Beta Beat Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Instacast for Mac beta now available

by Steven Sande (May 1st, 2013)

Fans of Instacast 3 (US$4.99), Vemedio's feature-packed iOS podcast client, are doing the happy dance today. The company has announced an open public beta of Instacast for Mac if you want to get your hands dirty with pre-release software and check ...

SharePractice wants your doctor to have the best advice on the iPhone

by Michael Rose (Apr 30th, 2013)

Among the startups competing for attention (and funding) at Monday's opening round of the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, one unusual social app for iPhone stood out. SharePractice, from physician Andrew Brandeis and his team, aims to ...

Rabbit video chat beta kicks off

by Michael Rose (Feb 7th, 2013)

Late in December we told you about the upcoming Rabbit video chat and screensharing service, aimed specifically at Mac users in the near term. Rabbit's team has been cranking away since then, and today the service begins welcoming invited ...

BlueStacks App Player for Mac in beta: run Android apps on Mac

by Steven Sande (Dec 27th, 2012)

Want to run over 750,000 Android apps on your favorite Mac? [Hey, it takes all kinds. --Ed.] BlueStacks is a startup that figured out a way to run Android apps on Windows machines through its App Player. The company released an alpha version of ...

SugarSync 2.0 now available as a public beta

by Steven Sande (Nov 13th, 2012)

SugarSync 2.0 is now available as a public beta to anyone who currently uses the cloud service or is thinking about moving to the platform. SugarSync has been redesigned across the board, from the desktop Mac app to the web app, and (soon) the ...

iPad could replace your office receptionist

by Steven Sande (Nov 8th, 2012)

To keep a professional feel to a workplace, many businesses hire a receptionist to greet and direct visitors to an office. Receptionists may become an endangered species soon if the Reception Manager iPad platform from the Foundry Group, Rage ...

Evernote for Mac update preview

by Steven Sande (Oct 29th, 2012)

At some point during this week, we expect to see a beta of Evernote for Mac 5.0, which promises to be a completely rewritten app with a much improved user interface. As reported on the Evernote TechBlog, the Evernote team has spent about a year ...

Apple switches on Genius recommendations in iOS 6

by Steven Sande (Sep 4th, 2012)

In a sign that iOS 6 is inching ever closer to general release, Apple flipped the switch on Genius recommendations in the App Store on Friday. The feature had been, according to developers familiar with the new OS, responding with a comment that ...

TestFlight Desktop app now in beta

by Steven Sande (Aug 20th, 2012)

A growing number of iOS developers use TestFlight to deliver beta software to testers. Now the company is releasing a beta of its own -- the beta of TestFlight Desktop App. TestFlight refers to the OS X app as "a significant and much needed ...

iOS YouTube standalone app to vanish in iOS 6

by Michael Rose (Aug 6th, 2012)

It seems like only yesterday that one of our readers was bemoaning the poor playback quality of the iOS YouTube app, and wishing that Apple would do something to fix it. Given that YouTube is a Google property, and the two former BFFs aren't on ...

eBay Now for iOS offers same-day product delivery in San Francisco

by Steven Sande (Aug 6th, 2012)

Just when you thought eBay was slowly fading away into obscurity as the online equivalent of a garage sale, the company has rolled out something new called eBay Now. eBay provides users in a beta program (signup form here) with an iOS app with ...

Reminder: iWork.com beta shuts down today

by Steven Sande (Jul 31st, 2012)

iWork.com is dead. Long live iWork.com! Today is the last day that you'll be able to sign into the iWork.com beta. Apple's first attempt at creating a document sharing environment for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents never did make it to ...

Siri's novelty is wearing off ... for some

by Steven Sande (Jul 16th, 2012)

New York Times technology writer Nick Bilton may be breaking up with Siri, per his post on the NYT Bits blog. Bilton's on-again, off-again love affair with Apple's intelligent assistant seems to be familiar territory for some other iPhone 4S ...

Apple tests new iCloud beta features

by Steven Sande (Jul 3rd, 2012)

Developers who are enrolled in the iOS 6 beta are now able to see a new iCloud Beta portal at beta.icloud.com that is complete with new versions of Calendar and Find My iPhone, as well as two new iCloud additions -- Reminders and Notes. The ...

ThisLife rolls out iOS app, Mac uploader for family photo service (Updated)

by Michael Rose (Jun 28th, 2012)

Update: Here's the link that'll let you skip the queue. The cloud-based family photo manager ThisLife has been percolating in development for a couple of years, but with a new $2.75m round of investment and a fresh look, the service is almost ...

Apple adds new security feature to Mountain Lion preview

by Steven Sande (Jun 26th, 2012)

An update to the OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview 4 was released yesterday afternoon, and the Twittersphere was immediately filled with missives about the features people were finding. A tweet by @Lhunar pointed out a new "Mountain Lion ...