Mars Edit 2
Red Sweater Software has released the highly anticipated Mars Edit 2. If you blog on a Mac, this is the app that you want to use. $29.95 for a new license, $9.95 for upgrades.
Category: Software
iWork ’08 Trial
As soon as the Apple Store got over its shyness, I placed my orders for iLife and iWork ’08. However, later in the day, Apple made the iWork ’08 suite available for download as a trial package. While the iWork ’06 suite was installed on all new Macs, it was never available as a trial download. What’s nice is that you can actually just buy the serial number from within iWork now. Nice. Had I known that, I wouldn’t have opted for the shipped package.
It’s nice to see Apple finally adopting the shareware approach to software distribution.
What’s even nicer is that the education price for the download is $49, while the price for the boxed version is $71. However, there is no download discount for the consumer version. Bummer
Bad day for Tables
As I said earlier this year, why would someone spend $54 on Tables, when iWork (a $79 package) was slated to get a kick-ass spreadsheet program (Numbers) in ’08.
Somewhere in Germany, Daniel Schwill is rethinking his pricing model.
Cyndicate 1.0
Just what the world needs – another RSS feed reader. Fans of the former PulpFiction product will be happy to know that is has been rebirthed as Cyndicate. I own licenses for Newsfire, and have used Vienna quite a bit, but I have to give Cyndicate props. It looks like a really slick feed reader. However, at $30, it’s competing directly against the big boy in town, NetNewsWire. You definitely can’t say that the Mac is lacking for newsreaders though, can you?
Category: Software
Safari for Windows thoughts…
Apple has been taking a beating from the bloggers about Safari for Windows over the last couple of days. The criticism ranges from a bunch of security vulnerabilities that have been found to something as basic as font-smoothing. The press, ever eager to capitalize on this, have already predicted that Safari for Windows will fail. (more…)
Panic releases Coda
Panic, the makers of Transmit, Unison and Candybar, have released a new application called Coda. Coda is a development environment primarily aimed at web developers. Coda is packed with features, including site management, FTP, code editing with code completion, CSS editing, collaborative editing, built in Terminal shell, and integrated reference materials. But even that exhaustive list doesn’t begin to describe the fit and finish that is present in this new application.
Let’s take a look at how Coda can handle your day to day development needs. (more…)
Category: Software
Leopard Officially Delayed Until October
Many had been suspecting that Leopard was falling behind schedule, and today, Apple officially announced that it has. From their website:
iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. (more…)
Billable gets the job done
If your line of work requires you to sit at a computer and create something for a client, you understand the need to accurately compile your time and generate invoices for your customer. There is no shortage of applications that tackle this task on the Mac. iBiz and iRatchet are just a few from the crowded field of contenders. Today, there’s a new app on the block, and it’s definitely worth a look.
Billable, from Clickable Bliss, is a time tracking, invoice creating application that handles the core tasks extremely well. Billable features an easy to learn and use interface. The workflow in Billable would likely proceed like this. You first setup your business’ information. Next, you setup your clients information. This process can be simplified if your clients are in your address book. Billable allows you to scan your address book and add clients from your address book library. (more…)
Adobe confirms it – no Universal Apps until next major release
You can file this under “we told you so”. Adobe has released a .PDF file (what – did you think they would start issuing press releases in Flash Paper format?) that details their plans for creating Universal Binary versions of their popular applications. The short of it – no Universal Binaries until each applications next major release. While Adobe doesn’t give timelines on it’s release schedules, it does point out that their product upgrades usually follow a 18-24 month cycle.
The caveat here is Lightroom. Adobe states in it’s release that they will be releasing a Universal Binary of their Lightroom application during the beta cycle. They cite the nature of the beta release that allows them to go Universal.
You can read the entire document for yourself here.
Category: Software
iWeb part of iLife ’06?
Every once in a while, every couple of Macworld’s, some web publisher at Apple or an affiliated partner accidentally leaks a bit of information regarding a product that is due to be released at the show. Remember the G5 specs that showed up on the Apple Store website the weekend before Jobs’ keynote? Or ATI bragging about the specs of their graphic card that was about to be released in a new Power Mac?
Well, it looks like someone at Apple has done it again. Earlier today on the Garageband website, a vague link/reference to “iWeb” appeared. The website was quickly updated and all references to iWeb were removed. However, the site was cached by Google and can be viewed here.
The announcement of iLife ’06 was about as sure a thing as you can get in an Apple keynote. Apple has used the San Francisco Macworld to announce iLife for the last two years, and before that, it was the launching pad for the individual applications themselves.
We’ll have to wait until Tuesday to find out more about iWeb, but seeing as it is part of the iLife suite, you can rest assured that it will be geared towards consumers and not serious, professional web developers. I had always thought that if Apple did a website building application, it would have been part of the iWork suite, not iLife. But it makes sense to have an application that will tie in to iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband to publish those applications media on the web.
Category: Software
