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Apple to require sandboxing in Mac App Store apps as of March 2012
Apple sent an email to registered developers today that's bound to ruffle some feathers -- again. As of March 2012, Apple will require all apps submitted to the Mac App Store to implement sandboxing. This isn't a new development, as Apple was initially going to require sandboxing starting in November of this year. Apple has apparently delayed implementing the rule for another few months, but the requirement itself may cause challenges for some Mac developers. Apple's motivation behind requiring sandboxing is all about security: "Sandboxing your app is a great way to protect systems and users by limiting the resources apps can access and making it more difficult for malicious software to compromise users' systems." But the company's all-or-nothing approach is potentially problematic; "As of March 1, 2012 all apps submitted to the Mac App Store must implement sandboxing," Apple says. Over the past few months, developers ranging from Daniel Jalkut to Dr. Drang to Real Studio to Peter Sichel have pointed to flaws and shortcomings in the sandboxing approach, including a buggy Carbon implementation and questionable support for most AppleScript-centric automation tools. Jason Snell and Andy Ihnatko have weighed in as well, concerned that sandboxing may lead to a dumbing down of Mac App Store options or the death of AppleScript itself. (Not all developers are upset, to be sure.) The sort-of good news is Apple does allow for some exceptions to its pending sandboxing policy. "If your app requires access to sandboxed system resources you will need to include justification for using those entitlements as part of the submission to the Mac App Store," Apple says. But then there's the bad news: "Apps that are being re-engineered to be sandbox compatible may request additional temporary entitlements. These entitlements are granted on a short-term basis and will be phased out over time." Before the inevitable complaints about this policy kick in, it's worth taking a step back and remembering that unlike the iOS platform, the Mac App Store isn't the only legitimate way to get apps onto a Mac. That's probably cold comfort to developers who have found the Mac App Store an easier and more lucrative channel for app distribution than the traditional methods. There's also the fact that any discussion that begins with "The Mac App Store isn't the only way to get apps on a Mac" inevitably ends with the ominous pronouncement "yet." That said, just like some iOS App Store restrictions, this new policy seems a bit on the extreme side. Just like the "no third-party IDEs" rule for the iOS platform last year, it also seems like a policy born in committee that may have sounded like a good idea to Apple at the time but is eventually destined to be modified or deprecated once its real-world implications for the Mac platform become clear. The fact that Apple has already delayed implementing the sandbox requirement by five months could mean further reprieves or workarounds for developers with affected products.
Daily Mac App: Tunesque
Apple's app and media world is pretty extensive -- music, videos, books, apps and games. Tunesque makes searching both the iTunes Store and the Mac App Store a breeze, right from your menu bar. It has to be said that searching for things within either the Mac App Store or iTunes isn't the easiest of operations. For starters you actually have to fire up one of two apps, and let's be honest here -- iTunes isn't the fastest program around. You can't search both stores at the same time either, so it's a double job if you're looking for something like Evernote for both the Mac and the iPhone. The tiny little app sits in your menu bar waiting for a search command. Simply click the button and start typing, just like you would with Spotlight. By default Tunesque will display everything -- music, movies, TV shows, artists, Mac apps, iOS apps, eBooks, audiobooks, podcasts and even iTunes U; but you can refine your search areas if you're never going to want to pull up things from iTunes U, for instance. You can also choose which country store to search too, meaning that by default you can search another country's store or of course your local one. Tunesque will search as you type in you keywords and give you all the possible results in a drop-down menu. You can then navigate the list with the arrow keys, or a mouse hover, with a nice little pop-up summary of the highlighted search result displayed to the side, just like Spotlight does in Lion. Once you've found what you're looking for it's just a case of hitting enter, or clicking on the correct entry, to be taken to the appropriate store. It's a great aggregator that makes searching the Apple media and app stores an absolute breeze. It's one of those apps that makes you question why Apple didn't build that kind of functionality straight into Spotlight, and it has changed the way I search iTunes and the App Stores. Tunesque is a great little app, and best of all it's available for free from the Mac App Store, so give it a whirl and let us know what you think.
Daily Mac App: QREncoder
QR codes are a great way of instantly sharing information with a quick camera snap? QREncoder is app for your Mac that'll let you quickly and easily generate them for printing, uploading and sharing. You can encode almost any sort of text into a QR code: a URL, phone number, text message, email address, twitter handle -- maybe even a haiku. QREncoder makes creating codes easy. Fire up the app, select the type of code you want, and bung your text in the box. You've got a choice of size for your QR code, 5, 6, 9 and 12px and you can save it as a PNG for later use. QREncoder is quick, easy to use and free from the Mac App Store, so is well worth checking out if you want to create quick response codes.
Daily Mac App: Disk Speed Test
You've got a shiny new SSD-equipped machine, but you're wondering just how fast that SSD really is. Disk Speed Test from Blackmagic will give you a quick, straightforward answer. It's incredibly easy to use. Disk Speed Test writes large chunks of data to your chosen disk and then reads that data, giving you a real-world read/write speed in MB/s. The program then tells you what kind of uncompressed video that drive will be able to handle and allows you to save the results as a screenshot. As you can see from the image above, my magnetic hard drive-equipped MacBook Pro isn't going to win any speed awards. It also couldn't handle anything above uncompressed SD video according to the app -- but then again that's not the sort of thing I would even dream of trying. If you're looking to capture uncompressed video direct to a disk, Disk Speed Test will give you an indication of whether it's going to be up to the job. So, if you're curious about your hard disk speed, regardless of whether it's just a simple magnetic hard drive, an internal SSD, a network mounted disk array, or even a beast of a Thunderbolt SSD drive -- Disk Speed Test will quickly and easily answer that for you with just one click. Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test is available for free from the Mac App Store.
Daily Mac App: Sound Cloud
You're a SoundCloud user. You love playing tracks on your Mac and love the idea of SoundCloud, but hate the fact that your poor old Mac sounds like a jet engine whenever you play a track thanks to Flash. SoundCloud app to the rescue. The official SoundCloud app brings "the full SoundCloud web experience to your Mac" allowing you to play tracks directly from your SoundCloud account, search, favorite and create playlists all using a native app. The sounds stream pretty instantly, while tag search is also supported so you can go exploring either through keyword search, through users or tags and save the good stuff for later. You can even drag-and-drop SoundCloud URLs onto the SoundCloud dock icon to create playlists. The SoundCloud app also supports the built-in Mac media keys, so you can pause and skip tracks like you would with iTunes. Growl support is bundled too, so if you've got Growl installed it'll notify you of track changes. The only disadvantage of using the desktop app over the in-browser SoundCloud site is that only tracks which have been made available for 3rd party applications within SoundCloud will appear in the app. For the rest you'll have to resort to the website. For me that didn't make much difference as my favorite stuff was all present in the app without issue. Recording your own stuff is a doddle with the desktop app thanks to the nice big "Share Your Sound" tab in the top left that reveals a massive "Rec" button that you simply hit to record from your Mac. If you're into SoundCloud, but hate that you have to use Flash, then check out the SoundCloud desktop app -- it's free and works pretty well.
Daily Mac App: BatterySqueezer
Modern Macs have pretty good battery life, but there are times when you can't get enough juice to keep working without a power adapter. BatterySqueezer promises to help you extend your battery by throttling process that are running in the background. The idea is that by reducing the amount of processing power demanded by applications that are not actively being used, it reduces overall CPU load. Reduced CPU load results in lower power usage, which in theory, should extend your battery life. BatterySqueezer sits in the background ready to throttle programs when they're not being used. Currently it supports four browsers, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari, as well as Reeder, Microsoft Office and iWork. The throttled apps aren't killed off entirely, but plugins such as Flash, animated adverts and any processes that are demanding are reduced to practically no load. This has another benefit other than extended battery life and that's more free resources, which can be particularly useful on a low-powered Mac. In anecdotal testing BatterySqueezer throttled Flash from some 30% of CPU load to about 3% with Chrome backgrounded. The result was very jerky Flash animations, but who cares when its in the background. As soon as Chrome was brought to the foreground, it was unthrottled and everything was normal. It also had the benefit of keeping my hot-running Mac cooler with noticeably reduced fan speed when multi-tasking. BatterySqueezer is one of those apps that will have different mileage for different people and setups. If you're trying to eek out as much out of your battery life as possible or trying to stretch out the resources of a low-power Mac, BatterySqueezer might just be the ticket and is available for US$3.99 from the Mac App Store.
Daily Mac App: Social Weather
The weather might not be your first priority of the day, but if you ever get caught out of the house in the pouring rain, a good forecast could have helped. Social Weather is great free weather app that gives you detailed up-to-the-minute forecasts with hour-by-hour weather for most major cities around the world. Social Weather allows you to save your favorite locations and flick between forecasts. It offers both at-a-glance weather information including the temperature, wind speed and direction, and the humidity. Selecting a city gives you a 10-day forecast with icons displaying the weather type. The background also changes to reflect the current conditions, so if it's sunny you'll get a glorious blue background with the sun shining. If it's cloudy and raining, the background changes to grey with clouds moving across the sky. It's well done, not too distracting and gets the information across quickly while still looking pretty. Social Weather has optional Facebook integration, which allows you to see what the weather is like for your friends around the world. It's a nice feature that lets you gloat about the good weather you're having while your friends are sitting in the rain, and you can post directly to your friends' walls from the app. Social Weather is free from the Mac App Store.
10.7.2 update adds some Lion interface tweaks
Amid the flurry of software updates Apple released yesterday was OS X Lion 10.7.2. The big feature of the latest delta release of Lion was, of course, iCloud. But the 10.7.2 update also brought other features, such as a speedier Safari web browser and stability improvements. However, there are also some small, very welcome, interface changes I've been noticing as I've been using 10.7.2 over the last 24 hours: Launchpad icons got bigger. The most noticeable UI change is that the size of the icons in Launchpad got much larger. About 60% larger actually. This is a very welcome improvement for those with less than perfect eyesight. It makes finding and launching an app in Launchpad that much easier and faster. Desktop preferences got iPhoto Places country flags. Another small, but useful, tweak is in the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preferences pane. Since OS X 10.6, you have been able to navigate your iPhoto photos by Places in the Desktop pane, but now under 10.7.2 Apple has added country flags that sort where you photos were taken. You can then navigate down through the hierarchy by State/territory (highway sign icon), city (building icon), and location of interest (globe icon). Before 10.7.2 you had the navigation hierarchy, but it was much harder to distinguish between countries because of the lack of flags. Remove apps from purchase history in the Mac App Store. A final tweak I've noticed is that now you can remove purchases from your Purchased history in the Mac App Store. Click the Purchased button at the top of the store then move your cursor over an app from your purchase list. You'll see a small X appear at the far right. Click it to delete the app from your purchase history. Deleting a currently-installed app from your purchase history won't delete it from your computer. If you've found any other unadvertised interface tweaks in 10.7.2 let us know in the comments!
Daily Mac App: Preflight
Sometimes super simple tasks work best when performed using super simple applications. List making might be one of them. Preflight is a free list-making app that's about as simple as they come. Type your list item in the "new item" box and hit return. Job done. If you want to delete an item from your list, select it and hit backspace. You can rearrange your list through drag-and-drop. The beauty of Preflight is that it's quick to load, create a list and does what it needs to do. However, if you need a bit more complexity, check out one of the myriad of to-do list apps that we've covered on the Daily Mac App including Wunderlist, Producteev and iProcrastinate.
Daily Mac App: Final Draft
Final Draft 8, the industry-standard scriptwriting software, has finally come to the Mac App Store. Even for those of you who have never written a movie script, you've seen the fruits of labor of the app used by those writers. Before Christian Bale utters a menacing threat to a criminal in a Batman movie or Ashton Kutcher cracks a joke on Two and a Half Men, their words were written on Final Draft. AMong its features, Final Draft 8 includes Scene View, which allows writers to drag and drop scenes in the order they want them to appear in the script, split-screen writing so you can be at two places in your script at once and Format Assistant, which checks to make sure your layout and more applies to industry-standard rules. Now while I love Final Draft, it's important to note that the version released on the Mac App Store is the same one that's been available for a while now. There are no big new features that should warrant owners of the current version to switch. However, if you are thinking of buying Final Draft 8, do it through the Mac App Store and not through the website. Until Final Draft 8 became available on the Mac App Store, the software had one of the most burdensome registration processes ever. Instead of relying on a serial number for registration, users had to enter challenge and authorization codes online or over the phone, and if you lost one of those codes (as I have in the past) it was easier to buy a new copy of the software than trying to get the people at Final Draft to reactivate your copy. Users who buy Final Draft through the Mac App Store never have to worry about this again. While I do recommend that anyone who writes scripts for a living use Final Draft, that's not to say the software is without its drawbacks. First off, the UI is beginning to show its age. Also, there is cheaper software, such as Scrivener, that gives Final Draft a serious run for its money. But the main problem I have with Final Draft is they are usually slow to adopt new technology. This is no more apparent than using the software in OS X 10.7 Lion. As it stands now, Final Draft doesn't take advantage of Lion's new features such as Versions, iCloud document syncing, full-screen support and Auto Save. It also doesn't take advantage of Lion's Dictionary panel or scroll bars. The people at Final Draft told me that full-screen support and Auto Save are coming in a future version of the software, but Versions and iCloud document syncing will not be. The reason for this is that Final Draft is developing their own proprietary solution called Final Draft Connect, which will act as an online project-management solution. This makes sense because Final Draft isn't just a Mac app. Its got a massive Windows userbase as well. However, it would be nice if Final Draft would also implement Versions and iCloud document syncing in addition to its proprietary solution. Final Draft 8 is available on the Mac App Store for US$199.99. That's 20% off its normal $249.99 price. The sale runs until the end of October. %Gallery-135614%
Growl 1.3 now available on the Mac App Store
Growl, perhaps the most well-known and popular notification system for OS X, has just released version 1.3 as a Mac App Store exclusive. The previously free notification system has become a paid app with Growl 1.3. As Macstories points out, the reason the Growl team decided to make what was previously a free System Preferences pane into a US$1.99 app was so users would be provided with an up-to-date app utilizing the latest Apple technologies. So what's new with Growl 1.3? Almost everything. Growl has been rewritten from the ground up using a new architecture, sporting a new UI, and adding lots of features previous iterations of Growl never had. But not to worry, Growl 1.3 still retains everything you loved about Growl 1.2, they've just added a lot of cool new features to it. Among the coolest new features is a Notification Center-like Rollup window. The window, which is accessed from the Finder's menu bar (where you find Growl now), keeps a history of all your notifications that you've received from various apps that use Growl. This is especially handy when you're away from your computer and want to see what notifications you missed. Growl 1.3 is $1.99 in the Mac App Store. Users also can still download the free System Preference pane version 1.2.2 here.
Daily Mac App: Clean
Let's face it, cleaning your desktop can be a right chore. Clean makes it easy by automating the process for those who simply can't face it. Some of us are more prone to desktop clutter than others. I have seen some horrors in my time, desktops were you simply can't see the wallpaper for the side-to-side mess of icons. How does anyone find anything in that mess? Like other cleaning tasks, sometimes you simply can't face weeding through all the files, separating important from rubbish and that's where Clean comes in. It's a tiny app that you can either set up to clear out your desktop on a daily, weekly or monthly rotation, or fire it up manually when it all gets too much. Clean will move all the files on your desktop to a user-specified folder and will organize them by day or month. You can tell it to ignore files with labels, which means you can keep files on your desktop that you really want to stay by just applying a label to them in Finder. By moving, not trashing your files, Clean gives you the opportunity to evaluate whether you really need those files. If you haven't accessed them for a couple of months for instance, perhaps it's time to trash them and reclaim some hard disk space. Yes you can do all this manually, and no Clean doesn't do anything revolutionary, but it's a free app that gets the job done for those that have a mess of files on their desktop and can't face sorting them manually.
Daily Mac App: DropCopy
Mac OS X Lion introduced AirDrop, which offers zero-configuration, Wi-Fi file sharing between Lion users. DropCopy offered a similar service when we wrote about it in 2007. Today, DropCopy still deserves a place on your Mac, as it does a few things that AirDrop doesn't. For one, DropCopy can auto-accept file transfers. Meaning, your recipient needn't be in front of his/her machine to initiate or accept a transfer. That's handy if you want some files to be waiting at a remote work station upon your arrival. DropCopy also passes the contents of one machine's Clipboard to another, creating a handy -- albeit makeshift -- inter-machine link. The way it works is similar to AirDrop. Just drag-and-drop your file onto the Dropzone and it'll show all the possible destinations. Participating machines must be running DropCopy on the same network. Simple. If AirDrop just doesn't cut it for you because you're on a non-Lion Mac, you must send files to a non-Lion Mac, or you need to send files across a wired network, DropCopy is the answer. It's available in a free 3-machine limited version or a Pro version for US$4.99 from the Mac App Store.
Apple tells education customers: no more boxed software
It seems Apple is about to cease (almost) all shipments of boxed software to its education customers. ZDNet has published an email that was sent to "a major academic institution" (ZDNet does not mention who wrote or distributed the email, but it sounds like it could have come from a member of the school's faculty or staff). From the message: "Apple confirmed today that, with limited exception, they will cease to ship boxed software to campus resellers. This includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard , iLife, iWork, Apple Remote Desktop, and Aperture, among others...The only products that will remain as boxed software offerings are Logic Express and Logic Studio. The email's author goes on to encourage interested parties to sort through the remaining stock of boxed software for anything they might need. Apple opened the Mac App Store in January of this year, which saw the beginning of the end for boxed software for consumers on the Mac. Now that Apple set to sever the supply of boxed software for educational institutions, it moves even closer to all-digital distribution. The exceptions, as noted in the email, are Logic Express and Logic Studio. However, that is presumably only because those two software apps aren't available on the Mac App store yet. When they are, boxed software from Apple will see its final day.
Daily Mac App: CPU LED
Recently I've become a bit obsessed with CPU usage. Not because my 2011 MacBook Pro is underpowered -- far from it with its Quad-core Core i7. My concern is that the CPU generates an absolute bucket load of heat. CPU LED is a fantastic little menu bar tool for keeping an eye on your CPU load. It sits there with a small, customisable graphic that updates dynamically to display CPU load at a glance. It'll display each core or virtualised core separately or create an average for the whole CPU, depending on your preferences. There are loads of indicators to choose from, including Apple symbols, smilies, bars, colored circles and 3D chips. If you can't find something to your taste you can easily load your own icons. While CPU LED is a free download from the Mac App Store, there are two add-ons available as in-app purchases. The first is a Memory LED, which is available for US$0.99 and does what CPU LED does but for RAM, so you can keep an eye on your RAM usage and see when your system is paging to and from your disk. The second is Disk LED, which will set you back $1.99 (also available as a separate purchase). Disk LED monitors your disk activity and allows you to check their health status on-the-fly. While programs like iStat Menus are more configurable and comprehensive, CPU LED gives you at-a-glance information on your CPU at all times, is lightweight and most importantly, it's free. So if you're at all concerned about your CPU load and you've got space to spare in your menu bar, give CPU LED a whirl. You might like it.
Splashtop Remote Desktop now available for Mac OS X, costs but $10
Not content with creating the possibility of (emulated) Wii gaming on Android tablets, Splashtop continues to spread itself across pretty much anything with a screen, with a Mac-friendly version available now at the Mac App Store. This release allows both Mac OS X 10.6 and Windows to hold hands across the great OS divide -- nice to see Splashtop is still beavering away at its "Bridge to Anywhere." Desktop access to both your most intimate files and programs -- through both local networks and the internet at large -- are but a $9.99 payment away.
Daily Mac App: iProcrastinate
Most of us have a love-hate affair with task management apps. We hate the fact that we have to use them, but love the fact that some of them really help us get stuff done. iProcrastinate, a free task manager for the Mac aims to fall into the love category. iProcrastinate helps you avoid its namesake by making creating and completing tasks super simple. You've got your standard to do-style tasks with colorful check boxes and stars for more important tasks. There's a rating system for how urgent a particular task is, but there's also the ability to mark a task as in progress, which a lot of simpler task managers don't provide. Each task can be sorted into "Subjects" that act as collections, so you can categorise your tasks. The tasks themselves can be divided into steps, which allows you to create an overall task and still detail what needs to be done and check it off as you go -- something really useful for packing a suitcase for instance. Repeating tasks are available if there's a certain job that needs doing once a week, month or year and you want it pop-up automatically. You can also set dates for your tasks, so if you know you have to do a certain task next Monday, you can go ahead and program it in before you forget. iProcrastinate also allows you to sync your tasks via Dropbox or via Bonjour over a local network, while there's a US$0.99 iProcrastinate iPhone app that lets you take your task management on the road. iProcrastinate for the Mac is a nice, simple and easy to use task manager that's got some nice features to boot. If you haven't already got your heart set on something like Producteev or Wunderlist, then give it a try for free -- you might just like it.
Mac App Store now warns customers buying pre-installed apps
Macworld points out that Apple has added a new drop-down dialog box to the Mac App Store (above). It alerts customers who are about to purchase an app they've already got installed. While it doesn't fix an ongoing issue, it's at least a nice heads-up. Software is being added to the Mac App Store all the time. Many are new titles while several have existed long before the store did. Today, customers who bought apps before the store debuted are faced with a dilemma: update that software manually or enjoy the benefits of the Mac App Store -- like simple updating and easy multi-Mac installations -- buy purchasing the app a second time. While this warning hasn't eliminated the problem, it does tip customers off to the fact that they're about to pay for an app they already own.
Daily Mac App: Go2Shell
Here on the Daily Mac App we love apps that do one thing really well. Today's app is no exception. Go2Shell is a tiny little 0.3MB app available for free from the Mac App Store that has the potential to speed up your work-flow if it involves Terminal. Go2Shell simply launches a Terminal session with the current folder you're navigating in Finder, or the folder that Go2Shell is located in, open for work. It even supports iTerm, iTerm 2 and xterm if you're not a fan of Apple's own-brand Terminal. It's so simple, it's almost beautiful and if you happen to have to modify files in Terminal, or any other similar task, Go2Shell could be just ticket to save you time. The best way to use Go2Shell is to drag it onto your Finder toolbar and from there launch it whenever you're in the desired directory. If you need something a little more advanced you should check out one of our previous Daily Mac Apps, DTerm, which gives you hotkey access, and a floating entry form into the Terminal session. Go2Shell is a great free download from the Mac App Store that does one thing and one thing well. So if you're a Terminal guru (even the app's preferences are accessed through the command line) then give Go2Shell a whirl. You might like it.
Cave Story+ out for the Mac App Store with new content
Cave Story is a freeware PC game that came out back in 2004, a 2D action platformer created by a one-man team named Pixel. Since then, it's come out on quite a few consoles (I've got it on my DSi, though it's on the Wii as well), and now it's available as Cave Story+ on the Mac App Store. The app is US$9.99 and available for download right now. Wait a minute, you might be asking: Why do we have to pay $10 for a game you just called freeware? Good question. The original PC title is still downloadable for free, but the Mac App Version is a plus version with new graphics and music created for the WiiWare upgrade, as well as a new level called the Wind Fortress. Pixel is also reportedly planning to add more content to the Mac App Store version in the future, and this is such a lovely and awesome game that it's worth supporting with a few bucks anyway. If you've never played Cave Story and you enjoy a good "Metroidvania" platformer, you're in for a treat this weekend. Go pick Cave Story+ up right now.
