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Best educational apps for middle schoolers
It's that time of the year again when parents, teachers and students start thinking about heading back to school. If you have an iOS device, you can supplement your child's education and stimulate them to get involved with quality educational iOS apps. Here are some of the best titles for children in the middle school-aged group: Star Walk 2 - Guide to the Sky Day and Night [iOS Universal; $2.99] Star Walk 2 is an excellent stargazing tool that combines astronomical data with an easy-to-use UI. Just point your iPhone or iPad at the night-time sky and be wowed by the wonders of the universe. More than just a star identification tool, Star Walk 2 also contains 3D models for Planetary nebulae, Constellations, Dwarf planets, comets, asteroids and Man-made satellites. NOVA Elements [iPad; Free] NOVA Elements brings the Periodic Table to life with stunning graphics and mind-blowing videos that showcase the unique properties of the elements. It's a must-have supplement for any chemistry or earth sciences curriculum. Pixel Press Floors: Draw Your Own Video Game [iOS Universal; Free] Pixel Press Floors makes it easy for students to create, publish and play their own games. With its "Draw-in-App" tools", Pixel Press Floors allows students to draw their games, with the app translating the drawing into code. No coding is required. Once published, a game can be shared to the "Arcade", where other users can play levels that the student has created. Though coding is not part of the package, the app teaches students the design and user interface side of app development. Duolingo - Learn Languages for Free [iOS Universal; Free] Duolingo is an enjoyable way to introduce your children to a foreign language. The apps uses short lessons to introduce basic words, common phrases, and grammar. Each lesson introduces its concepts with a mini-game that rewards students as they make progress Languages include Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and English. iTooch Middle School | Math and Language Arts worksheets for 6th, 7th and 8th grade [iOS Universal; Free with in-app purchases] iTooch is the definitive reference for middle schoolers who need extra practice in math and language arts. The app offers 10,000 exercises geared for 6th, 7th and 8th graders. It's a great way to give your kids extra practice in an easy-to-use format that doesn't require the purchase of expensive workbooks or the time-wasting practice of printing out worksheets. The app is free with each subject available for $5.99 each as an in-app purchase. Stop Motion Studio [iOS Universal; Free with in-app purchases] Make creating fun with Stop Motion Studio, one of the top apps for stop motion moviemaking. The app is easy for new users to get started with stop motion moviemaking, yet is robust enough to grow with your children as they improve with their recording and scene-setting techniques. The app is free, but includes in-app purchases for extras like green screen support, remote camera, image import and more.
Sir, I believe your Mac may be broken
I'm not a certified Apple repair technician, but I'm going to go ahead and say that this is not a good sign. However, on the bright side, there is 45 GB of free disc space available, so that's a plus. [Photo credit: Beghin]
Monitor OS X network, CPU and disk activity in the Dock
For those Mac users who love to push their hardware to its limits, the OS X Activity Monitor (found in Applications > Utilities) can be a handy tool. I often use it to find out if one process or another has suddenly decided to take over my iMac, to figure out if I'm redlining my network bandwidth, and to see if adding one more app while editing video is going to cause issues. This fun tip puts an updating icon into the Dock so you can keep an eye on one parameter while you're doing work. Simply launch Activity Monitor, and you'll see the usual list of processes and what percentage of CPU cycles, RAM, energy use, disk input and output, and network traffic each process is using (the image below shows what you'll normally see when running Activity Monitor). Now, click and hold on the Activity Monitor icon in the Dock, and select "Hide" to remove the window from your Mac screen. Next, press the Control and Option keys and then click and hold on the Activity Monitor Dock icon. On the menu, you'll see an item for Dock Icon. Select it and several choices appear (see image at the top of this post) -- Show CPU Usage, Show CPU History, Show Network Usage, and Show Disk Activity. Selecting any one of these items turns the Activity Monitor Dock icon into a constantly updating graphic view of that specific parameter. Should you decide to go back to the original app icon, that's the final selection under the Dock Icon menu item. All in all, this is a very useful and no-cost way to keep an eye on certain aspects of your Mac's operation. There are also handy apps like StatsBar (US$3.99) that you can add to your Mac menu bar to keep an eye on similar parameters.
How to create OS X Calendar events with multiple URLs
While many of my cohorts here at TUAW use Google Calendars or other solutions to keep track of what happening, I'm a fan of the Calendar app in OS X. Back when I was running the TUAW TV Live video podcast every week, I used to create a Calendar event into which I'd throw notes and info about things I wanted to talk about in future episodes. I found a need to put multiple web addresses (URLs) into my calendar events, but unfortunately there appeared to be only one URL field in each event. The solution was astonishingly simple. When you create a new event in Calendar, there's a clickable area titled "Add Notes or URL". Clicking it brings up separate sections for Add Notes and Add URL. Rather than entering the URL into the Add URL section, click on Add Notes. Start typing or pasting your URLs into the Notes section. Don't worry about having to have all that http:// stuff at the beginning of the URL -- just typing in the address like tuaw.com will turn the URL into a clickable link when you press Return on your keyboard. You'll see the address turn blue and gain an underline, indicating that it can be clicked. As you can see in the image at the top of this post, you can type or paste in as many URLs as you wish. Don't be worried when you add other information, like other attendees or alerts, to the event and the clickable URLs seem to disappear -- when you click in the notes section later, the links will appear again. One thing I did notice on occasion was that sometimes if I pasted in a long, multi-line URL and pressed return, all previous links disappeared. To get them to reappear, just go to the end of each line and press Return. Do you have a favorite Calendar tip you'd like to pass along? Add it to the comments section below
The copy of the U.S. Constitution that's installed on every Mac
Sometimes when I see just how ignorant many American politicians are of the Constitution of the United States, I get the urge to send them a copy along with some annotations. Perhaps now that more of those in the federal government are using Macs, we might begin to see them paying more attention to this document that outlines the supreme law of the land. Why? Well, there's a copy of the U.S. Constitution on each and every Mac in the Dictionary app. To see this information from The New Oxford American Dictionary, just launch the Dictionary app from your Applications folder. Once it's up and running, go up to the menu bar and select Go > Front/Back Matter. There you'll not only find such exciting information as who was on the editorial staff and advisory board for the Dictionary, but also a bunch of useful references. In addition to the aforementioned Constitution of the United States of America, there's also a complete Language Guide, a history of the English language, a list of the fifty states and each state capital, a list of every President of the U.S. from George Washington to George W. Bush (not sure what happened to the current incumbent...), the Declaration of Independence, a list of countries of the world, a list of chemical elements from hydrogen to meitnerium, a cross-reference of standard to metric measure conversions, and the Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and Russian alphabets. Sure, it's not exactly Wikipedia, but it's sure nice to know that if you're offline and just happen to need to know what the 21st Amendment to the Constitution did (it repealed Prohibition), you've got it at your fingertips.
How to set up continuous OS X Mavericks dictation
My fellow TUAW editor Dave Caolo got his right index finger pretty well mashed in a car door the other day, which is making it painfully difficult for him to type. Fortunately, he's been able to use dictation in OS X Mavericks to make up for his typing disability, but I've noticed that most of his dictation has been for short messages in our IRC chatroom. As a noble gesture to get Dave back up to top productivity as soon as possible, I'm showing him -- and you -- how you can bypass the usual 30-second dictation limit and also dictate offline. I'm assuming at this point that you're somewhat familiar with OS X Mavericks' ability to let you dictate text into any text field on your Mac. That can be in Messages, the TUAW content management system, Pages, Mail, or anywhere else you'd normally type. If not, fire up System Preferences on your Mavericks machine and click on Dictation & Speech. As you can see in the image at the top of this post, Dictation can be set up easily by just selecting a microphone (usually the built-in mic), clicking the On radio button next to Dictation, selecting a language, and setting up a keyboard shortcut to invoke Dictation. You'll also notice a checkbox titled Use Enhanced Dictation. When checked, your Mac will download additional speech recognition software and install it behind the scenes. This not only gives you continuous dictation capability -- meaning you could talk for hours, and it will still be typing what you say -- but it also gives you live feedback. You'll see the words being typed as you speak and can jump in and fix 'em with the keyboard, although I prefer to just go back and fix the inevitable misunderstandings afterwards. There's one other benefit to Enhanced Dictation -- the ability to use it when you're not connected to the Internet. That can be very useful if you want to use the feature while on an airplane without Wi-Fi service, although if you talk for very long, your fellow passengers might want to toss you bodily from the plane... Have any OS X Dictation stories or tips you want to pass along? Let us know in the comments.
Wake Up Time alarm is a simple, effective desktop companion as long as its awake
Wake Up Time from Rocky Sand is a desktop alarm clock that'll work like a charm as long as your Mac is awake. The app is a simple alarm clock with a handful of pleasing alarm sounds that range from "wake me up now" to "what a pleasant sound to snooze along with." The app has simple controls with a side drawer that you can drag or double-click to open. Set the alarm time, the sound settings and get back to work. The app has a few customizations options that allow you to set the snooze length, switch to 24-hour time, and add custom alarm sounds. You also can change clock faces, if you are using the paid version. Performance of Wake Up Time is stellar, but it has one drawback that requires mentioning. Without fail, the alarm went off as long as my Mac was awake, but when my Mac went to sleep, so did Wake Up Time alarm. Rocky Sand is aware of this limitation and has provided a helper app that'll allow Wake Up Time to wake up your Mac from sleep under certain circumstances. Wake Up Time is available from the Mac App Store in two versions -- a free one with a single clock face and a paid version (US$1.99) that includes extras like optional clock faces.
Shazam lands on the Mac with new menu bar utility
Shazam is now available on the Mac, landing in the Mac App Store as menu bar app. Announced today, the new utility identifies music and TV playing in your surrounding environment, notifying you when it has made a match. When a title is identified, the app allows you view the details about the title as well as purchase it from iTunes if it is a song. There's also a history of identified content if you want to remember a title that was recognized from last week. If privacy is a concern, the app's listening feature can be toggled on or off as needed. It also can be configured to run at startup if you don't mind the "always listening" aspect of the app. The new Shazam for Mac is available for free from the Mac App Store. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments.
Ember for Mac gains 'hugely-requested' screen recording feature
Popular web clipper and digital scrapbooking app Ember was updated today with a killer new feature -- the ability to make a video recording of your screen. No longer limited by only static images, Ember now allows you to capture your screen as you demo webpages, click through a presentation or showcase an app. The new scree recording feature in Ember version 1.8 allows you to capture more than just a static screen shot. You can now select a small section of your desktop or the entire screen (command-a in screen recording mode) and record in 60fps video. The recordings are saved in the Ember app and are treated just like any other Ember capture The video also can be synced between your iOS and OS X devices, shared with your friends or exported as a .MOV file that can be stored on your Mac The latest version of Ember with screen recording is available now in the Mac App Store for US$49.99.
PrintWorks for Mac is a one-stop publishing machine
In the days before OS X, Macs were a favorite for desktop publishing. There were a variety of applications that would let you design everything from flyers to holiday cards, from calendars to letterheads. Those solutions have pretty much been replaced by templates in Microsoft Office and some much better designed templates in Apple's iWork suite. Still, there seems to be a need for more flexibility and a dedicated application for desktop publishing. So here's a nice one, called PrintWorks (US$29.99) that debuts today in the Mac App Store. It has a barrel full of more than 400 templates, and more than a thousand clip-art images and useful symbols. Unlike a lot of templates, these are skillfully designed and very appealing to the eye. The clip art is also tasteful, and in my experience most clip art is pretty worthless. The templates are easily modified without losing the look and feel of the design unless, of course, you want to. The app supports column views and easy text flow, circular text, internal photo editing with 80 included filters, mail merge, links to your contacts for letterheads and business cards, support for labels and cards from Avery, Neato, Memorex and others, as well as support for direct-to-disc printers. I tried building a newsletter using a supplied template and then designed another one from scratch. I found the process intuitive and the results looked good, especially when I started with a template and modified it rather than beginning with a blank page. PrintWorks supports layers, making it easy to move things around or change any element on your design. Stationary and business cards are easy because you can grab information from your contacts list for insertion into the templates. When you are finished designing, your work can be exported as a TIFF, JPEG, EPS or PDF file. Similar apps worth a look are PrintMaster Platinum from Broderbund Software at $39.99 and iStudio Publisher for $29.99. PrintWorks is a quick and easy desktop publishing solution. It's geared more for people who just want to use or modify the supplied templates. It doesn't have any significant advantages over Apple's Pages if you are just going to start fresh with a blank page and don't need the extensive artwork PrintWorks supplies you with. The $29.99 price tag is a bit high for the casual user, but if you need to create a lot of flyers, posters, newsletters, business cards, etc., then this app is worth a look. There is extensive help built into the app along with video tutorials. PrintWorks requires OS X 10.6.6 or later and a 64-bit processor.
OS X Yosemite Design: The good and the bad
Designer and Pixelapse co-founder Lo Min Ming took a magnifying glass to the design of OS X Yosemite and teased out those UI elements that have changed significantly, both for better and for worse, in Apple's next-generation desktop OS. As discussed by Ming, some of the best changes in OS X are the cleaner login screen, a sharper menu bar and a fresh set of default app icons, which we have already highlighted. There's also a roomier sidebar with a 2 pixel buffer that is more pleasing to the eye. While there are many refinements, Apple did stumble in a few areas, most notably with the new folder icons, which now "appear far too bright and demand too much attention," writes Ming. He also noticed that there are three different sets of forward and back buttons, suggesting Apple is still tweaking this part of the UI. You can read more about OS X and its design details over at the Pixelapse blog.
Hemingway text editor comes to the Mac with Markdown support
Hemingway started off as a web-based a text editor that offers corrections on your writing as you type. The app focuses on basic grammar, such as adverb use, passive voice, long sentences and more. Hemingway recently transitioned its app to the desktop, offering versions for the Mac and Windows that allow you to bring your writing and editing offline. Unlike the web version, the desktop version offers support for saving and opening files, allowing you to use Hemingway as both your writing app as well as your editor. Hemingway has a distraction-free writing mode that allows you to focus on your writing and a separate editing mode that highlights mistakes and offers suggestions for improvements using the same color-coded editing that is available online. Two buttons allow you to quickly switch between each mode. The app summarizes all its suggested improvements as well as provides details on your document such as word count and paragraph count. It also scores your writing on a reading level, helping you keep your sentences at a level that is understandable to most readers. The desktop version of Hemingway also supports markdown, allowing you write in the markup language and preview it within the app. When you are done, Hemingway will export the HTML so you can use it in your favorite CMS. Hemingway was created by Adam Long and Ben Long. You can use the web version for free, while the desktop version is available for US$4.99. You can find out more about Hemingway and purchase a copy here.
Apple reportedly releasing OS X Yosemite in October alongside 4K desktop and 12-inch Retina MacBook
Well, this is a timely rumor: Today is the day Apple opens up OS X Yosemite for public beta-testing, and now we're hearing the final version of the OS will come out in late October. The report comes from Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac, who has a strong track record when it comes to Apple rumors, and he claims that in addition to OS X, Apple will release a 12-inch Retina display MacBook, and either an iMac or a standalone monitor with a 4K screen. Obviously, Apple could do a 180 and release the same old computers with minor spec bumps, but if you ask us, everything Gurman is reporting seems plausible. First of all, Apple already promised it would release a final version of OS X sometime in the fall, and surely it plans to do that before the holiday shopping season starts up in November.
Mac 101: Use Spotlight to quickly solve math problems
OS X's search tool, Spotlight, does more than just file and web searches. The handy utility also can be used to do semi-complex math equations with the answers appearing within the results section of the app. To use Spotlight for math, just open the utility by selecting the magnifying glass icon on the right side of the menu bar or typing Command-Space on the keyboard. Type in your equation using the standard math symbols (+, -, *, /) and brackets. Spotlight automatically produces the answer in the results section, and you can easily copy it using Command-C. Spotlight supports constants like pi (type in pi) and advanced math functions such as square root (type sqrt), sine (sin), cosine (cos) and tangent (tan). If you use a function, you must type the function name and follow that with the number inside parentheses. For example, the square root of 49 would be entered as sqrt(49). If you need more than Spotlight's basic math, you also can hit enter after you type in your equation to launch the calculator. If you have any other Spotlight tips, please share them in the comments.
Apple opening its OS X Yosemite Beta Program to consumers on July 24
Apple confirmed it is opening up its OS X Beta Program to the public starting tomorrow -- Thursday, July, 23. Mac owners can sign up for the beta program on Apple's website using their Apple ID and will receive a Mac App Store promo code to download a beta version of OS X. Consumers must be have Mac running OS X Mavericks to be eligible for the program. Apple announced OS X 10.10 Yosemite at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, held in June of this year. The new version of OS X includes notable upgrades to Safari, Mail, Messages, Notification Center and the addition of iCloud Drive. Other features like Continuity and Handoff link OS X more closely to iOS 8 and are not fully supported in the beta program. If you haven't already registered, you better do so fast as the beta program is only available to the first one million consumers who sign up.
Apple's public beta for OS X Yosemite begins tomorrow
The Apple we know is run by a bunch of perfectionists. The company only shows off final devices at its launch events, and developers are strictly forbidden from sharing screenshots of upcoming iOS releases. This is a company that doesn't usually bother with sneak peeks. Or do they? Apple announced a few months ago that it would carry out a public beta-testing program for OS X Yosemite, its next-gen Mac operating system, allowing regular people to give feedback before it eventually gets a wide release. Now, the testing period is finally about to begin: Apple says that beta users will be able to download an early version of the OS starting tomorrow at around 1PM Eastern. If you've already signed up to join the beta program, you don't need to do anything; you'll get a notification tomorrow when the OS is ready to download. If you haven't gotten around to it yet, though, we suggest you get on that ASAP: Only one million people are allowed to participate in this early-stage testing, which means slowpokes might not get a chance. Update: Our preview of OS X Yosemite is already up, even before the public beta period begins. Read it here!
OS X Yosemite preview: the Mac gets a major makeover
The last time Apple released a new version of OS X, we came away feeling a little... underwhelmed. Don't get us wrong: We'll never say no to a free software upgrade. But despite a handful of new apps and features, last year's Mavericks release still felt like the same old OS X. You can't say that about Yosemite, though. The company's next-gen operating system ushers in the Mac's biggest makeover in years, with a flat, streamlined look inspired by iOS 7. Yosemite works more like iOS too, particularly the part where you can route phone calls to your desktop. You'll also enjoy improved Spotlight search, with results that include news, local restaurant listings, Wikipedia pages, movie times and quick unit conversions. Safari works much the same way, and includes some enhanced privacy settings, too. Right now, Yosemite isn't quite finished -- it won't arrive until sometime this fall -- but you can sign up for the public beta, which will open tomorrow for the first million people who enlist. In the meantime, I've been using an early build for a week now. Here's a quick preview for those of you who can't wait till tomorrow.
OS X Yosemite beta adoption rate almost 4X that of Mavericks
The excitement in the air at Moscone Center West for the Apple World Wide Developer conference keynote was palpable, especially when Apple's Craig Federighi began demoing OS X 10.10 Yosemite. The new OS offers much tighter integration than ever before with Apple's other devices, and the user interface changes are stunning. Well, developers apparently have a lot of interest in Yosemite, as research firm Chitika is reporting that the beta versions are being adopted by developers at a rate almost four times that of OS X Mavericks. Now, neither of the operating systems really gathered all that much usage during testing -- at 30 days past the release of the initial beta, OS X Yosemite is only generating 0.20 percent of North American OS X web traffic. But that's four times the rate of OS X 10.9 Mavericks 30 days after initial beta release. As Chitika points out, "users of the now nine-year old OS X Tiger still generate more Web traffic than Yosemite users." In other news, Chitika figures now show that OS X Mavericks is at the top of the OS X usage heap, generating a whopping 45.7 percent of all North American OS X web traffic, followed by OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (17.5 percent) and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (17.1 percent). You can see how your favorite legacy OS X version fared in the pie chart following this post. Chitika's final word on the subject? "...with the increased level of developer activity thus far, along with the success of the similarly no cost OS X Mavericks, it's very probable that OS X Yosemite adoption will outpace that of any other previous Mac desktop OS when it is released publicly later this year."
Mac 101: Use zoom to magnify an item on your Mac
OS X ships with a variety of accessibility options designed to help those with sight and hearing loss use a Mac more effectively. In many cases, these features often extend beyond their intended assistive function and are useful to anyone using OS X. One such example is a handy zoom setting allows you to magnify a part of your screen using only keyboard shortcuts and your trackpad. It's extremely useful if you want to examine a photo or some other visual element without opening a dedicated photo editing app. Follow the steps below to enable the Zoom function and use it while your work of play on your Mac. Enable Zoom in OS X Select Apple menu > System Preferences, click to open the Accessibility panel, and then click Zoom in the panel on the left. Enable either of the following options: To zoom with keyboard shortcuts, select "Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom." To zoom with your mouse or trackpad, select "Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom." Decide where the magnified content appears with the Zoom Style pop-up menu. You can display the magnified content in a window near the mouse cursor by selecting the Picture-in-picture option. You also can display it on the entire screen by selecting Fullscreen. I prefer the first PIP option as that allows you to zoom in on a small section while still viewing the entire screen. To set options for zoom or the zoom window, click More Options as described on Apple's support site to change magnification, window position and other settings. Alternatively, you also can turn on zooming quickly by pressing Command (⌘)-Option (⌥)-F5. This opens an accessibility panel that allows you to enable or disable the Zoom options. Using Zoom in OS X Depending on how you configured the Zoom options, you can either use the keyboard shortcuts or the trackpad to zoom. To use the keyboard shortcuts, press Command (⌘)-Option (⌥)-Equal Sign (=) to zoom in and Command (⌘)-Option (⌥)-Minus Sign (-) to zoom out. To use your trackpad, hold down the modifier key you specified (Control is selected by default) while you use your trackpad to scroll. If you selected Picture-in-picture zooming, a window appears near the mouse cursor with the magnified image. If you chose the Fullscreen zooming, the entire screen displays the magnified image.
