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TweetDeck for Mac updated with sidebar-focused design
Twitter just recently spruced up the Windows version of TweetDeck with the web edition's simplified, sidebar-driven look; it's now the Mac app's turn. TweetDeck 3.0.2 on OS X brings virtually the same interface as its Windows counterpart, including drag-and-drop columns and the ability to filter searches by engagement. If you take your social networking extra seriously, the 3.0.2 update is waiting at the Mac App Store.
Review of Typist - It's Time to Stop Fumbling Around
If you are tired of hunt-and-peck typing, you should learn how to touch type. The App Store offers a free program called Typist that will do just that. It won't relieve the tedium of learning touch typing, because there are no entertaining games or letters to shoot from the sky. This is a basic "type what you see on screen" program that follows the traditional way to learn touch typing. Typist 2.3 works fine in the two systems in which I tested it: Mac OSX 10.6.8 and OS X 10.8.3. It is just so quiet that it's unnerving. You hear nothing, unless you make a mistake, and then you hear a typewriter-type sound to notify you. You are then given the lesson again, unless you choose to use the odd interface to pick another lesson. You must finish the whole lesson correctly to move on uninterrupted. The screen shot below shows you the basic screen in which you choose lessons. If you don't know how to touch type, this program helps you learn, but as it cautions, you must practice, practice, practice, which is also amazingly boring. It's the only way to get better. I suggest you pick a soothing iTunes playlist to accompany your lesson while you plug away at this tutorial. To its credit Typist includes Dvorak Keyboard and Calculator Keypad lessons. The program tracks your strokes per minute, typing speed, error ratio, and time it took you to complete each screen. The simple Preferences include options to change the space after a period to one or two spaces, how large your characters draw onscreen, and an option to choose a different background color. On the Web, one space is recommended so as not to create gutters of white space in a document. The character size oddly includes Small (Fixed), Small/Midium, and Small - Large. I don't know why the options are not typed similarly, but I recommend that the developer correct the spelling of "medium." Capitalization in the preference titles is also inconsistent, which irks me. You can change the lavender default background color with a click on the color tile. It brings up Apple's color picker so that you can choose any other color. The developer, Takeshi Ogihara, could use some English language assistance for his short help file, but seems to cover most questions you might have. Interface issues When you finish a practice screen, you type any key to continue to the next screen. An Abandon Practice mini-dialog offers an odd box in which you click arrows to go back to the main menu or skip to the next lesson on the bottom of the screen. Does anyone read the Apple Interface Guidelines anymore? There is a Start Dictation command in the Edit menu which you can activate, but it doesn't seem to work. I was not able to deactivate it, even when I quit and relaunched the program. This seems to be a stock command provided by Apple that wasn't disabled in the program. What I like Typist teaches how to touch type in the traditional manner. It covers how to place your hands on the keyboard. It tracks your speed. The interface is easy to understand. What I don't like The interface includes odd dialogs and navigation elements. Takeshi Ogihara's web site has not been updated with information on the latest version, released in April. Typist never covers how to hold your hands. You need to keep your wrists raised off your desk, otherwise you can trigger carpal tunnel problems over time. I recommend you read this short article, Type Right - Prevent RSI and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome By Typing Right, on About.com or the longer one at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Twitter for Mac 2.2.1 brings Notification Center support, various bug fixes
It's certainly been a long time coming, but the latest version (2.2.1) of Twitter for Mac finally brings support for Notification Center in OS X Mountain Lion. Aside from the side-pane pings for your @replies and DMs, a number of fixes have been implemented that should stabilize your experience some more. Most notably, Growl users on Lion and Mountain Lion can enjoy receiving notifications again. The update is available directly from the Mac App Store right now, so hit the source link if you're interested.
Clipr sends pasted text to your phone via SMS with a press of a button
If you've ever wanted to send some text from your computer to your phone, you usually have to go with a dedicated app like Evernote, with a mobile app required at the other end. With the new version of Clipr for Mac, however, all you need to do is enter your phone number in the settings and the info will magically appear on your mobile device via SMS -- just press the command key when selecting a clip and away it'll go. Right now all major US carriers are supported, with the promise of more to come. For the uninitiated, Clipr is a clipboard manager that works with your computer's existing copy and paste system without any special key combos. Bear in mind that while the app itself is free, the aforementioned SMS feature costs $0.99 extra. Still, at least this particular clip-inspired helper looks to be a lot better than, you know, that other one.
Bungie's Pathways Into Darkness comes back to Mac for free
Back before Halo was the biggest title on Microsoft's Xbox, it was actually planned as a Mac title. That's because Bungie, the game's developer, was actually a Mac game company -- they made a number of really terrific shooters for the Mac, including Marathon (which has since been released on iOS along with its sequels). But the company's first game was Pathways into Darkness, and now, 20 years after its release in 1993, Bungie's first commercial release has come in a free version to the Mac App Store. The game's been "painstakingly recreated" by Bruce Morrison, a former employee from Ngmoco and Freeverse, for his company, Man Up Time Studios. Bruce notes that developer Mark Levin worked with him on the coding for Pathways' new version. Pathways features the award-winning first-person adventure gameplay that started earning Bungie its reputation back in the day. It's great to have this classic game back on the Mac, and it's even better to get to play and download it for free.
Detailed look at pricing an app for the Mac App Store
Apple developer Michael Jurewitz took a detailed look at Mac App Store pricing in a five-part series on his Jury.me blog. It's a thorough exploration of the dynamics of App Store pricing that touches upon revenue maximization, demand curves and the basic research each developer should be doing before they write any code. You can read each segment on Jurewitz's Jury.me blog using the links below. Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 1 In this first part of his series, Jurewitz looks at the Top Grossing apps versus their Top Paid counterparts and discovers that the Top Grossing list was 329 percent more expensive than the Top Paid list. Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 2 In part two, Jurewitz explores the reasons why the Top Grossing list was 329 percent more expensive than its Top Paid counterpart. Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 3 In part three, Jurewitz looks at whether you can charge more for your app. It's Microeconomics 101 for the Mac App Store. Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 4 In part four, Jurewitz examines the hows and whys of product development. Understanding App Store Pricing - Part 5 Pricing Kaleidoscope In the fifth and final part of the series, Jurewitz summarizes "how you can take real world data and use it to make better real world decisions about how you price your app." This series is based on presentations Jurewitz gave at Çingleton and NSConference earlier this year. If you are a developer, it's a must-read. iOS owners should also peruse the articles to get an appreciation of the time and effort that goes into the business side of app development.
iTunes is more than earning its keep
As writer John Paczkowski notes in an AllThingsD article today, iTunes was originally "conceived as a low-margin 'break-even' operation intended to drive hardware sales" -- in particular sales of iPods. Now that the iTunes Store is used to sell more than just songs and videos, it's turning into a "significant profit center for the company". Paczkowski was commenting on numbers from Asymco analyst Horace Dediu, who notes that now that Apple has folded its in-house software group into iTunes, Apple software is having "significant implications for iTunes margins." The software, including items like iWork, iLife, Final Cut Pro, Aperture and more, has much higher profit margins than traditional iTunes items like music, books, video, and apps. Dediu deduced that Apple sold about US$3.6 billion worth of its software products in 2012, and that profit margins for software is usually about 50 percent. If that's the case for Apple -- and Dediu is usually correct in his assumptions -- then iTunes is generating operating margins of about 15 percent on gross revenue. That's about $2 billion in profit for 2012, or as Paczkowski so eloquently put it, one "hell of a way to break even."
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition now out on OS X
In case you missed the announcement last week, the Enhanced Edition of the classic RPG Baldur's Gate (that previously came to the iPad) is now available on Mac OS X. You can pick it up directly from Beamdog's website for US$19.99 right now, and we're told it's incoming to the Mac App Store very soon (probably as soon as Apple approves it). This version of Bioware's classic title includes a new adventure to play, three new characters to play with and a number of other technical enhancements, including new character paintings, and support for high-resolution displays. In other words, if you're a Baldur's Gate fan and have been thinking about playing through the title again, this is the way to go for sure. On the iPad, I had a few reservations about this one, mostly that the control scheme tended to lean a little too far to the old-school for it to really work well. But of course on the Mac, that's not an issue, as this game was originally made for a mouse and keyboard. The graphics, though updated, won't stand a chance against modern RPGs like Skyrim and The Witcher, but the story is such a classic one, and Baldur's Gate pioneered Bioware's storytelling and gameplay techniques later seen in games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Baldur's Gate is a valuable piece of RPG history, and it's great to have this excellent edition of it available now on the Mac.
Apple discounts OS X task managers in new Get Stuff Done promotion
Apple launched a new three-week promotion on OS X productivity apps. The Get Stuff Done offer starts this week and features a handful of task managers. We've already told you about Things 2, which is available at 50% off its regular price of $49.99. Also included in the sale are Todo ($6.99), Due ($4.99), The Hit List ($24.99), BreakTime ($2.99), TaskPaper ($11.99), 2Do ($14.99) and Clear ($6.99). The sale starts today, January 24, and ends January 31.
Weekend Poll: Should Apple ditch year branding for its iLife and iWork software?
According to Apple, "Pages '09 is both a streamlined word processor and an easy-to-use page layout application. It allows you to be a writer one minute and a designer the next, always with a perfect document in the works." Pages '09 was last updated on December 4, 2012. It is a vital, active and very much alive product, even in the early days of 2013. In the years before online distribution was practical, Apple operated in a world of CD and DVD distribution. Every year or two, they'd issue a new iLife or iWork release, appending the year to mark it out as a refreshed product. Disc is dead. Isn't it time for Apple to drop the year branding? After all, they've already moved past that kind of version-specific issue with newer apps like iBooks Author. In its second release, iBooks Author 2 is promoted on Apple's site simply as "iBooks Author." No "2." The version is irrelevant. What do you think? Should Apple walk away from its year branding? Drop your vote into this poll and then join in the comments with your thoughts. %Poll-79879%
Daily iPhone App: Desktop Apps lets you browse the Mac App Store on your iOS device
One drawback to Apple's Mac App Store is that you can't browse through the app catalog on your iPhone or iPad when you have some time to kill. Thanks to Desktop Apps from Onoko International Limited, you can now browse, search and even share interesting OS X apps all from your iOS device. Desktop Apps gives you a window into the Mac App Store that is formatted for the smaller screen of the iPhone and the tablet display of the iPad. It pulls down the Top 25 lists, including the Top Paid, Top Free and Top grossing apps. You can also browse through OS X apps based on their category. If you are searching for a particular title, you can use a handy search button to find that app directly. When you click on an app title, you can read the app description and view screenshots for each title. You can also check the ratings for an app, but you can't access any of the comments. If you live outside the US, a handy settings option lets you switch the country for the App Store so you can select the country that best matches your current location. If you see an app that you want to remember, you can send yourself a link to the app via email. You can also share the app with others via Twitter and Facebook. When you email or share a link to an app, it is shortened using Desktop Apps's server and an affiliate link is generated. The affiliate link will provide the developer with a small cut, if you purchase the app using their link. Overall, the UI is user-friendly, but there is an advertisement at the bottom that some may find annoying. The ad is static and links to another app in the iOS App Store. It's not very intrusive, but you can't get rid of it. At least for me, I would gladly pay a few dollars to remove the ad. Desktop Apps is a universal app and is available for free from the iOS App Store.
Apple names Day One and 'Deus Ex' Mac App Store's Best of 2012
Having already done so on the mobile side, Apple kicked off the day by playing favorites over in the Mac App Store, naming the Day One journal its App of the Year. Best game honors, meanwhile, went to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. CameraBag 2 and Splice: Tree of Life managed to snag runner-up distinctions in those respective categories. Other apps singled out as Best of include Tweetbot, Mint, Evernote, Photoshop Lightroom and Pocket, amongst others. Lego Batman 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Lego Harry Potter and BioShock 2, meanwhile, all nabbed spots on the game list. The full list can be found in the source link below.
Apple announces the Mac App Store's Best of 2012
Just as they did for the iOS App Store, Apple has announced the best Mac apps of 2012 in the Mac App Store. The App of the Year award went to Day One (US$9.99), the popular simplified journaling app. The first-person role playing game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Ultimate Edition ($39.99) took home top honors for Game of the Year. The runner up Mac App of the Year went to CameraBag 2 ($14.99), the desktop photo editing app with numerous filters, tools and controls. The runner up Mac Game of the Year went to Splice : Tree of Life ($9.99), the artistic puzzler that finds users splicing different microbial strands to see how they react with one another. Apple also lists the next top 20 Mac apps and games of 2012. Keep an eye out for "Best of" lists of 2012 throughout December from TUAW writers.
Apple rejects Mac app update that shows iTunes 11 notifications
An app update has been rejected from the Mac App Store for using Notification Center in a way Apple says is wrong. Listening To is a US$1.99 app by developer Sherief Farouk, and the whole point of the app is to get a notification whenever iTunes plays a new music track. It seems straightforward -- sure, that can be a lot of notifications, but if that's what you want, it should work. However, Apple said no when Farouk tried to submit an update to the app this week. He tells The Loop that his update was rejected from the App Store, and that Apple told him using Notification Center in this way was "a misuse." Here's the weirdest part: Even if that was an issue, that functionality wasn't limited to the update. The app is still available for download. So we're not sure what's happening here. Most likely, Apple just crossed its wires, and it needs to decide whether sending notifications is a misuse of Notification Center or not. Presumably, because the app hasn't been pulled yet, Farouk will be able to make his case and release the update. Apple might not like running such "common" notifications through its service, but is this any more useless than all of the spam notifications that pop up on iPhone apps?
OS X Mountain Lion Supplemental Update 2.0 fixes keychain errors
Everybody's favorite cat, OS X Mountain Lion, has a new update this morning. But don't be surprised if you don't see it under the Updates tab in the Mac App Store -- OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Supplemental Update 2.0 is "recommended for all Mac systems introduced in 2012." According to the update notes, the update "addresses an issue with Keychain that can affect 2012 Mac systems." The update file is relatively small, only about 26.65 MB in size.
BioShock 2, Call of Duty 4 and more OS X games on sale
With Thanksgiving just a week away in the US, several Mac game publishers already are dropping the prices on their Mac App Store titles in celebration. We're talking some steep discounts on some triple-A games, including: Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD on sale for $9.99, down from $19.99. Bastion on sale for $6.99, down from $14.99. Tomb Raider: Underworld on sale for $9.99, down from $24.99. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on sale for $4.99, down from $19.99. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on sale for $7.99, down from $29.99. BioShock 2 on sale for $11.99, down from $24.99. These are all great titles that we can recommend without hesitation. If there's a particular game you've had your eye on but don't see here, make sure to check the Mac App Store to find out if it's also on sale, since chances are it very well could be.
Nice roundup of Markdown-ready Mac apps
Markdown can be a huge time saver, once you figure out how to use the lightweight markup language. Learning it, though, can be daunting to those with little or no prior knowledge of HTML. To help get you started, Appstorm recently published a list of over 35 different OS X apps that support the language. The list is broken down into preview apps, regular editors, distraction-free editors, editors for the programmer and other text-based apps like the journal Day One that integrate Markdown. You can check out the full list on Appstorm's website and then read our Markdown primer, which contains the basic syntax to help get you started.
Friday Favorite: Voila captures your screen with ease, on sale now
Given the issues with my former screen-capture app-of-choice Skitch, I recently went on the hunt for a replacement that can grab screenshots and handle video capture. I've finally landed on Voila. While it isn't perfect, Voila offers plenty of functionality and does almost everything I need. As is pretty standard for a screen-capture app, Voila lets you grab whatever is on your screen however you need it, either in a full-screen grab, from a specific window or from a drag-and-drop selection. You can grab videos in almost any configuration. I mostly use it for snapping rectangular pictures, but you can grab circular or polygonal pics as well. Voila even has an in-app browser and a connection to your webcam, for even more options. Once the picture has been captured, you can add annotations, blur or adjust it as you like and then export the file using an in-depth "Save As...". Unfortunately, this process isn't as simple as I'd like. You must hunt to find some functions, and while hotkeys can be set up, the Re-size function doesn't have a clear one. There's a re-size option on the save screen, so even when Voila doesn't have exactly what I'm looking for, it does have some fairly smart shortcuts. There are a few bugs in the app as well. One bug I'm getting recently has my pictures being saved as just a white screen rather than whatever I captured, but the support team has been more than ready to help with any problems or concerns. As for video capture, I think that's where Voila really shines. It's got a very powerful and steady video-capture functionality. You can select a window or draw a selection on the screen, and you can choose to use an external mic for audio, grab your computer's audio or use your Mac's internal mic as needed. Again, there are some small issues: The included YouTube connection won't accept videos if you've used a strange ratio when drawing a selection on the screen. But that's only a minor issue. I've still been able to just drag the videos out of the app, and then upload separately to YouTube. Voila isn't without its problems, but an app like this is designed for so many different use cases that it's not surprising there are a few hiccups. Plus, Voila is right in the middle of an awesome sale. It's only US$4.99 on the Mac App Store. If, like me, you were looking for a Skitch replacement with a little more functionality, Voila might be just what you need.
Pocket brings its 'read it later' service to Mac App Store, keeps its free status
We know Pocket has had a strong presence on iOS, Android and other platforms for quite some time now, but today the service formerly known as Read it Later announced it is now making its way to a bigger Cupertino screen. Naturally, Pocket's new application isn't much different than its mobile versions, meaning it'll offer the same offline access, save-for-later features as it currently does on the mobile front but with a more "native Mac experience" -- of course, this includes the ability to sync across multiple devices, stream videos and share tidbits via those cherished social networks. What's more, Pocket won't be charging a dime for its novel and handy OS X app, though this shouldn't come as a surprise given the outfit's somewhat recently adopted no-cost model -- still, it's a gesture most people will certainly appreciate, and one you Mac folk can start enjoying now by downloading from to the desktop-based App Store.%Gallery-169277%
Apple updates Final Cut Pro X
Though not announced during its big October event, Apple also included Final Cut Pro X in its list of apps that the company updated yesterday. The latest version (10.0.6) of the video editing software now supports native RAW editing of content from RED cameras, lets you expand multichannel audio files so you can edit each audio channel separately and adds a paste attributes window that lets you choose specific effects to copy between clips. These are only a few examples from a long list of new features that were added to the video editing package. The full change log includes: Expand multichannel audio files directly in the timeline for precise editing of individual audio channels Unified import window for transferring media from both file-based cameras and folders of files Redesigned Share interface for exporting projects and range selections to one or more destinations RED camera support with native REDCODE RAW editing and optional background transcode to Apple ProRes MXF plug-in support that allows you to work natively with MXF files from import through delivery using third-party plug-ins Dual viewers, each with a video scope display, let you compare shots to match action and color Option to add chapter markers in the timeline for export to video files, DVD and Blu-ray disc Range selection now preserves start and end points in the Event Browser and allows you to create multiple range selections on a single clip Paste attributes window lets you choose specific effects to copy between clips Flexible Clip Connections allow you to keep Connected Clips in place when slipping, sliding or moving clips in the Primary Storyline Add a freeze frame to your timeline with a single keystroke Drop shadow effect with intuitive onscreen controls to adjust position, edge falloff, angle and more New controls for combining audio from multiple angles within a Multicam Clip Compound Clip creation in the timeline now saves the clip in the Event Browser for re-use in other projects XML 1.2 featuring metadata import and export for richer integration with third-party apps Final Cut Pro X is available for US$299 in the Mac App Store. [Via Engadget]
