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Weave from Intuit is a free and powerful project tracker
Weave is a simple iPhone app (free) for managing those personal and business projects all in one place. It's kind of a super to-do list, and while there are plenty of those on offer both free and paid in the App Store, there is plenty to like about Weave. The app is from Intuit, the company that makes Quickbooks and Quicken as well as other financial apps. Those folks know their way around money and time. Weave can be used for around the home projects and chores. You can share projects with other people through Facebook. You can also track money spent or collected on projects, and prioritize projects so for easy management. The app can also be used to help run your small business. %Gallery-172250% A few features require an account, but that's a no-charge option. The account lets you assign projects or chores to others, share progress and it lets you back up your data in the cloud. If you want to just run the app for yourself, no account is needed. When you first start the app you get a quick tutorial, but really it's pretty simple. If there is any weakness to Weave, it is that I couldn't find any way to allow recurring projects or events. I have a lot of deadlines, and many are regular. With Weave, I have to enter them each time which seems an undue burden. For those events, I default back to the Apple Calendar, but it has no integration with Weave. I'm hoping a future update will fix this issue. Weave is very clever, exceedingly easy to use and worth your attention. The app can increase your productivity without burying you in complexity. Weave is iPhone-only at this point, and is optimized for the iPhone 5. It requires iOS 4.3 or greater.
Intuit announces QuickBooks for Mac 2013
Intuit announced today the next version of its QuickBooks small business accounting software for the Mac. The 2013 version focuses on making things easier for small business owners who are busy growing their business. Code-named "Zen" for its ease of use, QuickBooks 2013 simplifies common tasks like invoicing, adding contacts and reconciling accounts. Helpful tips and video walk-throughs assist the user throughout the app. There's also a new online payment service provided through Intuit and a document attachment feature that allows small business owners to attach receipts, contracts and proposals to invoices and other records within the app. QuickBooks for Mac 2013 will go on sale starting September 24 at Intuit's website. It will hit retailers like OfficeMax, Best Buy, Amazon, Staples and more starting on October 7. Retail prices start at US$249 for a single-user license.
Intuit releases Mint QuickView in the Mac App Store
Personal finance site Mint.com (owned by Intuit) has released its first OS X app in the Mac App Store. Called Mint QuickView, the app allows Mint.com users to quickly take a peek at their finances. The app isn't a full-fledged personal finance app like Quicken or iBank, rather it's a small window (read: mini browserish) to your Mint account. You access it from OS X's menu bar to see the balances on all your Mint accounts, recent transactions, and net income. The app also displays badged notifications when you have new transactions or one of your accounts needs tending to. Owners of the new MacBook Pro will also be pleased to find the app is Retina display ready. Mint QuickView is a free download and requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later.
Antitrust suit carries on against Intel, Apple, Google and others
They can hope and pray all that they want, but Google, Intel, Apple, Adobe, Intuit, Pixar and Lucasfilm will soon be facing some serious accusations in a courtroom under the Sherman Antitrust Act and California's Cartwright Act. After years of trying to dodge legal action over an "informal agreement" to not pinch each others employees, and an effort to have the case dismissed, the seven defendants will have to stand trial as ordered by District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. In her decision Koh said, not only was there evidence that these agreements were made at the highest levels of the company but, that six such deals were struck in secret in such a short time frame "suggests that these agreements resulted from collusion." There's still time for yet another deal to be struck, however, this time between the defendants and the DOJ. Otherwise it looks like all seven will have to stand trial in June of 2013.
Intuit GoPayment goes live in Canada, more rectangular than Square
Looks like Canada just scored another mobile credit card payment system within its borders. It was back at CES when Intuit revealed its updated GoPayment dongle for our neighbors up north, and now the company's announced that the service has officially launched in the region. Once you're application is approved, you'll get the card reader for free without any contract -- and best of all, GoPayment works on a "pay-as-you-go" basis (3.3 percent if you enter the digits, 2.7 percent with a swipe). It's currently purposed for iDevices with a free downloadable app, accepting Visa and Mastercards, but Intuit notes that Android and BlackBerry compatibility is in the works. With services NetSecure and PayPal also claiming space in the country, we're still left to wonder when Square -- essentially the godfather of this type of thing -- will finally be joining the card-swiping party in the great white north. If you're curious for all the details or wanting to apply for yourself, head on down to the source link below. [Thanks, Mike]
Five apps to help you file your taxes (updated)
With only a few weeks before taxes are due -- the federal deadline is on April 17, and many states have followed suit -- plenty of Americans are scrambling to file before the clock ticks away. We've gone and found five apps that will help you make Tax Day, and waiting for that refund, a bit easier. TurboTax SnapTax (Free, but has in-app purchases) This app from Intuit allows those who are eligible to file with the simple 1040-EZ to do their taxes straight from the iPhone. Snap a photo of your W-2, answer the questions and hit the button to zip your return to the IRS. While the app itself is free, actually filing a return costs $24.99. TurboTax 2011 (Free, but has in-app purchases) Those who use TurboTax for their taxes can now do so via the iPad. The app itself is a free download, but like all of Intuit's products, filing the return will cost you. Those who have used TurboTax in the past will find the interface familiar. Filing returns starts at $49.99 for federal taxes and $39.99 for state. H&R Block Mobile (Free) This app from H&R Block allows you to check your Federal return status. It also allows you to create checklists for doing your taxes and estimate your refund, and it provides access to a tax help center that allows you to look up questions, define tax terms and more. And, if you throw up your hands in defeat, the app also provides directions to the closest H&R Block location. If you're a 1040EZ filer, you can use H&R Block at Home 1040EZ Tax to file for free. Receipts Pro - Expense Tracking with Reports ($4.99) Receipts Pro keeps track of all your business expenses as you make them so you're not struggling to recall them when doing your taxes. The app lets you take photos of your receipts and organize them into groups or categories. Custom fields can be used to attach tax or payment information to each receipt. An overview graph helps you keep track of spending and a reporting feature lets you print up a detailed list of expenses. IRS2Go (Free) Finally, we have the app developed by the IRS itself. Like other apps, it will allow you to check refund status. You can sign up to get tax tips emailed to you, how to contact the IRS, and you can follow the IRS Twitter feed from it. However, it does not provide access to tax code, forms or the sort of tools found in Tax Central. Still, if you feel more comfortable using the official app to check your refund status rather than Intuit or H&R Block, this app is not a bad way to go. [Kelly Hodgkins contributed to this post; updated to reflect separate apps for H&R Block]
Intuit shows off MicroMint concept app for the WIMM One smartwatch, we go hands-on
Given the amount of time we spent with the WIMM One smartwatch, you'd think we would have had enough fodder for a full-blown review. Alas, though, one critical piece was missing: apps. Not test apps, like a balance ball game, but honest to goodness apps from major third-party developers. Well, we got a chance to check out a concept app from Intuit, the company behind Mint.com (no TurboTax for this 1.41-inch display, sorry).What can we say? When a device has a screen this tiny, the elevator pitch is going to be mighty brief. Here's how MicroMint works: just swipe left to right to see your balances for different accounts. There's no limit to how many it can display, and when you reach the end of the list, the app will just start cycling through again. As you can see in the video demo below, the app's performance is limited by the watch's 667MHz ARM11 CPU and 256MB RAM, which is to say you'll notice some lag as you swipe from one bank balance to another. And that's it. This is all the app does; don't expect to take advantage of Mint's other features, like budget-planning and mapping out savings goals (not that you'd want any graphs or itemized lists crammed onto that 160x160 screen).For now, of course, this concept app is just that, a prototype. Intuit won't commit to releasing it, much less share any sort of timeline. Interestingly, though, David Siegel on Intuit's development team suggested to us that the app might be of more use when WIMM releases its next-gen watch with NFC. With that radio on board, he says, the app could potentially allow not just for balance-checking, but credit card payments as well. Additionally, the outfit is mulling a similar app for the Sony SmartWatch, which also runs Android and supports Java-based apps. The only development hiccup, he says, would be adapting the app for Sony-specific APIs. That's a whole lot of ifs for one paragraph, though, so for now we'll leave you with a super quick hands-on video, just past the break.Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
PSA: TurboTax on Android is free through Sunday if you start your taxes before then
If you've ever filed your taxes on an iPad, you know Intuit's TurboTax app is free to download, but that you'll have to pay up once you're ready to submit those returns. But, in an effort to promote its newish apps for Android tablets and the Kindle Fire, the company's giving the entire number-crunching cow away for free -- at least through this weekend. Just download between tomorrow (Friday) and Sunday and make sure you start your taxes before Monday (it's okay if you finish them later). To be clear, this includes both federal and state-level taxes, which you'd normally pay for separately for $29.99 and up. Another quid pro quo: this won't work on handsets, even though the Kindle runs a customized version of Android 2.3. If you own a tablet it should run smoothly on Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, though. In any case, to those of you who've been putting off your taxes, happy downloading, procrastinators. Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
IGG Software, iBank and its climb from one-man shop to Intuit competitor
You probably haven't heard of IGG Software, but you will. It's the company behind the popular Mac and iOS financial software iBank and it's about to send a knock out blow to finance giant Intuit. So how did iBank climb from a single-man operation to its position as one of the top financial apps for the Mac? Let's dig into some company history to find out. IGG Software started eight-years ago as a single-man operation in Southern California. Ian Gillespie was a graduate student working in plant biology when he wrote his first Mac application to keep track of his field work. When he couldn't find suitable software to help him manage his budget, Gillespie decided to write his own solution. That was in the mid-2000s when Quicken was a household name. Intuit, though, was about to make several costly mistakes which would cause it to fall from grace among Mac users. Quicken 2007 was the gold standard when it was introduced, but Intuit was slow to update the app. The software title never moved beyond its PowerPC code and Intuit instead focused on Quicken Essentials for Mac, a lackluster title that didn't have all the features of Quicken 2007. The nail in the coffin of Quicken was the announcement of Mac OS X Lion. Lion didn't support older PowerPC apps like Quicken 2007, and, suddenly, Intuit's flagship software was obsolete. The company initially shrugged this off, but changed its mind late last year when it said it would would make Quicken 2007 compatible with Lion. On the mobile side, Intuit failed to develop an iOS app for either Quicken 2007 or Quicken Essentials. It's not that Intuit doesn't care about the iOS App Store; it has a variety of apps for other products like TurboTax and Quickbooks. For some reason, official Quicken companion apps are noticeably absent. While Intuit was stumbling, IGG Software was plugging away at iBank. iBank continued to grow in popularity as an alternative to Quicken. The software was in the Mac App Store from the start and climbed to the top of the App Store's Finance category. IGG also released an iPhone app that can be used as a stand-alone money manager or synced with the desktop app. The company is now working on an iPad version, likely called iBank Access, that'll hit the App Store soon. Unbeknownst to many, IGG quietly grabbed two ex-Intuit engineers who are now working on that project. The company also recently announced Direct Access, a paid service that'll automatically download new transactions when you launch the iBank Access app. We spent some time talking to IGG's chief architect James Gillespie, who joined his brother Ian's company in 2008. Gillespie now oversees iBank and other software projects within the company. Here is what he had to say about iBank Access, the Mac App Store and more. TUAW: What was the turning point when you realized you could seriously compete with Intuit's Quicken 2007? Gillespie: Ever since I joined IGG in 2008 it has been about writing the best Mac apps. We are competing with Quicken since we are all in the personal financial space but that has not been a driving force. We just want to do the best features for our customers and that focus has led to our current position in the market, which I think is great. TUAW: Any sales figures or download numbers you care to share with us? Gillespie: We are very happy with our downloads and sales numbers. They have been increasing every year since our first product shipped. But we don't share actual numbers. TUAW: What about the Mac App Store, has it been a boon for your business? Gillespie: As soon as it was announced we said we had to be there. That was just what we thought a Mac app should do. At the time we were selling boxed copies in the Apple Stores, at Amazon, in Office Depot and other retailers as well as our online store. We want to be where people are thinking about getting Mac software so this was just a natural extension. We had no idea what to expect from the Mac App Store when it first went live. Would it add to sales, or just cannibalize sales from other channels? We had a lot of ideas about what might happen but no idea what would happen. So far it has been a great ride, it has turned into our second largest channel, just ahead of our boxed channel, and behind our own online store. In fact we saw sales through our own site grow rapidly throughout year, so the Mac App Store didn't seem to take business away at all. We have also been fairly happy with the speed of Apple's approval process when we are getting updates out to our customers. TUAW: You have a Mac OS X app, an iPhone app, and soon an iPad app. What's next for iBank? What's next for IGG? Do you plan to expand beyond iBank, iBiz and iPaste with any other finance or non-finance titles? Gillespie: We don't like to announce anything until we are completely confident of the timing and functionality. Right now we have way more ideas than people to execute them. In general I can say that we plan on building out iBank and iBiz on Mac and iOS so that each has the correct feature set for the device it is on. We also have a lot of new features that we would like to add to each product. There is one in particular that we are really excited to be working on, but we are not ready to announce anything. Right now we don't have any brand new titles on our road map, but we do have some exciting ideas for where to take our existing product lines. TUAW: Could you comment on your development team and how you assembled it? I hear you have fresh, new talent that has come over from Intuit. Why would they leave a position with a large, stable company to join a start-up? Gillespie: We have been building up an incredibly strong development team. We believe in hiring the right people for the right job, not just filling a seat with someone. So everyone here at IGG is great at what they do. Over the last year we have hired new two developers who used to work for Intuit. These guys were two core members of a small team that developed TurboTax for the iPad and lead Mac development for the personal tax group for 14 years. I am not sure I would call IGG a start-up - we have been around for eight years, though certainly it is a much smaller company than Intuit. I think that the reason they decided to join IGG is that they are really passionate about making the best Mac and iOS apps. They are enthusiastic about working in a company whose focus is squarely on Mac and iOS products. Part of that is making really complex tasks, like personal finance, easy to understand. We are very excited they chose to join our team. TUAW: iBank Access is similar to Mint. How do you plan to differentiate your service? Why would someone choose iBank over Mint? Gillespie: They are similar but in some ways very different. The comparison is being made because both update account data automatically from thousands of financial institutions. But Mint is first and foremost a website, so all of their customers' financial data lives in the cloud. They do have a native app for iOS that provides a nice front end to their site, but my understanding is that Mint generates revenue by recommending financial products to its customers. So really Mint offers some free tools in exchange for all of its customers financial information and the opportunity to market to them. We just don't feel right about that business model. We feel that our customers financial information is between them and their bank. With iBank Access, we don't store it, we don't see it, we don't want any part of it. All we want to do is make a high-quality product that provides value to people and have people pay a bit for that value. Because of that we have made iBank Access a very full-featured app. You will be able to track your entire investment history - not just your current holdings. It will have advanced budgeting tools that are incredibly easy to set up and tell at a glance how you are doing and how you have done in the past. You can split transactions and still have them match with what your bank has reported to the app. We have interactive charts and graphs so that all of your data is just a tap away and yet still easy to understand. So in most ways iBank Access is more like our desktop product, iBank for Mac, than it is like Mint. With that in mind, we had to figure out how to split the difference between serving users who want to use it strictly as an iPad app, and existing iBank for Mac customers who want an add-on. For the latter's sake, we'll be keeping the app price low and enabling sync between iBank Access and the desktop version. If they don't need the Direct Access updating on the iPad, it won't matter and won't cost them any extra. TUAW: Where do you see iBank in 2-years from now? 5-years from now? Gillespie: This is a tough question to answer. I know the features I would like to see iBank and iBiz have in five years. But I can't really talk about them yet. I think in some ways we want to be what we are today, delivering the best product we can for the Mac and iOS. TUAW: Will iBank Mobile be ported to Android? or Windows Phone? Gillespie: We don't have any plans to, we don't have many customers asking for it, and we have a lot on our plate already. Our focus is still 100% on the Mac and iOS. TUAW: There's lots of pressure for companies to seek out investors. Are you VC-funded or self-funded? Gillespie: We are self funded and we have turned down offers for investment. We are not in this to make a quick buck and then sell to some larger company or go public and then get out. We are in this for the long haul because this is what we like to do. TUAW: What do you think of the future mobile commerce? What role will IGG or iBank play, if any? Gillespie: I think that mobile commerce will be huge. I love using my Starbucks app to pay for coffee. I think mobile credit card processing with Square, Inc. is really interesting. I don't see iBank competing with the transaction processing side. We are more involved with traditional personal finance management: the decision to make a purchase, or how to plan your cash flow.
DOJ investigation yields fresh evidence against Google, Apple in antitrust lawsuit
Back in 2009, a small controversy began swirling around Google and Apple, amid allegations that the two companies had struck an informal agreement to not poach each other's employees. The Department of Justice launched an investigation into the matter in 2010, but details of the case were only made public for the first time yesterday. TechCrunch was the first to sift through the documents, and has uncovered some ostensibly incriminating evidence against not only Google and Apple, but Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intel, and Intuit, as well. According to filings from the US District Court for the Northern District of California, these companies did indeed enter "no poach" agreements with each other, and agreed to refrain from engaging in bidding wars. The documents also suggest that they collectively sought to limit their employees' power to negotiate for higher salaries. Some of the most apparently damning evidence derives from archived e-mails, including one that Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen penned to Steve Jobs in May 2005. In the message, sent under the subject "Recruitment of Apple Employees," Adobe's SVP of human resources explains that "Bruce and Steve Jobs have an agreement that we are not to solicit ANY Apple employees, and vice versa." Pixar's Lori McAdams expressed similar sentiments in an internal e-mail from 2007, writing: "I just got off the phone with Danielle Lambert [of Apple], and we agreed that effective now, we'll follow a Gentleman's agreement with Apple that is similar to our Lucasfilm agreement." This would suggest, as the DOJ writes, that there's "strong evidence that the companies knew about the other express agreements, patterned their own agreements off of them, and operated them concurrently with the others to accomplish the same objective." The DOJ announced in September that it had reached settlements with the six implicated firms, but a class-action lawsuit is scheduled to get underway next week in San Jose.
Intuit GoPayment's got a brand new card reader for its trip to Canada (Update: hands-on pictures!)
Intuit GoPayment is kicking off 2012 in style with a new free card reader and the beginning of a plan for global domination: first starting in Canada. The swipe card reader will sit atop any iDevice for the small business looking to become a card-friendly empire and comes free when you sign up with the service. The reader and the northward expansion will be available in "early 2012" with much-hyped encryption for your nervous consumers. We're gonna be swinging by the company's booth at Pepcom this night where we're gonna try to get hands-on with the gear, but in the meantime, head on past the break for the press release. Dana Murph contributed to this report.
AT&T and Intuit square up to... Square (video)
Better watch your back, Jack. Smartphone-payment player Intuit has formed an unholy alliance with AT&T to produce Intuit GoPayment for AT&T (these guys love the sound of their own names) in the hope of muscling in on Square's burgeoning smartphone mobile payments game. Time and money-poor small business people just need to insert the reader into the headphone socket of their phone (or tablet) and fire up the app. The partnership is offering faster deposits, no monthly service charge (mind that 2.7 percent commission per use, though) and the backing of a massive telecoms corporation. The service also forwards email receipts to customers and integrates with Quickbooks to save a further job when it's the end of quarter. The partnership thinks that mobile transactions will be in the trillions and, understandably, want in on that action. After the break you can watch an informative video and read all the gory details in the joint press release.
Mint.com iPad app finally hits the App Store
The wait for Mint.com's iPad app is finally over. Today Mint's parent company Intuit unveiled its iPad app, and while many of us would have preferred to have it sooner it proves the old adage "good things come to those who wait." Last week I got a exclusive sneak peek of the app and I can tell you that out of all the websites that have made the browser-to-iPad leap, Mint is the one that has done it most successfully. Founded in 2006, Mint.com was one of the first fiscal information sites that acknowledged a simple fact: most people just want one easy-to-view dashboard to see all their financial accounts at a glance. Mint.com achieved this through aggregating checking, credit card, and loan accounts and presenting them to users in a beautiful UI. Mint was so successful in achieving its goals, personal financial software powerhouse Intuit bought the company in 2009. Since the iPad launched, Mint users have been clamoring for for a native iPad app. While Mint.com is an excellent web-based service, the site is hard to use on the iPad since its high level of interactivity was designed for desktop web browsers rather than large touchscreens. With the release of the Mint iPad app today, the company has brought the full power of its service to the iPad. As a whole, the iPad app offers more engaging ways to view your finances than the browser-based service ever could. Launch the Mint app and you're presented with the Overview screen, composed of five modules that let you see your financial health at a glance. The charts module at the top of the screen shows you a quick overview of your finances using colorful graphs. These graphs allow you to easily see your spending overview, your spending over time, and your net income. The mini feed module is a Twitter-like feed of your financial history, including alerts and financial advice. The budget module tracks your monthly spending. The top spending module shows you the top categories you spend in. Finally, the accounts module shows you all your accounts at a glance. Tapping on any of the modules takes you to a more detailed screen breaking down your finances. For example, tapping on the Spending Overview graph in the charts module takes you to a new screen where that graph is fully interactive. On this screen you can scroll though the pie chart (much like you scroll an iPod's click wheel) to really dig in to see where your spending is going. When you've chosen a category in the interactive pie chart you can tap on the category to see all of its transactions and, even cooler, see all the details of that category laid out in an interactive pie chart. At the bottom of the individual category charts is the Time Navigator, which allows you to select a single month to view your spending in a specific category or select a range of months to see how you've been spending in that category. A nice feature about the app is that is really takes advantage of using multitouch gestures to navigate within it. For example, when viewing an individual transaction you don't need to tap a "back" button on a screen to return to the previous screen, you can simply swipe the current page out of the way to get back to it. It's little features like this that making using the Mint app such a joy. Other welcome features of the app include a search function that allows you to search transactions by merchant, categories, or tags; passcode lock with automatic wiping if the wrong passcode is entered too many times; every transaction can be edited right in the app; and users can enter manual transactions that let them track cash purchases on the go. The manual transaction feature integrates with Google Places, allowing users to see a list of nearby merchants that they can then select as the place they spent their cash. Manual transactions will automatically be categorized based on the type of merchant selected and they are also mapped and geotagged. Speed is also something you see in the iPad app. Users who have been with Mint for four or five years probably have a large amount of transaction histories for their accounts, and the Mint app navigates transaction histories quickly without any lag. When I interviewed Mint founder Aaron Patzer shortly after Apple unveiled the iPad, he told me that a Mint iPad app was something the company was planning on. So why did it take so long? According to the Mint developers who gave me an advance preview of the app, they didn't want to release a Mint iPad app just so they could say they had an iPad app. They wanted the Mint iPad app to have as high an impact as possible and they wanted to take the time to get it right, "putting the stress on quality" as one Mint engineer told me. Mint "wanted something that really did justice to the device. We didn't want to just port the iPhone app and just magnify everything. [We] wanted it to feel very immersive. The way people use the iPad is very different than the way they use the iPhone. People spend a lot more time on the iPad. The usage patterns are different. [We] wanted to really give people a mechanism [where] they could really dig deep into their finances." Given how well the app runs, it's a bit surprising that Mint's developers consider Mint for iPad as a "very 1.0" release; they are already planning to add more features to it, like additional trends charts (including Net Worth) and goals. My take: Mint has done a better job translating the site to the app than almost anyone else who's gone down this road, because their app captures the full functionality of the website without compromising any usability features. Indeed, because of its powerful interactivity and features I would say that the Mint for iPad app is even better than the Mint website at allowing users to view, track, and manage their personal finances. It's that good. Check out the gallery below to see what the app looks like and then download the free universal iOS app from the App Store. %Gallery-137509%
QuickBooks for Mac 2012 features redesigns, improved search, partial billing
Intuit has announced QuickBooks for Mac 2012, which offers a slew of new features. Aside from being more Mac-like than ever (invoices look especially good), this update allows for partial invoice billing, greatly improved search functions, Lion-specific enhancements and a whole lot more. We'll have a full, hands-on review up soon. Until then, here's a peek at what you can expect from QuickBooks for Mac 2012. More Mac-like Forms have been re-designed, and for the better. Below you see an invoice. There's a lot of information along the right and left, including that client's history (color-coded to show overdue invoices), a summary, room for notes and more. Best of all, both the left and right column can be hidden, leaving you with the invoice itself. Add multi-touch swiping and it feels like you're simply looking at a stack of paper invoices. Improved search Many business owners have (hopefully) huge numbers of invoices, clients, etc. to sort through. QuickBooks for Mac 2012 has revamped the search function to resemble an advanced search in Mac OS X. You can create the criteria you want and even save searches for future reference. Progress invoicing The feature that impressed me the most is progress invoicing. Now you can bill clients for a project in phases, either by percentage or by line item. Plus, the app keeps track of how much has been billed and how much remains. There's a lot more, which we'll cover when we go hands-on. QuickBooks for Mac 2012 will be available from Intuit on Sept. 26, and is expected to hit Apple retail stores, Apple.com, Amazon, Best Buy, and other locations on Oct 9.
Verizon to offer Intuit's GoPayment in retail stores, free after rebate
There's nothing worse than missing out on your favorite street meat because you've only got plastic. But even smaller vendors may soon be able to process that dollar hot dog with a credit card, as Verizon Wireless is making Intuit's GoPayment card reader available in its 2,300 retail stores. The small business-friendly machine plugs into a BlackBerry, Android or iOS device to transform the smartphone or tablet into a credit card processing machine using a free app. After a $30 mail-in rebate, the hardware is free with no monthly fees and a 2.7-percent fee per transaction. Merchants who upgrade to the premium version for $12.95 per month will only have to fork over 1.7-percent fee per swipe, bringing the net income on that dollar tube of processed meat to just over 98 cents. Plus, Intuit is throwing in two months gratis for the paid version. Check out the full PR after the break, and don't forget the ketchup and mustard.
Quicken won't run on Lion: 10 Mac finance apps that will
OS X Lion isn't out yet, but it could be hitting the Mac App Store as soon as next week. For many Mac users, the decision on whether or not to upgrade to Lion is boiling down to one incompatible app -- Quicken for Mac. We've been hearing from our readers for several weeks that Quicken is the sticking point. In this post, I'll discuss what your options are to control your personal finances with a Lion-compatible Mac app. You'll be glad to know that Intuit's flagship app isn't the only game in town. Intuit sent out a note to "Valued Quicken Customers" over the last few days stating that Quicken for Mac 2005, 2006, and 2007 will not run on OS X Lion. Intuit offered some solutions that had TUAW readers steaming: Move to Quicken Essentials for Mac The slimmed-down, next-generation app will work on Lion, but it doesn't have all the features users of the standard Quicken are used to. Intuit is even offering a 50% discount, but points out that you need to make the move before you upgrade to Lion since the app won't import your old data under Lion... Move to Mint.com This is Intuit's replacement for the old Quicken Online, and it's a web-based personal finance site. However, there's no way to move your existing Quicken data to Mint.com. Great thinking there, Intuit. Move to Quicken Deluxe... on Windows Brilliant idea, Intuit, if you have a Windows machine handy. If you're in an all-Mac home, forget it. If you want to run Windows 7 under Boot Camp on your Mac just to run Quicken Deluxe, you have to get a license for Windows 7 ($188 for Windows 7 Home Premium Full Edition on Amazon) and Quicken Windows ($35 for Quicken Deluxe on Amazon). Running a virtual machine under Parallels or VMWare adds additional cost. Why not take this time to move away from Quicken altogether? Here are my suggestions for other apps that will take your existing financial data into the world of Lion. iBank 4 Probably the best solution for most Mac users moving to OS X Lion is iBank 4 (US$59.99). It's available on the Mac App Store, it imports files from Quicken for Mac or PC, and it even has a mobile companion (iBank Mobile, $4.99) for tracking expenses and monitoring account balances. Feeling anxious about moving your data from Quicken to iBank? Don't be -- they even have a set of online video tutorials to set your mind at ease. Money 4 Another personal finance application that is Lion-ready is Money 4 from Jumsoft ($18.99). It imports and exports Quicken QIF files, handles recurring payments, and does portfolio management. Reviews of the current version aren't exactly glowing, but many of the comments appear to be from people who don't understand even the basics of accounting, so your mileage may vary. iFinance for Mac Here's another finance app with a mobile companion. iFinance for Mac ($29.99) also imports Quicken QIF files, and the universal iFinance Mobile app ($1.99) is a good way to capture expenses on the go. MoneyWell One of the more higher-rated Mac personal finance apps is MoneyWell ($49.99). It supports importing financial transactions directly from many banks and other financial institutions, and imports a number of the Quicken formats that have been developed and then abandoned over the years. Anyone who purchases the current 1.6.8 version from the Mac App Store receives a free upgrade to the upcoming (Summer 2011) 2.0 release. Koku The Mac app that gets the award for the brightest page in the Mac App Store has to be Koku ($29.99). If you can make it past the purple background, there's some great information in the description. Like many of the other apps, Koku imports Quicken files and can directly pull transactions from many banks. Koku provides a "smart tagging technology" to label your spending and income with phrases that are familiar to you. PocketMoney To say that longtime developer Hardy Macia of Catamount Software is an Apple fan is putting it lightly -- he developed apps for the Newton platform for many years, including the first iterations of PocketMoney ($19.99). Now the app is available for Mac and PC, but the emphasis is on the iOS version of the app. Mac users may find the Mac flavor lacking in some features, and Macia admits that the current version is primarily for syncing the iOS app to the desktop. Still, the app has most of the features that users will want in a personal finance app, including one that I found fascinating -- the ability to affix photos of receipts and checks to transactions. Budget An interesting take on personal finance and budgeting is Budget ($39.99) from Snowmint Creative Solutions. This app does away with the traditional ledger format of most accounting applications and replaces it with envelopes. Envelopes represent different accounts, and you move money between envelopes to show where money is coming from and going to. It imports OFX and QIF files, but does not support direct bank connections. iCompta Yet another ledger-like Mac app for keeping those dollars, pounds, francs, or euros in line, iCompta ($18.99) also features a $4.99 iOS companion named iCompta 2. Import of existing Quicken data is a given with most of these apps, and iCompta is no exception. It'll also grab your transactions from many banks. Squirrel The winner in the cute logo competition has to go to Squirrel ($24.99), which features a squirrel stashing gold coins in a safe. The app imports existing transactions with ease, lets you define scheduled transactions and budgets, and even brings the Apple concept of Smart Folders to Mac finance for filtering transactions. Squirrel also has an iPhone companion that is highly rated and appears to be very easy to use. iCash SE At the end of the list is a powerful accounting app that has been localized for a number of different languages, including Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Czech, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and English. Like many of the other apps listed here, iCash SE ($49.99) doesn't use double-entry bookkeeping so it's fairly easy to use. While it doesn't appear that iCash SE supports import of bank transactions, you can definitely get your Quicken data into the app. Conclusion Well, that's it for our roundup of Lion-compatible apps, all of which are available today in the Mac App Store. Don't let anyone tell you that there's no personal accounting solution except for Quicken. I'd love to hear from Mac users who are fans of these or other finance apps, as I'm sure you have good feedback on what the high and low points are for many of these applications. One thing is for sure -- if you're considering making the move to Lion in the very near future, taking care of your personal accounting software needs should be foremost in your mind.
Intuit's Aaron Patzer hints at Apple licensing Rosetta
One of the big changes coming next month with the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is that apps that operate under Rosetta, the code libraries that allow PowerPC-based apps to run on Intel-based Mac hardware, may no longer work under the new operating system. Current developer previews of Lion do not include Rosetta, a gentle reminder from Apple to developers that they need to free their apps from any PPC-era code. For Intuit, the makers of Quicken for Mac 2007, rewriting their app from scratch was cost-prohibitive. Now it appears that Apple might license portions of the Rosetta code to developers who don't have the time or money to rewrite their apps. In an interview published today by The Mac Observer, Intuit vice president and general manager of the Personal Finance Group Aaron Patzer noted that his team has been working closely with Apple for several months to embed certain Rosetta libraries into Quicken for Mac 2007 just for the purpose of getting the app to run under Lion. According to Patzer, that project won't see fruition until the end of the summer, which means that folks who are enamored with Quicken 2007 might have to wait to upgrade to Lion. There are, of course, other personal finance solutions available for the Mac platform. Patzer is the man behind Mint.com, an highly-touted online personal finance site that was purchased by Intuit. Intuit's own Lion-friendly Quicken Essentials (screenshot above) is a possibility, although many Quicken 2007 users refuse to switch since Essentials lacks the bill paying and investment tracking functions that were in the earlier version of the software. TUAW readers often cite iBank as a much more capable Mac finance app. Patzer's comments should be welcome news to developers who are behind the proverbial eight-ball in terms of making their apps Lion-ready.
5 iOS apps for Tax Day
With roughly a week to go before taxes are due -- the federal deadline is on April 18, and many states have followed suit -- plenty of Americans are scrambling to file before the clock ticks away. We've gone and found five apps that will help you make Tax Day, and waiting for that refund, a bit easier. TurboTax SnapTax (Free, but has in-app purchases): This app from Intuit allows those who are eligible to file with the simple 1040-EZ to do their taxes straight from the iPhone. Snap a photo of your W-2, answer the questions and hit the button to zip your return to the IRS. While the app itself is free, actually filing a return costs $19.99.
Ohio Girl Scouts accepting mobile payments for cookies, your thin mint craving starts now
Short on cash but wishing you could stock up on Girl Scout cookies? Then you no longer have an excuse -- at least if you're in Northeast Ohio -- as the local Girl Scout group there has teamed up with Intuit to accept credit cards using the company's GoPayment app (and accompanying card reader) for iOS and Android. What's more, while the Ohio group is the first to sign up, Intuit is now also extending the same offer (which includes reduced transaction fees) to Girl Scout organizations across the US -- something tells us it won't have much trouble getting attracting interest.
Girl Scouts using iPhones to sell cookies now
Bad news: the Girl Scouts have discovered an easier way to sell you those dangerously delicious cookies, and it's through an iPhone. Starting this year, the Girl Scouts of America will be taking payments for their annual cookie sales through Intuit's GoPayment app, available on iOS. That means that if you fall apart and give in to that Samoa craving at the grocery store when the little girls keep bugging you, you could see your credit card information punched straight into Apple's handheld. The organization is getting a break from Intuit on the credit card fees, and interested troops are getting a free reader to use during the cookie drive. We've been seeing the iPhone used as a payment system in quite a few places, but outside of the Apple Store this will likely be one of the biggest tests of the solution so far. Just remember: while it might sound nice to have a Thin Mint box or two right now, those things disappear fast once you actually start eating them. Use and consume at your own risk. [via 9to5Mac]
