, Jonathan Deutsch, and picked his brain on a number of questions surrounding Hype.

Deutsch worked at Apple primarily as the engineering manager for the back-end of Mail.app on OS X but also dabbled in software updates, automation technology, preparing Steve Jobs’ keynotes and various other engineering projects. The other co-founder, Ryan Nielsen was a senior member of the Mac OS X Project management team – central in the development of major OS X releases. Asked why Deutsch would leave a safe job at Apple to build a start-up, he said that he has always wanted to have his own company and wanted to be part of the new HTML5 wave hitting the web.

I was faced with the decision of continuing to work with the great people on my team on a clearly high impact project, living with the “what if” syndrome, or trying to forge my own path.  ”Regret Minimization” is what should win out in life, so it did.

The idea for Hype came after Deutsch returned from a holiday in Europe and wanted to make a website sharing some of the photos he took. Yet coding it with HTML5 would have been a nightmare and he thought there must be a better way. “It stuck with me and eventually I realized this was going to be a great opportunity for a business”.

Deutsch says that Apple’s condemnation of Flash wasn’t really a part of his decision-making, rather it was Apple’s efforts at driving the web forward that played a larger role. He praises WebKit as a great project that whilst initially controversial, has driven innovation in web browsers, particularly on mobile devices that almost exclusively use WebKit.

You can download Hype in the Mac App Store for $29.99.

[Via The Startup Foundry]

ForeverSave 2 Giveaway

There’s nothing worse than working on an important document only to have the power cut, and it can be heartbreaking if your most recent changes haven’t been saved before beforehand. Dropbox is an excellent tool for making sure files are backed up, but what if you imbued Snow Leopard with a powerful library capable of browsing file history (outside of Time Machine of course), storing those multiple iterations in Dropbox, and automatically invoking that command-S keystroke at timed or inactive intervals so you’ll always have the most recent version of the file on hand? ForeverSave 2 is my Textmate, OmniOutliner, Pages, and otherwise all-around document companion for constantly saving multiple versions of my documents in preparation for the worst-case scenario. ForeverSave 2 is a convenient menubar utility with a simple activation and reminder scheme for initial setup (just check out our review), and it’s currently available for $19.99 in the Mac App Store. We want you to remain vigilant with your backup regimen, which is why we’re prescribing ten copies to ail those versioning blues. Rules after the break.
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Byword for the Mac, Now with Markdown

Byword might be your text editor of choice thanks to its choice of colors in white or black shades, the intuitive and consistently convenient formatting pop-over, or its writer-esque text preview that lets you focus on just a few lines of text. If you’re not yet a convert for Byword’s good looks alone, Markdown support has been added under the hood for the many of us who prefer the popular, readable language over tag-numbing HTML code. Byword’s latest update to 1.2 brings Markdown and more, all reviewed just after the break.

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