The Mac App Store is now up and running with more than 1,000 Macintosh applications. To view the Mac App Store you need to use Software Update to get Mac OS X 10.6.6. This adds a Mac App Store icon to the dock. You can also access the store form the Apple Menu.
The store looks similar to the iOS App Store in the iTunes application. You can browse and search for applications. The main page shows featured apps. Other pages show top charts and categories. You use your iTunes account to make purchases.
The launch features many familiar third-party applications like Evernote, BBEdit, Pixelmator, Stuffit Expander, and Transmit. The three iWork applications are also present, as well as iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand from iLife 11. You can buy each individually, which is a first for those applications. Prices for apps vary from $0.99 for some, to more standard software prices of $10, $20 or more. Some apps are available for free.
If you are in to the whole check-in craze, then you might want to check out the free app Instagram. This app lets you take a quick picture and then check in using Foursquare, Facebook and other systems all at once. I like how you can use filters on the photos to help make them more interesting.
If you use multiple screens like I do, one frustrating aspect is your menu bar and document window can sometimes be very far apart. The little free app MenuPop solves this issues by letting you choose any item from he menu bar without having to go to the menu bar. Just press a shortcut key and all of the menu commands appear at your current cursor location.
You can get a quick dictionary definition of any word in just about any Mac OS X in application. Just position your cursor over the word and press Control+Command+D. This handy little window appears with a definition and some controls. Click elsewhere to make it go away.
So the new Mac App Store lets you find, buy and download software online? Isn’ that how we did it before?
While 2010 was another record year for Apple in many ways, the company may have plans for 2011 to grow even larger. Apple news for the last week of any year is hard to find, but rumors always seem to appear to fill the void.
We’re about to enter into the fourth year of iPhone-on-Verizon rumors. This week we hear that Apple projects an unusually high number of iPhone shipments in the first quarter, which leads many to believe they must be launching on Verizon. There is even a specific rumor of a February 14 announcement date.
The other side to those rumors is that the increased numbers could simply be due to new sales initiatives in other countries like China. A more plausible rumor is that the next version of the iPad will have a model compatible with Verizon’s network. This makes sense since Verizon already sells iPads, and AT&T has no exclusivity over the iPad.
Rumors of the iPad 2 are also floating, including a March or April release date. The new version may include a front-facing camera, a USB port, wide-range speakers and a iPod Touch-like design according to some.
What is certain is that one week from today the Mac App Store launches, ushering in a new era for Mac software. This will be a game changer for Mac developers who may have to get into the store or face difficulties being found by Mac users.
Yep, that’s a Mac 128K from 1984. Ever year he decides to upgrade, then he hears a rumor of a new Mac coming out soon and he decides to wait.
Here’s another free game from CleverMedia (MacMost’s parent). Just Mah Jongg Solitaire comes from a long history of Mah Jongg tile games starting with Nile Tiles in 1999. You must find matching tiles and try to clear the board. This iPhone version is free, and contains more than 100 layouts, 5 tile sets and several backgrounds.
There are three sets of keyboard shortcuts for moving between tabs in Safari. You can use Command+Shift and the left and right arrows. You can also use Command+Shift and the square bracket keys. In addition, you can use Control+Tab to cycle forward and Control+Shift+Tab to cycle backward.
Apple shook the Mac software development world this week by announcing that the birth of the Mac App Store also means the death of the downloads section of the Apple web site. In the Windows world developers often need to list their software at dozens or even hundreds of different web sites to be found. But in the Mac world being listed on the Apple downloads section was usually enough. Developers who decide not to move their applications to the Mac App store will now have to look for other ways to be discovered.
While the Mac App Store is destined to become the main way users find and download software, many applications will not be available there because they won’t be able to adhere to the rules. For instance, utilities that need to access system functions to work won’t be allowed. This leaves out many popular applications. Other developers may not wish to give Apple 30 percent of the sale price.
The Mac App Store will launch on January 6. There are rumors that a new version of iWork will be available for download in the store on launch day or soon thereafter.
Apple engineers continued to issue updates this week, including an update to iPhoto that adds back the ability to attach a photo to an email without a complex background.
Sales of the new Apple TV appear to be strong according to Apple as it may top one million units this year. They report that users are renting 150,000 movies and 400,000 TV shows per day.
The iPad seems to be the perfect device for college students. What it has been lacking, though, is the perfect note-taking app. But finally the best Mac application for taking notes has come to the iPad. With Circus Ponies NoteBook for iPad you can write, draw, record audio and organize notes. I wish they had this when I was in school. But I can still get some use out of it today taking notes in meetings and brainstorming on my own.
If you have a large collection of videos and want an easy way to preview them, try putting them in a folder and setting the folder to icon view. Then choose View, Show View Options and set the icon size to 64×64 or higher. Now you get a play button at the center of each icon and can play the video inside the icon. You can also do this in Cover Flow view, which gives you a list at the bottom and playable cover flow icons at the top.
I’ve been hearing about this scanner for years. I finally decided to go paperless in my office, which means scanning a ton of documents. So I paid the price and bought the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M. Worth every penny. You can feed this thing tons of pages and it eats them up and spits them out as PDF files. The Mac software works great too. This thing looks small and fragile, but it acts big and tough.
I think I believed you more when you were tracking big foot and UFOs.
