Posts tagged with "mac"

Tokens: Easy Promo Code Generation For Developers

I often hear from my developer friends that generating promo codes for iOS and Mac apps is a tedious and annoying chore. From what I’m told, you have to log into iTunes Connect – which hasn’t the most pleasant interface Apple ever made – and generate these codes that you have to manually copy somewhere to share them via email, Twitter, or other systems. It’s a slow process, and iTunes Connect forces developers to “submit requests” for how many codes they need without offering any sort of social integration.

Enter Tokens. Developed by Padraig Kennedy and Oisin Prendiville, Tokens is an automated promo code generator for Mac that makes it super simple to generate and share promo codes for apps available in iTunes Connect. Tokens couldn’t be approved in the Mac App Store because it uses HTML scraping to interact with iTunes Connect remotely; the developers offer a FAQ to understand how Tokens works, for which kind of apps, and why it’s built for OS X 10.8. Read more

#MacStoriesDeals - Tuesday

Black Friday is getting close, expect the deals to get better everyday until Friday! Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on hardware, iOS, and Mac apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!
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Half Full Glass

Some people think Apple will eventually “dumb down” OS X and make it a “more casual” platform not suited for power users.

I disagree.

I covered this recurring theme in a section of my Mountain Lion review:

I think the Mac power user will be just fine using Mountain Lion. In practical terms, Mountain Lion’s new features and design choices haven’t hindered my ability to install the apps I want, run macros to automate tedious tasks, or fly through applications using keyboard shortcuts. I prefer Scrivener to Apple’s Notes app, I rely on Keyboard Maestro to be more efficient, and I keep my notes in Dropbox rather than iCloud. On the other hand, I can jot down a quick todo in Reminders knowing instantly that it will “just work”, and I can pick up any conversation I was having on my iPhone thanks to Messages on my Mac. Making the entire operating system more cohesive and refined hasn’t diminished the relevance and utility of third-party software on my Mac; if anything, it’s made the key apps and functionalities I rely on better.

The argument usually goes something like this: iOS is so successful, Apple will eventually make Macs more like it. Plus, Gatekeeper and Sandboxing are signs that this will happen.

Usually, this piece by Rands in Repose is cited as a somewhat obvious confirmation to the fact that Apple is not afraid of “cannibalizing itself”.

This argument needs to be deconstructed on multiple levels. Read more

ProductiveMacs Bundle: 9 Great Mac Apps for $29.99

There are some nice software bundles available for the Mac right now, and this one is no exception. Apparent Software has a great ProductiveMacs bundle that contains some excellent utilities that will help you get work done. Some of the highlights of the bundle are TextExpander (one of our favorites), TaskPaper, Trickster (brand new, read our review), and Path Finder. If you had to purchase all nine of these productive goodies separately they would cost $239 but this new bundle is priced at the super-low total of $29.99.

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Kickstarter: Shaun Inman’s Retro Game Crunch - Six Games in Six Months

I haven’t covered many Kickstarter projects as of late: it seems many are getting funded but not delivering on time or backers are still waiting for the product to ship. Today, Shaun Inman has launched his own Kickstarter project along with his friends Rusty Moyher, of Bloop fame, and Matt Grimm, a great composer and sound designer of such games as Flip’s Escape. Together they are launching Retro Game Crunch, a Kickstarter series that will try to produce six original games in six months. Sound too good to be true? Normally yes, but with the awesome team I believe it will happen. Read more