unison
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Arturia just released a free unison-based multi-fx plugin
Arturia just surprise-dropped a new multi-fx plugin and it’s free for a limited time. Refract is based on unison-based sound architecture and is free until January 4, at which point it’ll cost $100.
Intel's Unison app will let PCs text, call and share files from iPhones and Android devices
New Intel PCs will soon have a feature that Macs have offered for years: the ability to text, take calls and send files to their iPhones.
Panic releases Unison 2, improves binaries support
Panic has released a major update to its Mac Usenet client Unison. Usenet is one of those historical districts of the Internet that's a bit off the beaten track these days, but still has its uses. It began as a global message board system and still has lots of folks doing that, but it has also become a huge repository of binaries and a good alternative to bittorrent and other peer to peer systems. Back in the day I was a Usenet fiend, but I'd fallen away until very recently; I returned courtesy of NewsgroupDirect, a good, Mac-friendly third-party Usenet provider that provided a review account for TUAW use (you generally have to subscribe these days for Usenet access). What I was surprised to discover on my return was the advent of NZB files and search engines which make it extremely easy to find binaries (unlike the old days when you had to look for everything manually). The new version of Unison offers native support for NZB searching within the application (via binsearch.info and others). It also automatically takes care of finding missing parts, PAR recovery, and RAR unpacking. In short, Unison is now clearly your best bet on the Mac for Usenet binaries. Of course Unison also retains its older message reading features and adds handy new ones like threading. There's an updated interface and the general level of Mac goodness one associates with Panic. Unison 2.0 is $29 ($18 upgrade from version 1) and a 7-day demo is available. If you need a Usenet subscription, Panic is offering the companion service Unison Access for $9 a month; NewsgroupDirect offers a range of plans from $8 to $20 per month.
Nemo usenet reader
In a lot of ways Usenet is a hold-over from the pre-web days of the internet, but the global bulletin board system is still very active for both discussions and binaries. Almost certainly the best Usenet newsreader for the Mac is the excellent Unison from Panic. Given Panic's overall reputation among independent Mac developers, it takes some gumption to challenge one of their main apps, but that's exactly what Daniele Margutti is doing with his new Nemo newsreader. I haven't been able to fully run it through its paces, but it does already have some interesting features. The focus here definitely seems to be on reading and writing messages rather than binaries, with a Mail.app style three-pane interface. Playing with it briefly, it's clearly not in the same class as Unison, but competition is a good thing, and it will be interesting to see how Nemo develops.Nemo is in beta, but already on sale for €14.99 (~$20); a demo is available for download.
