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Trove vows to become 'the ultimate sandvox'
Trove Game Director Andrew Krausnick isn't above making grand statements, saying in his 2015 preview letter that he wants the title to become the ultimate sandvox. "Modest, right?" he begins. "Simply put, if there's something fun to do with voxels in an MMO adventure setting, we're going to be there and we're going to be the best." With that out of the way, Krausnick goes on to outline some of the big goals for the coming year. He said that the team is working to add gliding, sky islands, rune crafting, water islands, fishing, swimming, more block types, more mechanics, and definitely more classes. Another big focus Krausnick mentions is to expand the economy: "We also think it should be easy and rewarding for everyone to trade and participate in the economy, so we'll be creating a system this year to make the trade channel simply a small part of a larger economic system!" He finished his letter by saying that the open beta test will be ending "sooner rather than later," indicating an early 2015 launch.
Sandvox SkySaga hits alpha in the UK
Sandvox SkySaga has officially entered alpha, says developer Smilegate. The team announced the start of the testing phase over social media yesterday and today: Great news! We've just started up the Alpha servers (UK only still, I'm afraid), and from now on they'll be running 24/7 (with the exception of maintenance periods!). You read that right: The alpha's open only to UK players right now, though we've had reports that there's no IP blocking just yet. Release is still set for next summer. The game is a voxel-based sandbox with the usual trapping: crafting, harvesting, combat, arena PvP, and an "evolving" online world shaped by the players themselves.
Players power direction of Oort Online's development
Oort Online's dev team is not content to make this voxel sandbox in the isolation of its ivory tower (or the corner of a deserted warehouse, whatever may be), but it has been asking for constant input from backers for the direction of the game's development. "As the game currently stands, the playable features are quite contained as we've been focusing on establishing the core MMO services and game engine," the devs posted. In a recent backer survey, 43% of those surveyed asked for the devs to prioritize the creation of character races out of the four options presented. In addition, the team said that some of the biggest priorities for a 1.0 release include resource gathering, crafting, and PvE combat. At the bottom of the list? "Real money purchases -- I want short cuts!" Oort Online is a "universe-sized" sandbox that's currently in alpha testing and has raised over $123,000 in crowdfunding. [Thanks to Jose for the tip!]
SkySaga videos encourage you to explore its world
We've got more to share today about SkySaga, that new sandvox that's trying to woo the Minecraft crowd. Radiant Worlds has released a new pair of videos this week that show off the game's playful and exploratory nature. In the videos, you'll follow a trio of adventurers around as they navigate the various biomes of the world and get into nasty scraps with mean foes. Of course, the biggest mystery here might be, "Where are their arms and legs?" See it all after the break!
SkySaga bringing a colorful sandvox to you next summer
Happy Monday! We even got you a gift: the reveal of a new procedurally generated sandbox called SkySaga. You don't have to feel as if you need to get us anything in return, however. Radiant Worlds announced last week that it has started work on an "evolving" online world called SkySaga. The team promises that the story and land of SkySaga will be shaped by the heroes during their journeys. It will contain a lot of the sandbox staples, including voxel terrain, harvesting, and crafting. The game will also include PvP battle arenas. Currently, the plan for SkySaga is to begin closed alpha testing in the UK "very soon" and release sometime next summer. We've got an early gameplay video for you to check out after the break. [Source: Radiant Worlds press release]
Oort Online strives to create a 'universe-sized' sandbox
Why should your sandbox MMO be confined to one measly world? That's the premise of Oort Online, an upcoming sandbox title that involves several worlds that can be explored, conquered, and molded by players. In this voxel-based game, players will exist on the same server and can choose to fight a nasty galaxy-spanning race called the Protectors or carve out a slice of land on which to build a masterpiece. "We think fans of procedural games are going to love Oort Online! We're making a universe-sized sandbox and giving players control over what happens," developer Wonderstruck said. Oort Online has been in development for six months and is available right now as an early access prototype for funders who spend $95 or more. The crowdfunded project also has cheaper tiers for alpha and beta access and promises a package of goodies (including a chance to win instant access) for those who send out a tweet promoting the game. Get a sneak peek of Oort Online in a dev video after the break!
The Trove Diaries: Exploring the wild, wild... peaceful forest?
In a recent Trove patch, the team added in a new chest at the central world hub for players to toss in gear to share with others. A community chest. Other than making me think about Monopoly for a minute, it gave me one of those brief, warm feelings that this game tends to do on a regular basis. It's a small thing but a good thing. Trove has a lot of that. So welcome to the Trove Diaries, a chronicle of my sporadic adventures through this developing quirky title from Trion Worlds! Let me bring you up to speed: Trove was a side project at Trion that got the internal greenlight to be developed into a full-fledged MMO. However, the team's taken a cue from recent crowdfunding projects by offering fans the opportunity to buy into the game and see first-hand how it's being developed on a daily basis. Trove is a strange combination of building and destroying that bucks the typical MMO trend while creating something that it light, breezy, and quite frankly fun.
TUAW and MacTech interview: Karelia Software
Karelia Software makes an excellent iWeb alternative called Sandvox (we reviewed version 2.0 here). In this video, Neil Ticktin (Editor-in-Chief, MacTech Magazine) interviews Dan Wood of Karelia Software at WWDC 2012. Dan was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward.
Sandvox adds iWeb migration assistant to scrape your iWeb/MobileMe site
The June 30 sunset date for MobileMe is only a few short weeks away. If your website is built with iWeb and hosted on MobileMe, there's no time like the present to get it shifted over to more permanent hosting. To better serve iWeb users looking to move their existing sites into Sandvox, Karelia has introduced a new migration assistant in its version 2.6 update. This tool allows you to enter the URL for an iWeb-based site, and then it scans for key text and image elements as well as links and page structure. It's a make-do solution that works around the need to parse and process iWeb's proprietary project files. Instead of reverse-engineering Apple's format, Sandvox scrapes your site to recover key website content. It then provides a rough outline that you can then customize inside the app. The transfer is not perfect. You will need to inspect and correct fine details like page names, on occasion. But by preserving your content and site structure, you won't have to copy and paste those years of blog posts, or re-create those photo albums that you worked so hard on. A company spokesperson explained to TUAW that while they couldn't offer a native import feature, they wanted to reach out to iWeb users and offer the simplest possible transfer solution -- imperfect as it is -- so users could quickly get up to speed with Sandvox sites. Of course, the iWeb application itself will still keep working past June 30; if your site isn't hosted on MobileMe, it's not at risk right now. The new assistant is due to go live in the Mac App Store today, and is a free upgrade for existing purchasers.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me move on from iWeb and MobileMe
Dear Aunt TUAW, With the demise of MobileMe and [the corresponding decreased functionality of] iWeb the question has come up with myself and friends as to what to use instead. Looking for something along the lines of iWeb but with a bit more flexibility. Something like Adobe DreamWeaver is way too complex and I'd like to avoid web based applications that restrict you to their hosting services. I'd like to be able to simply build a web site and upload to my own host provider. Your loving nephew, Richard Dear Richard, Auntie took a look around at possible replacements. She feels comfortable recommending Karelia Software's Sandvox 2 as a well-rounded iWeb replacement. It offers great easy-to-use features that impressed Auntie, whose iWeb use was admittedly scattershot at best. It's not cheap -- US$80 -- but after some intensive hands-on testing, Auntie feels it's perfect for people looking for a simple, flexible, and friendly solution with lots of handy webpage designs. In Sandvox you'll find easy ways to create photo albums, blog posts, web pages and more -- most of what you'll be missing. And the interface will feel familiar and comfortable to anyone who has used iWeb, with the app's "what you see is what you get" live editing. "We've been taking care of people graduating from iWeb for years," a Sandvox spokesperson told TUAW. "We think people making the move should jump over sooner rather than later now." Karelia publishes a handy migration guide, too. You will, however, have to find your own website hosting plan, but Sandvox makes that easy too. You can select a remote provider and use FTP/SFTP/WebDav with an easy built-in "Publish" button. Uncle Steve covered some hosting options for the post-iWeb era here. Other quick and easy website design options recommended by far-flung members of the the TUAW clan include RapidWeaver, Freeway Express AS and Flux. Uncle Steve also pointed out that if you want to have the control of hosting your own site but still want the convenience and sophistication of a full content management system, you can install your own WordPress setup... but that may be more geek aggravation than you signed up for. Hugs, Auntie T.
Sandvox for Mac updated with slide shows and more Lion features
With iWeb slowly fading into obscurity, Mac users who want to generate websites without a lot of trouble have been turning to apps such as Sandvox. The app was updated today to version 2.5, which is free for users version 2.0 and up. Prominently featured is a slideshow object that lets users drag a collection of photos to the app, with options for timing, transitions and caption control adjustable in the Object inspector. The traditional Photo Grid now supports displayed captions derived from page contents. The app also has added a reworked publishing engine and better compatibility for .mkv files and Quick Look support. Several Lion-friendly features have been added, including including Resume, Autosave, Versions and Fullscreen mode. Sandvox is not as easy to use as iWeb, but it trades a bit of complexity for far more power and control over the features of your website. It ships with several templates that make site creation fast and easy, or you can modify those templates to fit your needs. Sandvox is available in the app store for US $79.99 or directly from Karelia Software.
Sandvox hits Mac App Store, on sale for limited time
We reviewed Sandvox earlier this year, the handy WYSIWYG web editor from Karelia Software. Those looking for very Mac-friendly web design software that requires no coding (or even an iWeb replacement) ought to consider Sandvox. The time is right, too, as version 2.1.10 is in the Mac App Store at a special price (aren't holiday sales great?). Typically priced at US$67, you can now grab a copy of the latest version for $49. Version 2.1.10 offers a few new features, like a new Blueprint design and a revamped SFTP publishing system which includes WebDAV subsystems. In our review, we pointed out the Objects Menu (introduced with version 2.0) which lets you add all manner of useful objects to your site, like a text box, raw HTML, Flickr thumbnails, Twitter tools, IM status, RSS tools and more. Again, no coding is required and the results look great. Consider a purchase if you're looking for a Mac-friendly web editor at a bargain price.
Sandvox updated for Lion; Karelia wants to lure iWeb orphans
If the impending loss of MobileMe has you wondering how you will maintain and create websites, Sandvox is worth a look. It's more powerful than iWeb, but still easy enough for most beginners. We took a look at Sandvox in May, and now the folks at Karelia are offering a pretty painless path to switch. iWeb users can get 25% off the US $77.00 toll through the end of this month. Just use the coupon code 'iWeb Graduate' when you purchase. Karelia also offers clear advice on how to transfer from iWeb to Sandvox. Of course with MobileMe going away, you're going to need a new place to host that site, and there are a lot of good alternatives that Steve Sande wrote about last month. There's more good news from Sandvox today. An update just released (version 2.1) is Lion ready, has some speed increases, and a boatload of fixes and enhancements. You can get details on the latest version here. iWeb isn't dead of course, but with MobileMe going away next year, there's no telling how long the application will be around.
Ten ways to replace iWeb and MobileMe hosting
Yesterday, we reported on a rumor that Apple's website creation software, iWeb, is about a year away from obsolescence, along with MobileMe's hosting of iWeb sites. An iWeb user allegedly sent Apple CEO Steve Jobs an email asking if he should start looking for another website builder and a new host, and Jobs provided one of his patented terse replies: "Yep." In my post about this, I mentioned some alternatives that TUAW readers might want to look at. Here I'm going to take a more detailed look at several easy website creation tools and hosting alternatives, so that you can start making your plans to move away from iWeb and MobileMe. I will not be covering professional web design tools in this post, as iWeb is designed for easy creation of sites. Instead, all of the suggestions I'll make here are aimed at the folks who just want to create a relatively good-looking website quickly, without a lot of training. iWeb hosting via FTP If you want to keep using iWeb for a while but would like to move your iWeb site away from MobileMe hosting, then get yourself a domain name, get a web host, and start publishing via FTP. iWeb 3 made it possible to publish your website on a traditional web host. You set up the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) settings in iWeb's site publishing settings, and pressing the Publish Site button takes care of uploading graphics, text, and any changed pages to the host. Just about every major and minor web hosting provider supports FTP. Note that some of the standard iWeb features, including password protection, blog and photo comments, blog search and the hit counter don't work when you use FTP for publishing. The great thing about this solution is that you can just change the host for your website, point iWeb to the new host, and publish your same old site to the new location. Not much is lost in translation, and you won't need to go through a lot of redesign work. Unfortunately, iWeb probably won't be supported in the future and may eventually stop working with future releases of Mac OS X. The other negative? You'll need to pay for web hosting from one of the many hosting providers. You can also use your own Mac as a web server (no matter how old), but that's the subject of another post... iWeb hosting on Dropbox If you have a lightly-used iWeb site and don't feel like spending money on web hosting, consider getting a free Dropbox account and hosting your iWeb site there. I wrote some instructions on how to use Dropbox as your iWeb host a while back, so check them out. Advantages? You can continue using iWeb for a while longer. Disadvantages? Dropbox isn't designed for large-traffic web hosting, and might shut you down if your site is wildly popular. Likewise, if you have a huge and complex iWeb site with a lot of photos, you might go over the free 2 GB free storage limit and have to start paying for web hosting. Facebook Do you just want to have a "site" where you can post pictures and videos, let your friends know what you're doing, and get comments on your content? Then you may just want to move over to Facebook. It's free, and most of your friends and relatives are probably already using it. Facebook is fine for the new material you create, but how do you move your old posts to the land of Zuckerberg? It's probably not going to work very well. I can envision some sort of long session involving copying and pasting text to Facebook, but with the constantly changing wall of content on Facebook, your old content is going to be wiped off the wall fairly soon. If you have a lot of your iPhoto pics on your iWeb site, then you're in luck. Just open up iPhoto, put all of those iPhoto pics into an album, and then use Share > Facebook to move the photos into a Facebook album. What if you're looking for a more personal and unique site? That's where my next suggestions come in. WordPress / WordPress.com When I want to put a website or blog together quickly, I use WordPress. This blogging tool (content management system) has been around for years, and it is wildly popular. Over 14% of the top 1 million websites were created in WordPress, and the most recent major release of WordPress had been downloaded over 32.5 million times by February of 2011. There's even a professional version, WordPress VIP, which our sister site TechCrunch uses as its underlying CMS. WordPress is not a Mac application; rather, it is an AMP (Apache / MySQL / PHP) application that runs on a server (or on your Mac). You log into a dashboard from your favorite web browser, add content, change the look and feel of the site with themes and plugins, and then publish your changes. There's no need, as in iWeb, to make changes locally and then wait for your modifications to be uploaded to a server. For beginning WordPress bloggers, I recommend a free WordPress.com account. It's a great way to learn how WordPress works, all your content can be migrated to another WordPress host at a later date if necessary, and the fairly new step-by-step tutorials are an incredible way to learn all about this powerful content management system. If you decide to head out on your own, most major web hosting providers have one-click installers for WordPress. In other words, you sign up for a hosting plan, then say that you want WordPress installed. A few minutes later, you get an email from your WordPress site saying that you need to log in and create an administrative account. Do that, and you're on your way to blogging superstardom. Among the hosting providers that provide one-click installations of WordPress are Bluehost, DreamHost, MediaTemple, and GoDaddy. Note that you're going to have to pay for a hosting plan, so maybe the $99 you'll be saving every year by not renewing MobileMe will pay for your web hosting. WordPress is remarkably powerful, and a vast developer community is constantly creating new plugins to add functionality to the tool and designing new themes to make pages that are unique and beautiful. If you can't find a theme to your liking, there's always Artisteer, an app that you can use to easily create your own custom theme. iWeb users who might have set up a small shop using something like Google Checkout or PayPal buttons can actually get a real web commerce site going with WordPress. There are several plugins now available for WordPress that integrate with shopping cart services like FoxyCart. Finally, WordPress is an excellent way to get familiar with most content management systems. For anyone who has aspirations to become a professional blogger, starting with WordPress can get you familiar with the tools and workflow that you'll need to move on up the ladder. Tumblr Want a very easy to use and free way to host a website? Tumblr's a good start. You can sign up for free in minutes and be posting immediately after that. There's a selection of Tumblr themes -- none of which I found to my liking -- that you can choose from, and all you need to do to post is have a web browser or use an iOS app like Tumblr (Free) or QuickTumblr ($2.99, for iPad). As you can see from the Tumblr dashboard screenshot above, once you've logged into your account you have a choice of what you can post. Each one of these buttons leads to a data entry page that you can use to post a specific type of content. On Tumblr, you can create some social engagement by choosing other tumblelogs to follow, or by liking/favoriting posts which you can quote or reblog on your own site. Tumblr's bookmarklet and email posting tools are pretty snazzy, and they make it easy to clip and share popular links or videos. You can call in posts from your cellphone, if you like blogging in audio format. We even have a TUAW Tumblr for material that might not be suitable for the main site. I personally don't like the vibe or feel of Tumblr, which is why I use the next tool for some personal posting. Posterous The only thing you need to start a Posterous blog is an email account. Why? Because you can actually do a lot of your posting by just sending emails to a special Posterous address. You can also use the web-based editor with Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or any other modern web browser to update your information. Posterous is completely free, and there's also a free iPhone app for posting on the run. I've been using Posterous on and off for three years for my personal blog, and I really like it. There are some great themes -- the current one I'm using uses a grid of fifteen photos to show the last fifteen posts, and it works very well on an iPad. Speaking of the iPad, I recently found out that I can use the handy Writing Kit app ($4.99) to write posts in Markdown and then email 'em to Posterous for publishing. It also has some of the same posting options as Tumblr, and it offers a Groups feature for collaboration & sharing among friends or family. [Since it's graduation season, don't miss the Posterous "instant collaborative photo album" trick, which leverages the geolocation features of the Posterous iPhone app to cluster pictures around an event. So slick. –Ed.] As far as I'm concerned, Posterous is the best for free hosting of personal websites. It's incredibly flexible, drop-dead simple to use (I mean, how hard is it to send an email?), it has links to and from the social networking world, offers great looking themes, supports your own private domain names, and never seems to have any downtime. However, for small business sites, which are one of the other main uses for iWeb and MobileMe hosting, it's really not appropriate. Squarespace Businesses looking for a way to make beautiful sites with associated hosting should take a peek at Squarespace. This is a combination of a typographically-friendly web-based design tool and hosting that produces some great-looking sites. As with MobileMe hosting, you can have Squarespace host your own domain, and the hosting prices are relatively low -- $144 to $432 per year depending on how popular your site is, how many editors you want, and how many big business features you need. As with WordPress, Squarespace is easily integrated with shopping cart services. And when you see small business sites like this or this, you can see how professional and compelling Squarespace websites can be. Drupal / Drupal Gardens WordPress probably powers more websites and blogs than any other content management system, but Drupal is another hugely popular tool. It's an open source system like WordPress, meaning that the software is written and supported by a community, and the base files are free for the copying. Drupal powers the websites for The Economist, Examiner.com, and even the White House, so you can see that it's a professional system. For those who are making the move from iWeb and MobileMe hosting, Drupal Gardens might be a good place to start. It's a hosted system similar to WordPress.com and offers a lot of the power of Drupal 7. It's free for low-bandwidth use, with paid subscriptions for more users, more traffic, and support. Drupal sites can be extremely idiosyncratic in style, and the content management system has built-in features like forums, polls, galleries, and more. The free account is a great way to get your feet wet in the ocean of Drupal, and you can then either move to a paid subscription or put a Drupal installation on another host and move your content. RapidWeaver I've talked a lot about web-based blogging tools here, but what about easy Mac-based website tools? RapidWeaver ($59.99) from Realmac Software is a favorite of a lot of Mac users. In many ways, RapidWeaver is similar to iWeb. You create a site using a template, add pages, drop in addons (like widgets in iWeb), and then publish your site. While you're working on your content, you can toggle between an editing mode and a view of the site as it will look when it's published -- that's helpful for making sure that there are no surprises when the publish button is pushed. If you use RapidWeaver, you'll need to have a web hosting provider. The app supports FTP publishing, so just about any web hosting provider will be able to accommodate your site. Realmac has a store for RapidWeaver themes, plug-ins, and another feature called Stacks. Themes define the look and feel of the site, plug-ins provide extended capabilities like forms or ecommerce, and stacks are another way of including features that are not built into the basic app. There's a free trial available from RealMac before you buy RapidWeaver from the Mac App Store or direct from the company. Sandvox Another venerable web creation app for Mac is Sandvox 2 ($77) from Karelia Software. For a website creation and publishing experience that is close to that of iWeb, but with a lot more features and flexibility, Sandvox is probably the way to go. Even the user interface for Sandvox looks a lot like iWeb. As with both iWeb and RapidWeaver, there are a variety of themes included, many of which come in more than one choice of color. Unlike with iWeb, you can edit the raw HTML of your website and even run it through the W3C Markup Validation Service from within the app. Sandvox includes a long list of objects (essentially the same as iWeb widgets or RapidWeaver plug-ins). Things like Amazon lists (for use with an Amazon Associates account), a built-in Facebook "Like" button, Flickr thumbnails, or a built-in Twitter feed are easy to drag right into a Sandvox page. Once again, you'll need to get web hosting from any of the many providers out there. Sandvox supports publishing not only through FTP and SFTP, but WebDAV as well. You can download the app for a free trial and see if Sandvox is for you. Conclusion These are just ten of the possible web creation and hosting solutions that iWeb users have available to them. If you're currently hosting an iWeb site on MobileMe, it's a perfect time to start thinking about what you'll do in the post-MobileMe world. Whether you choose to continue using iWeb for a while and just host your site elsewhere, or decide to go with another tool or a web-based content management system, there's no better time to begin planning your website redesign or move. Keep in mind, though, before you tear up every bit of your carefully crafted iWeb workflow: it is still June of 2011, and there will be a full year before the MobileMe servers go dark in June of 2012. It's likely that we'll be hearing something more from Apple with regard to iWeb site migration around the time of the iCloud launch later this year. After all, as Fortune points out, this isn't the first time that an Apple web publishing tool has been kicked to the curb -- .Mac HomePage got the boot in July of 2009. I did not include professional-level tools like Adobe Dreamweaver in this list, since we wanted to show tools that anyone who is well-versed in the use of iWeb could easily use. If you favor other easy-to-use web creation and publishing tools, let us know in the comments.
Sandvox 2 features major overhaul, Objects Menu, more
Sandvox by Kareila Software will celebrate its fifth birthday this year. The festivities begin with Sandvox 2.0, a major update to the WYSIWYG Web editor for the Mac. With more than 5 dozen new or improved features, such as the super-handy Objects Menu and full HTML5 compliance, Sandvox 2 is ready for weekend Web warriors and small business owners alike. Here's my look at Sandvox 2. UI Web editors like Sandvox are meant for those who wish to create websites without touching HTML. That's a large number of users, like new parents, baseball coaches and small business owners. The common thread among them is the need for simplicity. Fortunately, Sandvox 2 meets that need. The main UI window is familiar to anyone who's used iTunes, Pages or iWeb. On the left-hand side you'll find thumbnails of pages. On the right is the page you're currently working on. A customizable toolbar allows easy access to your favorite functions. Working on a page, be it a blog, gallery, form, etc. is as easy as editing text. Simply type (or paste rich text) and Sandvox handles the code for you. Adding interesting elements -- what Kareila calls Objects -- is also a breeze, as this article will point out later. Also, an inspector lets you fine-tune page elements. Adding YouTube videos, Amazon product links and more is drag-and-drop easy. As for looks, Sandvox 2 ships with about 60 themes, while third-party theme developers extend the options even further. In short, Sandvox 2 looks good, and the UI is simple enough for its intended audience.
After iLife '11: Alternatives to iDVD and iWeb
Over the weekend TUAW is going to be featuring in-depth reviews of the new iLife '11 suite -- or at least the three apps that were updated. As most of you know by now, iWeb and iDVD didn't receive an update at all. In light of that, we've compiled a list of several alternatives to iDVD and iWeb that you may want to try out. From a purely consumer standpoint, I don't think any of these apps offer the ease of use that Apple has so successfully built into iWeb and iDVD, but given that iDVD seems all but abandoned -- as should the MacBook optical drive be -- and the future is uncertain for iWeb, it's always nice to know you have some alternatives. iDVD alternatives: SmallDVD SmallDVD is a simple utility that lets you take any video files and add them to a DVD image ISO which can then be burned onto a DVD using Disc Utility. SmallDVD doesn't have many features, but it will appeal to those of you who want to create very simple DVDs with static background menus. It also has the added benefit of only creating the ISO file which can then be shared to DropBox or iDisk, and then downloaded and viewed on another computer using only the ISO -- no optical drive needed. SmallDVD is a free download.
Last day for Bodega half-off sales on Mac apps
Update: If it wasn't clear originally -- you have to download the Bodega client first, and purchase the apps through its store. Some readers were confused by the link to the 1Password site, which was for illustration purposes only -- the discount on the Mac client is specific to Bodega. Today's the last day to grab some deals from Bodega. The would-be app store for Mac OS X software is offering a 50 percent discount on the following applications through the end of the day: 1Password ($19.97) Sandvox ($28.50) Cockpit ($12.49) MoneyWell ($24.99) Clean My Mac ($14.97) Brush Pilot ($7.50) Mac DVDRIpper Pro ($4.97) My Living Desktop ($17.47) This is a great deal on some really awesome software for your Mac. A good many of us love 1Password, and Sandvox is a great WYSIWYG web editor that's won an Apple Design Award. To take advantage of the sale, you need to purchase the software through Bodega, which is a free download.
Jumsoft expands free Goodies with new Keynote, Numbers, and Sandvox content
After spending your hard-earned money on new iPads, iPhones, and other great hardware from Apple, wouldn't it be nice to get something of value for free? That's the concept behind Jumsoft's Goodies, which include art and templates for a number of Mac applications. The Lithuania-based developer has recently expanded the Goodies bundle with five Web site designs for Karelia Software's Sandvox application, a set of 500 photos and images to use in Keynote presentations, and nine templates for Numbers. The Sandvox templates each include ten different page types, everything from a simple rich text page to a detailed site map. Numbers users get nine templates ranging from a dinner planner to a media advertising analyzer, while fans of Keynote will be pleased with 500 textured background photos and still-life images. Those photos and images are also useful in Pages, PowerPoint, or any other situation where professional illustrations are required. You can download the new Goodies and check out the older ones here. Free stuff is always appreciated -- what are your favorite places to get legal free software, templates, and images? Let us know in the comments.
WWDC Live: Dan Wood, Karelia Software
One of the first developers I got a chance to sit down with at WWDC was Dan Wood of Karelia Software, makers of the website-building app, Sandvox. I got his thoughts on the Keynote and the state of Mac software development. He's recently been blogging about marketing for developers and working to start a conversation about self-promotion in the Indy software community. Check out the interview after the jump, and be sure to check out the developer marketing tips offered at his blog.
Sandvox 1.5 is now available
Sandvox is the WYSIWYG web editor from Karelia that's won praises from users and the design community (including an Apple Design Award) alike. You can read our previous coverage here.This week, Karelia has released version 1.5, which offers a slew of changes. You can use Sandvox to publish to any webhost (including FTP, SFTP and MobileMe) or create a blog. The pro version lets you edit the HTML and both the pro and basic version include attractive templates that you'll actually want to use. Changes to version 1.5 include Major improvements to media processing, making it easier than ever to create and publish multimedia and media-intensive sites Improvements to all pagelets, including an enhanced Contact Form and a brand new YouTube pagelet Seven all-new designs, plus enhancements to other designs, bringing the total to 50 New blogging features, including a Collection Archives pagelet to better manage and display older entries, automatic navigation links between entries, and "continue reading" links to better manager longer entries There's much more, and you can read the full release notes here. As we said, Sandvox is a very nice tool for people who want to put up a page or site with no fuss. Sandvox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, is a Universal Binary and comes in both pro ($79US) and standard ($49US) versions. Version 1.5 is a free upgrade for registered users.
