Those of us who use Google's Chrome browser for OS X are familiar with how Chrome web apps can be installed and launched from within the browser. Now it appears that Google is working on a way to bring those Chrome apps even closer to the heart of your Mac by creating a Chrome apps launcher for OS X.

Google engineer François Beaufort detailed the plans in a Google+ post, noting that OS X users can actually try out a beta of the Chrome OS app launcher right now. To do so, you need to install the most recent build of Chromium, then set the --show-app-list switch through the CLI.

After performing that magic, launch Chromium and click its Dock icon to display a grid of your Chrome apps, ready to launch (see image above). Put this on your MacBook Air and it's almost like having a Chromebook! Note that this software is not quite ready for prime time, but for Chrome fans it may be worth the effort to give it a try.

Google to bring Chrome app launcher to OS X originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google to bring Chrome app launcher to OS X originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A TUAW staffer recently asked if there were a way to snapshot the exact same region of the screen over and over at timed intervals without buying third-party software.

There is, but it depends on your comfort with the command line. If you're experienced in Unix scripting, read on. If not, you may want to investigate standalone screen-capture apps instead.

I pointed him to /usr/sbin/screencapture. This built-in OS X utility allows you to specify a screen region to capture. For example, to capture a 50x200 rectangle starting at the point 200, 200, you'd say:
% /usr/sbin/screencapture -R"200,200,50,200" ~/Desktop/foo.png
You can easily apply a Unix shell script to create numbered output files. Unix commands will also enable you to sleep and repeat the capture requests over time.

The utility is Retina-ready. Since it captures in points (and not pixels), the results are twice as big in each dimension when run on Retina systems.

Timed command-line screenshots originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Timed command-line screenshots originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It has been busy in the App Store with a handful of new apps landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of standout apps from the past few weeks!

iOS Apps

A Beautiful Mess [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; $0.99] The photo app from A Beautiful Mess is the easiest way to make pretty photos and to share them with friends.Add new life to your favorite photos with custom filters, fun fonts, and hand-drawn doodles by Elsie and Emma, creators of the award-winning lifestyle blog, "A Beautiful Mess".

Limelight - Your Movie Library [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; $0.99] Limelight is a new way to browse and organize your movie library. Become a movie critic and share your library with friends.

Arpeggionome for iPhone [iPhone; Category: Music; $0.99] A New Musical Instrument for Controlling Arpeggios with the Touch of a Finger. Arpeggionome for iPhone transforms your iPhone into a new and expressive musical instrument.

Audio Mastering [iPad; Category: Music; $9.99] The first fully functional audio mastering application for iPad. For everyone who wants to make own music tracks excellent quality.

Amazon Cloud Drive Photos [iPhone; Category: Productivity; Free] Protect and store all of your photos in one place with Amazon Cloud Drive Photos.

Bellyfish [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Swim freely with intuitive controls through beautiful underwater environments. Fight your evil enemies with unique and fun power-ups. Join the adventure and see how high you can go.

Go Home Dinosaurs [iPad; Category: Games; $4.99] Go Home, Dinosaurs! Stop hordes of marauding Dinos from crashing your party in the world's premier BBQ defense simulator.

Daddy Was A Thief [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] Gain as much money as you can! Hurry! Everyone will try to catch you, but you are clever, aren't you?

MYSTIC* [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; $0.99] On the surface, Mystic is an app. In practice, it is an experience. Yeah, You can add text, textures, frames, lights, colors...elephants, tigers, bears, and a few flying buffalos, too.

TinyLegends: Monster Crasher [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] the evil dragon has been awakened. Sound your trumpet as a call to arms and get ready for an epic challenge.

Write for Dropbox - A Beautiful Note Taking App [iPad; Category: Productivity; $1.99] Writing. Automated Dropbox Syncing. Markdown. Fastest Sharing. Free Mac Addon. Beautiful Design. Love.

Topple2 with Mobage [iPhone; Category: Games; Free] Immerse yourself in 30 levels over 6 Topple worlds that allow you to balance and stack fun and playful Topple blocks using multi-touch and accelerometer controls.

IMPOSSIBLE ROAD [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] IMPOSSIBLE ROAD is a pure, minimal arcade game about risk, reward, and rollercoasters.

OS X

Silo - Share Your Lists [OS X; Category: Productivity; Free] Silo is the delightful way to share and manage your lists.

Together 3 [OS X; Category: Productivity; $19.99] Together lets you keep everything in one place. Text, documents, images, movies, sounds, web pages and bookmarks can all be dragged to Together for safe keeping.

oneSafe [OS X; Category: Productivity; $5.99] oneSafe not only securely stores all your passwords and other confidential information, it also synchronizes all that data between your Mac, iPhone and iPad, so you can have it at your fingertips wherever you happen to find yourself.

New and notable apps for iOS and OS X - May 15 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New and notable apps for iOS and OS X - May 15 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week, after Adobe announced its move to a subscription-based cloud plan, our own Kelly Hodgkins asked me to look at software alternatives for some Creative Suite apps.

We know that none of these apps provide a full replacement for Photoshop or Illustrator. What she asked me to do was to spend time, hands on, to get a sense of what kind of options were out there.

For Photoshop, I looked primarily at Pixelmator (US$14.99 "sale" price, but it's been on "sale" since November 2012) and Acorn 4 ($29.99), with a glance at the donationware GNU Image Manipulation Program, GIMP.

I quickly discovered that GIMP is not in the same class as Pixelmator or Acorn. Both Pixelmator and Acorn have seriously targeted ex-Photoshop users, creating tool suites intended to seduce that audience. GIMP just isn't competitive in that way.

You can tell this in the key equivalents added to both Pixelmator and Acorn -- they responded properly to many of the Photoshop-standard text shortcuts I tried such as G for gradient, M for marquee selection and W for the magic wand. On the whole, Acorn seemed to support more shortcuts -- such as 0 through 9 for transparency and Command-Shift-I to invert the selection, but both apps have the sense of Photoshop users in their DNA.

In terms of general interface design, Acorn stood out. I found its toolbar easiest to understand and its adherence to Photoshop norms the strictest. It also achieves the most OS X-like look and feel. Both apps got OS X, in elevating interaction beyond Adobe's prosaic implementation. But Acorn's fine details are palpably superior.

Both GUIs were polished and stylish, although I wish both apps would offer bigger font choices for older and visually impaired users. Acorn's visuals were generally larger except for teeny tiny font choices in palettes. I found the Acorn toolbar much easier for recognition tasks.

In power, however, I lean towards Pixelmator. Although both tools have recently undergone major upgrades, I found the Pixelmator toolset more extensive than Acorn's. There were almost always extra options on the Pixelmator side that I did not find (or, at least, not easily find) on the Acorn side.

I rely on community support for my photo-editing needs. Whenever I need to figure out how to do anything in Photoshop, I turn to Google and the thousands upon thousands of how-to articles and videos found there. During my testing, I set myself common tasks like building buttons or blurring backgrounds in Acorn and Pixelmator, and quickly found myself searching for how-to answers on the web.

While both developers have provided superb how-to support pages on their sites, Pixelmator offers a far larger existing support community. To give a sense of that, the Google results for "glossy button in Pixelmator" include videos and how-to articles from a variety of sites and vendors. The first three include a link to pxm-tuts.com, a Pixelmator support page, and ehow.com.

Compare that with the results for "glossy button in Acorn." These start off with a Flying Meat support page, followed by a bunch of acorn-shaped vector links, finishing with tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator and GIMP.

If you're looking for a knowledge-base of solutions that you can use today, Pixelmator has the edge.

On the whole, I was terrifically impressed by both apps. While I generally preferred Acorn's look and feel, Pixelmator's feature set and passionate userbase should not be overlooked.

Pixelmator and Acorn: economic, practical image editors originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pixelmator and Acorn: economic, practical image editors originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Popular image-editing app Pixelmator has released version 2.2, which brings a slew of new features to the already powerful program. The update comes with an expanded collection of shapes, tools to manipulate them, enhanced gradient palettes and a new paint selection tool among the more than 100 new features. The Text as Shape feature in particular looks like it will be a lot of fun to play with.

At US$14.99, Pixelmator is a steal of a design tool for people who can't justify dropping hundreds of dollars a year to rent a Photoshop license. We'll have a comprehensive review of Pixelmator 2.2 and its new features up later this month. In the meantime we've included a few videos from Pixelmator explaining a few of the new features.

Pixelmator 2.2 available with over 100 new features and improvements originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 May 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pixelmator 2.2 available with over 100 new features and improvements originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 May 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now here are some Apple accessories I'd love to review: Denon has added some new networked AV receivers to its INCOMMAND line, all of which support Apple's AirPlay wireless standard.

With that AirPlay support, owners of any Apple iOS device or Mac running a current or recent version of the appropriate operating system can stream lossless music to the receivers from their devices. The pricing for the receivers begins at a very reasonable US$449 for the AVR-X1000, which includes support for 5.1 surround sound and supplies 80 watts of output per channel. Next up is the AVR-X2000 at $649, providing 7.1 surround support, support for the 4K Ultra HD standard and 95 watts of power per channel.

The AVR-X3000 ($899) supports 7.1 channels and 105 watt per channel (it also supports the 4K Ultra HD standard). But it's the Ferrari of the line -- the AVR-X4000 ($1299) -- that you'll really drool over: 7.2 channels, seven discrete output stages and each channel is rated at 125 watts. Do you need HDMI inputs and outputs? It comes with seven inputs and three outputs. Sound processing includes Audyssey DSX, Dolby Pro Logic IIz and a DTS Neo:X decoder. With the AVR-X4000, your SD video content can be converted to HD, while 1080p video can be upscaled to 4K Ultra HD.

New Denon AV receivers support Apple AirPlay originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New Denon AV receivers support Apple AirPlay originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Notes took a great leap forward with the introduction of iCloud and OS X Mountain Lion. Once a static app that sat on your iOS device, Notes now allows you to jot down quick messages and sync them across your Apple devices. In a post from this weekend, Sandro Cuccia of The Mac Observer takes a deep dive into the Notes app and discusses how it can be immensely useful.

Cuccia starts off with step-by-step instructions on how to enable iCloud syncing on all your devices. It's a simple, but critical step that ensures your notes are available on all your devices. The rest of his tutorial covers managing your notes, creating folders to organize notes and some basic text formatting tips. You can read the full instructions on The Mac Observer website.

Get the most out of Apple's Notes app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Get the most out of Apple's Notes app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It has been busy in the App Store with a handful of new apps like Angry Birds Friends landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of standout apps from the past few days!

iOS Apps

Toy Defense 2 [iPad; Category: Games; $1.99] Set in WW2, this action/strategy game is packed with more levels, amazing new features, a big selection of fighting units for each world and more intense action than ever.

Glory of Generals [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $2.99] Over 60 campaigns in four battlefields of World War II are waiting for your challenge.

Mind Blitz [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] It is your childhood matching game meets action puzzler.

LEGO(R) STAR WARS[TM] THE YODA CHRONICLES [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Free] Build, create and control your favorite characters and vehicles to smash your enemy, solve puzzles and complete challenges within the LEGO Star Wars universe.

Traktor DJ for iPhone [iPhone; Category: Music; $4.99] The world's #1 pro DJ software brings high-impact DJing to iPhone.

Turnado [iPad; Category: Music; $14.99] Turnado is a revolutionary multi-effect tool, crafted especially for massive real-time audio manipulation.

Infuse - The Beautiful Way to Watch Videos [iOS Universal; Category: Entertainment; $4.99] Ignite your video content with Infuse -- the beautiful way to watch videos in as many as 14 formats on your iPad or iPhone.

OS X Apps

Acorn 4 - The Image Editor for Humans [OS X; Category: Graphics & Design; $29.99] Everyone needs to edit images at some point, but not everyone has the time to learn complicated super pricey image editing programs. This is why we created Acorn.

Scapple [OS X; Category: Productivity; $14.99] It isn't exactly mind-mapping software -- it's more like a freeform text editor that allows you to make notes anywhere on the page and to connect them using straight lines or arrows. Read our review of Scapple.

Briefs [OS X; Category: Developer tools; $199] Briefs is the essential app design tool built for a professional design workflow. Read our review of Briefs.

Parcel - Delivery tracking [OS X; Category: Utilities; Free] Parcel, the best delivery-tracking app for iOS, is now available on OS X. With this application you can promptly access tracking information for 180 delivery services.

New and notable apps for iOS and OS X - May 6 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New and notable apps for iOS and OS X - May 6 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Founded 12 years ago, Atlanta's Big Nerd Ranch is well-known among the Apple developer community as a prime source for corporate and individual training. Created to provide professional services for Apple technologies, its mission has grown to include both contract programming as well as instruction for Android, iOS, HTML 5, Ruby on Rails and Windows 8.

Recently merged with Atlanta's Highgroove Studios, BNR is about to kick off its second Clash of the Coders in-house event. Highgroove was a Ruby-on-Rails studio specializing in building back-ends for apps like Words with Friends.

Clash of the Coders is a private affair, established to allow trainers and developers to take time away from working on other people's solutions and invest in their own creativity.

I was invited to take part in this year's events as an observer and an honorary participant, to explore what goes on behind the doors when Big Nerd shuts down for three days to devote itself to coding mayhem.

It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, and a lot of hard, intense development. Founder and CEO Aaron Hillegass explains, "We shut the company down and team up so we can do significant amounts of programming in those three days."

For a lot of developers, the ability to work a project from start to end is a precious one. "Programmers who are working for other people can get frustrated when they don't have time to do experiments and push things beyond the demands of the client. We wanted to create space for that deeply satisfying form of creation."

Charles Quinn, Highgroove founder and BNR co-owner adds, "A lot of developers work at being good consultants -- they spend their time doing one part of a system, but there's always a desire there to work on all parts of the system from idea to marketing, seeing that concept all the way through."

"It's really really fun," Hillegass corrects him, "but more importantly we learn a lot. We learn what we're capable of, we learn about these technologies and, most importantly we learn what our employees want to work on."

I'll be checking in throughout this event, to share a little window into the developer world from those who live it.

Big Nerd Ranch Clash of the Coders: Innovation, fun, inspiration originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Big Nerd Ranch Clash of the Coders: Innovation, fun, inspiration originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Briefs is a design tool for the busy developer who wants to show off their beautiful app without crafting a full-on prototype. Created by Rob Rhyne of Martiancraft, the professional-level tool is filled with features that allow you to bring your app to life without typing a single line of code. We will take a look at some of the salient features of Briefs below.

Timelines, Scenes and Actions

Timelines, scenes and actions are the heart and soul of Briefs. They let you re-create your app and demonstrate the interactivity that a series of still images can't manage. The Timeline is the container that holds all the scenes that you create. In most projects, you'll create one timeline for each device (iPhone, iPhone 5 and iPad) that you are targeting.

Each scene in a timeline is a snapshot of a screen or state in your app. It'll show the layout of your design, and you can have interactive elements like buttons that'll let you jump to another scene. These interactive elements are called actors and can be either a button, a text element or a hotspot. You make these elements tappable by assigning actions which let you pick the scene that you want the user to see. For example, you may have an image editing app that has a photo gallery. You'll want to create a "Photo Gallery" button on the opening scene and have it jump to the scene that shows the mockup of the photo gallery. You can assign different transitions and delays to each action, which will give your demo a professional look and feel.

BriefsLive and Player

Most of the work you do with Briefs is on the Mac, but the target device is the iPhone or iPad. Though you can demo your app on your Mac, Briefs has a convenient feature called BriefsLive that lets you see your app demo in action on your target device while you create it. All you need to do to use BriefsLive is make sure your iOS device and your Mac are on the same WiFi network and you have the Briefscase app installed on your iOS device. The Mac app will detect your iPhone and iPad and send your project to the device. You can then make changes on your Mac and test them immediately on your iOS device.

When you are done creating your demo, you can then deploy it to an iOS device for testing and demonstration using the Briefs player, which is part of the Briefscase App. You can transfer your demo directly to your Briefscase app or send it via email to anyone who wants to see the mockup. The recipient will need to have the Briefscase app installed on their iOS device to view your demo. The app is available for free, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince your client or investor to install the app on their iPad or iPhone.

Other Little Gems

There are a lot of nice touches in the Briefs app that'll make creating your demo a breeze. The layout of the app is amenable to quick and easy editing. The stage, which is your main work area, is in the center. You can see all of your scenes on the left and on the right is the inspector, which gives you detailed information on each element in a scene. Briefs has a nice overview view, shown below, that lets you see all of scenes and how they are connected. This view is perfect for reviewing the flow and organization of your demo.

Briefs ships with stock art if you need to create a mockup quickly. It also lets you import custom art work that you design specifically for your app. Last, but not least, there's support for versioning, so you can go back a version or two if you don't like your current changes.

Briefs for Mac is available for US$199 from the Mac App Store. The companion iOS app, Briefscase, is available for free. If you are professional developer, you shouldn't balk at the price. Being able to create a working demo of your app in just a few hours could be the tool that gives you the edge over your competition or that big chunk of VC funding.

Briefs for the Mac lets developers create interactive app demos with just a few clicks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Briefs for the Mac lets developers create interactive app demos with just a few clicks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It has been busy in the App Store with a handful of new apps like FocusTwist, Circles and Delicious Scanner landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of other standout apps from the past few weeks!

iOS Apps

iLuv Drawing Vehicles HD [iPad; Category: Education; $1.99] Perfect way to introduce drawing skills to kids who love cars, trucks, planes and trains!

My Agenda [iPhone; Category: Productivity; $0.99] An organizer and planner app with appointments, todos, reminders and tasks -- all in one place.

Feed Wrangler [iOS Universal; Category: News; Free] Feed Wrangler is an RSS reader for the modern age. Designed from the ground up to make reading your news feeds as easy and quick as possible.

4Fingers [iPhone; Category: Travel; Free] 4Fingers is the new social way to rate places and events around you on your mobile.

Survivalcraft [iPhone; Category: Games; $3.99] You are marooned on the shores of an infinite blocky world. Explore, mine resources, craft tools and weapons, hunt and make traps.

Classic Note [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; $2.99] Classic Notes puts the days of one-button mice and 3.5" floppy disks in your pocket, without breaking your back.

Toy Story: Story Theater [iOS Universal; Category: Education; $2.99] Beloved Toy Story characters are ready to star in your child's movie masterpiece.

Shiny The Firefly [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] This adorable game, set in the middle of a picturesque garden, has you helping Shiny, the cute little firefly, to find his babies.

Madmonster [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] The menacing Wolfy and his gang of monsters are wreaking havoc everywhere they go. Help them tear up each city, rip through military defenses, knock down buildings and take to the skies to cause a ruckus among the stars.

Iron Man 3 - The Official Game [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Free] Become billionaire Tony Stark as Iron Man in this fast-paced, endless runner; the official game of the upcoming movie.

LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $4.99] Batman and Robin join forces with other famous DC super heroes including Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and more to stop the notorious villains Lex Luthor and The Joker from destroying Gotham City.

Tug the Table [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] A two-player game on a single device!Like tug of war ... but with a table!

OS X Apps

Torch Browser [OS X; Category: Productivity; Free] Torch, a chromium based browser released last year, provides users with a powerful browsing experience and includes features that allow them to share, search, download, and more all in one place.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Elite Edition [OS X; Category: Games; $49.99] XCOM, the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit - humanity's last hope.

KillerKeys VR [OS X; Category: Reference; Free] KillerKeys VR is a desktop application providing a virtual (VR) on-screen keyboard that displays color-coded shortcuts on each key of the virtual keyboard.

Requester [OS X; Category: Developer Tools; Free] Requester - powerful utility to send all possible requests to any server.

New and notable apps for iOS and OS X - April 30 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New and notable apps for iOS and OS X - April 30 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Having a baby requires constant vigilance -- morning and night you are watching over your little one to keep them safe and happy. One indispensable tool for parents is a baby monitor that lets you watch over your child from afar. If you have an old iOS device lying around, then you might want to skip the traditional audio- or camera-based monitors and take a look at Baby Monitor 3G and its new OS X version to see if this software package fits your baby-watching needs.

Baby Monitor 3G from TappyTaps works like a standard baby monitor system with an iOS device serving as a monitor in the baby's room and a second device as the parent's listening station. You can use two iOS devices as the baby-parent station pair or add in a Mac now that the latest version of the Baby Monitor 3G software includes an OS X app. The system works best over WiFi, but you can configure it to work over 3G as well.

In my case, I set up an old iPhone in the baby's room as the baby station and configured both my iPad and my Mac to be parent stations that let me watch my child while I am downstairs. Setting up the software is a bit more complicated than just install, launch and go. You have to pair your devices before the two can connect as a baby and parent station. Pairing is easy and requires you to enter a code from the baby station into the device that is the parent station. A video within the app shows you how to pair the two devices if you are confused by the setup. Once the devices are paired, you don't have to pair them again unless you uninstall the Baby Monitor software.

The OS X version of Baby Monitor 3G serves as a parent station and is very similar to the iOS app. The app launches as a normal-sized window that takes up half the screen on my 13-inch MacBook Pro. It also can be configured to display in a small square that you can place in the corner of your screen. To save battery life, Baby Monitor 3G lets you listen to an audio stream of your baby. Just like the iOS version, the OS X app lets you turn on live video so you can watch your child and make sure he or she is safe. Live video works only on WiFi; you will view a still shot over 3G/4G. If you need additional lighting at night, you can tap the flash button on the parent software and turn on the baby station's camera flash. Be prudent in using the flash as the LED is bright and can startle a half-asleep baby. I found this out the hard way one night at 3 AM.

When your baby cries, the monitoring software turns red and you can hear the crying over your speakers or headphones. If you are using your iPhone as the parent station, you can also get a vibration alert. There is no support for notifications, so you do have to listen for your child or keep an eye on the software. The app keeps track of when your baby last cried, so you can glance at it and see that your child cried x number of minutes ago. If you want to soothe your child, you can speak to them using the speaker on the remote device.

The only detractor that I found was a pairing limitation that allows the baby station to connect to only one parent station at a time. I could listen to my baby while downstairs on the treadmill, but my husband couldn't connect at the same time on his iPad in the living room down the hall. The connection was just for one baby station and one parent station only. This limitation doesn't dissuade me from using Baby Monitor 3G, but you should keep it in mind when comparing this software with other systems like this audio-only one from Vtech that has one baby station and multiple monitors.

Baby Monitor 3G is available for the Mac and costs US$4.99 in the Mac App Store. The iOS version is available for $3.99 in the iOS App Store.

Baby Monitor 3G makes watching your baby much easier with new OS X version originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Baby Monitor 3G makes watching your baby much easier with new OS X version originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Writing the Script

The following steps demonstrate how to add a Copy to Clipboard shortcut to phone number fields in the Contacts app. If you have any trouble following along, you can download the complete script here, along with ones for email address and URL fields too.

1. Launch AppleScript Editor (in /Applications/Utilities)

2. Create a new script document and enter the following code:

Note: If you want to create a version of this script for email address or URL fields, just change the action property handler to return the appropriate field type, i.e.,

on action property
return "email"
end action property

or...

on action property
return "url"
end action property

Installing and Using the Script

In order for the script you created to appear in the Contacts app, it needs to be saved in the proper place.

1. Quit Contacts if it's running.

2. Save the script you created as Contacts > Copy Phone to Clipboard.scpt, in script format, into the ~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins folder in your Home directory. If this folder doesn't already exist, go ahead and create it.

Now, just relaunch the Contacts app. When you click on a phone number field label, you should see a new option for copying the phone number to the clipboard. Now, repeat the steps above for email addresses and URLs to enhance the Contacts app even further.

This marks my last scheduled post for the TUAW for a bit. Hopefully, you'll see more of me here in the future. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter to say "Hello," ask a scripting question or two, suggest a future topic, etc. Until next time, Happy Scripting!

Adding copy-to-clipboard rollovers in Contacts app via AppleScript originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Adding copy-to-clipboard rollovers in Contacts app via AppleScript originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For example, two phrases which bring the issue to light include "I could be the next Obama " -- with an empty space following the 'a' -- and "The best prize is a surprise".

While a thread on Apple's support forums claims that the issue only manifests when a message is sent from iMessage on a Mac to an iPhone, I was able to replicate the bug using iPhones exclusively.

So just what, exactly, is going on here?

Well, a user on a MacRumors forum writes that the bug rears its bizarre head when the cumulative width of the characters used in a message is at a certain length.

You can test it out, and even if you change "I could be the next Odama " as the phrase it still gets deleted. The problem is that the message app, thinks the phrase will fit in a one line bubble, but it actually puts the last word on a hidden second line. It works with these two phrases because they are the exact width needed, and it is not based on character count, but character width. For example, "l" is skinner than a "w".

iMessage bug may be truncating last word of specific phrases originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iMessage bug may be truncating last word of specific phrases originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Textual is a popular, lightweight IRC client for the Mac from Codeux. Now 3 years old, the app was recently updated to version 3.0. To celebrate these milestones, the developers have dropped the price of Textual to US$3.

The latest version of Textual has a long changelog that includes new commands for encrypted chat and support for new scripts like moto that'll give you easy access to commonly used emoticons. There's also new messaging feature that'll playback up to 100 messages after each restart. You can read the full of list of changes on Codeux's website.

You can download Textual from the Mac App Store. The $3 sale starts today and ends April 28.

Textual celebrates three years and version 3.0 with a $3 sale originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Textual celebrates three years and version 3.0 with a $3 sale originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WWDC tickets went on sale today, and the event sold out within minutes. This year, Apple developers were prepared to buy their tickets as the company pre-announced the ticket sales one day in advance. In previous years, the conference was announced and tickets went on sale at the same time.

If you didn't get a ticket this year, Apple is streaming the video from the sessions during the event. You won't get the full experience of being at the conference, but you will get a lot of the important parts. WWDC 2013 will be held from June 10 to 14 in San Francisco.

WWDC 2013 now sold out originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

WWDC 2013 now sold out originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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6Wunderkinder today introduced a new Pro option in its popular to-do app, Wunderlist. The new Wunderlist Pro moves the task manager towards small business use by adding features that focus on team collaboration.

Wunderlist Pro now lets users share their workloads by assigning tasks to colleagues and friends. Both parties will be able to update the task and track it as it moves towards completion. Users can also break down a task into subtasks and add as many subtasks as they need, now that subtasks are unlimited.

Wunderlist is available for free from the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store. Customers can upgrade to the Pro version via an in-app purchase. Wunderlist Pro costs US$4.99 for a monthly subscription or $49.99 for a year.

6Wunderkinder brings new pro features to its Wunderlist task manager originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

6Wunderkinder brings new pro features to its Wunderlist task manager originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WebStart is a US$0.99 utility in the Mac App Store that lets you customize a browser home page with frequently used links, like search engines, news or weather. Yes, you can just use standard bookmarks as you are already doing, but this simple app presents your preferred links on one page.

When you open the app for the first time you'll get a brief tutorial. Basically you create topics and add relevant URLs. You can customize the fonts by color, style and size and choose the fill and background colors.

To further customize the look of your home page, drag and drop headings and topics into an order that works for you. When you are done, save it all, and the app will provide the link for your browser. You can paste it into the location where your browser sets the home page and you're ready to go. You can get a better idea how WebStart works in this YouTube video.

WebStart is handy, especially for the novice user who doesn't want to try this themselves using HTML.

Gallery: WebStart

I'll stick with Google News as my start page, but I could be tempted to try the app again with some additional features and a more striking graphical look. As it is, WebStart is not over-priced at under a dollar.

WebStart requires OS X 10.8 or later and a 64-bit processor.

WebStart for Mac lets you create a customized home page originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

WebStart for Mac lets you create a customized home page originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Delicious Monster is known for Delicious Library, a comprehensive inventory app that lets you track items from every nook and cranny of your life. The OS X app was updated today to version 3.0, and the changes that Delicious Monster made to Delicious Library are impressive.

First and foremost is an improved UI that not only looks better, but has nice touches like the book icons, which vary their thickness based on the number pages in the book. The bookshelf now has crown molding as well as improved lighting and reflections to make it more realistic. Items on your bookshelf now have a 3D look and even pivot to follow your mouse cursor.

New features are abundant in Delicious Library 3 and include a recommendations engine, a wishlist pane and smart shelves that let you create rules to easily populate any shelf. There's also a global search function that supports voice search and shows results from your collections and friend's collections. Number-crunchers will appreciate a new stats page that shows you the types of products in your collection and their collective value. You can read the full changelog on Delicious Monster's website.

One of the biggest additions to Delicious Library 3 is Delicious Scanner, a new companion scanner app for your iPhone or iPad. The app lets you walk around your home or office and add items to your library by scanning UPC and EAN barcodes.

Delicious Library 3 is available from Delicious Monster's website or the Mac App Store. Version 3 of the app costs US$25, which is $10 less than the original price of Delicious Library 2. There is no upgrade discount for current users as Apple's Mac App Store policy does not accommodate upgrade pricing. You can download a free trial of Delicious Library 3 to try it before your buy it.

Delicious Monster releases Delicious Library 3 with companion iOS scanner app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Delicious Monster releases Delicious Library 3 with companion iOS scanner app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You can tell Scapple was designed by a writer. It's a simple, sparse Mac app that's free of unneeded bells and whistles. Scapple comes to us from the team at Literature & Latte, the developers who are responsible for the popular Scrivener word-processing and writer's management app.

While Scrivener is bursting with nearly every feature a writer could need, Scapple is simply a note-jotting app -- but it still keeps writers satisfied. Many have called Scapple mind-mapping software, but by L&L's own admittance, it's not. Instead, they liken it to a freeform text editor or "virtual paper" that allows a user to make notes anywhere on the page -- just like a writer would with his notepad as he furiously scribbles down ideas.

The way Scapple works is you double-click anywhere on a document and start writing. This can be something simple like the name of a character, or something longer, like a chapter's opening paragraph. Or it can be a note that has to do with anything your mind can think of and needs to get down quickly. You can double-click to create as many new notes as you wish in a single document and you can drag them around to any position on the page. And if that's all you want to do, that's fine.

But you can also link different notes together with dashed or arrowed lines. You do this by dropping one note on top of the other. All your notes can be connected, or only one can, or none; it's your choice. Notes also aren't limited to text. You can also drag in images and other external text files to your Scrapple document. And as you would expect with a good note-taking app, there are plenty of formatting options that let you change the appearance of your notes and Scrapple documents. Scapple also offers a number of export options.

If you're a writer, I think Scapple will immediately appeal to you. If you're a mind-mapping power user, it probably won't. Either way, Literature & Latte offers a demo version so users can try before they buy. If you want the full version of Scapple it's available for only US$14.99. Currently you can only buy it through Literature & Latte's web store, but the company says they have submitted the app to Apple, so you'll be able to find it in the Mac App Store soon.

Scapple for OS X is the note jotter tool many writers are looking for originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Scapple for OS X is the note jotter tool many writers are looking for originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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