Noodlesoft's Hazel is a file-organization tool for Mac OS X that uses a set of customizable rules to automatically move and sort your information. It can be set to automatically move your new music or movies to your Music and Movies folders, or sort files by name, email address, the website they came from and much more. For people who'd rather keep working than sort files, it can be a great time-saving tool for keeping your desktop and downloads folder clear.

Today Hazel released version 3.1, which adds a powerful new date-matching feature to the software. The feature allows you to search the contents of a document for text formatted as a date, so if you need to quickly find a digital copy of an insurance report from June 19, 2013 you simply need to set Hazel to look for that date. Hazel knows to look for different kinds of date formatting, converting slashes to dashes when the moment needs it.

You can see video of the feature being used below made by blogger David Sparks. Hazel 3.1 is currently available for download from Noodlesoft as a free 14-day trial. If you'd like to purchase the program at the end of your trial it will set you back US$28.

Hazel 3.1 from David Sparks on Vimeo.

Hazel 3.1 update adds powerful date-matching feature originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

ProCollage (US$1.99) is a very nicely done app for creating photo collages on any iOS device. After you grant access to your camera roll, PhotoCollage lets you select multiple images and use pre-defined templates. Don't care for those templates? No problem, it lets you use a free-form approach as well.

Images can be moved within a frame, resized or rotated. Frame colors are almost unlimited, and there is a selection of multiple backgrounds for your images. Happily, the app doesn't make you purchase anything else to make it all work.

This latest version adds the ability to apply text to a collage, and there are 14 different styles. Putting the app to a test today, I found it easy to create a variety of nice looking sets of images. There is help built in, but I really didn't need it.

One thing lacking is that the app does not work in landscape view. If it did, some wide-aspect-ratio images would be larger on screen, allowing for more precise placement.

ProCollage is not alone in the iOS world. I've also used, and praised Diptic, which is still excellent. I've also enjoyed using GoodTimes for Mac OS, which makes some very striking collages.

ProCollage seemed well behaved under the iOS 7 beta, and currently requires iOS 5 or greater. It has been optimized for the iPhone 5.

Gallery: ProCollage

ProCollage is an easy and powerful photo utility for iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today's news brings a pleasant surprise for Lytro camera owners. It turns out the that each one of the small light-field cameras has had a hidden WiFi chip inside, waiting to be turned on. Well, the time for activation has come with the release of a new firmware update which activates the WiFi. And just in time for the release of Lytro's new iOS app.

The app, called Lytro Mobile, connects to your iPhone via the WiFi transmitter and allows you to view camera images from your iOS device. Once you activate the app simply click the Camera feature and you will be told to select WiFi from the Lytro's menu screen. Once you tap the WiFi option on your Lytro screen you will be able to wirelessly upload images directly to Lytro.com.

The mobile app has other tricks up its sleeve. You can use the app to refocus a picture via Perspective Shift, add captions and geotagging, and share your live pictures via your favorite social network, message service or SMS. The app also allows you to use the Lytro to make GIF images from pictures you've taken. The firmware update and app are available now from Lytro and the App Store respectively.

Lytro announces iOS app, unlocks hidden WiFi feature in camera originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mid-June is an odd time of year. Apple's hardware refresh cycle isn't really due until October -- likely six full months away -- so you might consider picking up an external battery pack to use with your current iOS device to tide you over until then.

Internal batteries drop in efficiency as devices age, and replacement prices can be a little steep. An out-of-warranty iPhone or iPad battery replacement can cost upwards of US$85 or $105 with shipping.

If you're a developer, this goes double. With iOS beta season under way, mobile devices are eating up batteries in new and curious ways. This isn't uncommon, as early releases of operating systems often contain debugging processes that are removed before the system goes "gold."

External battery units are becoming more affordable than ever and newer systems like the Antec PowerUp 6000 support recharging both iPhones and iPads with high-amperage USB ports. I've been using an Antec review unit for the last couple of weeks and have found it a solid performer for light-weight emergency power.

The Antec is a portable pack that fits nicely into a pocket. Its design has soft edges, easy port access and a built-in indicator light. You charge it using USB (rather than, say, plugging directly into a wall socket). I've tested it with iPhones, iPads and a variety of other USB-powered devices including the Kindle Fire and Bluetooth speakers.

It's a bit hard to fully review the Antec PowerUp external battery ($60 MSRP, $42 street price) as Amazon customer criticisms of the product center on it losing its mojo after a few months of continuous use. My work style doesn't include long periods of off-grid demands; I haven't regularly drained the unit and I've been pretty faithful about plugging it in at nights.

A spokesperson from Antec promised to get back to us with a statement about these issues. We'll add an update when he does so. Because of these issues, TUAW does not feel comfortable recommending or not recommending the product based on our testing.

Antec PowerUp 6000 offers iPad-capable portable power originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD). Prices are subject to change.

Deals from Dealnews

• StackSocial: [Mac Software] The Name Your Own Price Double Down Mac Bundle for $4
• MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Software] Flavours for Mac downloads for $10
• REI: [Notebook Carrying Case] Merrell Travel All 15" Laptop Bag for $74 + free shipping
• Adorama: [Camera Accessories] LumiQuest Event Shooting Kit for $35 + free shipping
• Paydeals.com: [iPad Accessories] ZAGG iPad and Android Tablet Accessories from $25 + free shipping
• MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Software] JollysFastVNC for Mac downloads for $15
• Paydeals.com: [iPhone Accessories] Griffin TuneFlex AUX Car Charger Mount for iPhone for $7 + free shipping
• MegaMacs: [MacBook] Refurbished Apple MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz 13" Laptop for $300 + $17 s&h
• Adorama: [Digital Tablets] Wacom Bamboo 4-Button Craft Tablet for $55 + free shipping
• Paydeals.com: [iPad Accessories] Sena Florence Leather Folio for iPad for $13 + free shipping
• TigerDirect: [Battery Backups/UPSs] Battery Backups at TigerDirect from $80 + $15 s&h
• Walgreens: [Photo Services] 10x5" Desktop Calender for free + $6 s&h

iOS Software

• Calendars+ by Readdle [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $6.99] Calendars+ is the most elegant and easy to use calendar application available on the App Store.

• iStoryTime library [iOS Universal; Category: Books; Now free, down from $2.99] App includes four great full length Read Aloud storybooks - The Giant Smurf, Madagascar, Ice Age and Robin Hood. Large library of additional stories to choose from as in-app purchases, with new books being added every week.

• Piikki: Receipt Scanner & Expense Reports [iOS Universal; Category: Finance; Now free, down from $2.99] Scan your receipts using the device camera - Digitize your receipts right on the spot.

• SketchParty TV [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $3.99, down from $4.99] SketchParty TV is the fun Pictionary-style drawing and guessing party game to play on your iPad and Apple TV.

• GuitarToolkit [iOS Universal; Category: Music; On sale for $4.99, down from $9.99] GuitarToolkit delivers all your essential guitar tools-tuner, metronome, chords, scales & arpeggios-beautifully implemented for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

• UPWORDS [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99] The official version of the classic UPWORDS game is now available for iOS. It's a high-stacking 3-D crossword game.

• Limelight Movie Library[iPhone; Category: Entertainment; Now free, down from $1.99] Limelight is a new way to browse and organize your movie library. Become a movie critic and share your library with friends.

• vjay for iPhone[iPhone; Category: Music; Now free, down from $2.99] Introducing vjay for iPhone - the mashup machine for your music and videos.

• Guitar Tuner² [iOS Universal; Category: Music; Now free, down from $1.99] Guitar Tuner² is especially designed and optimized to work with all types of six string acoustic and electric guitars.

• File Manager - Folder Plus[iOS Universal Category: Business; Now free, down from $4.99] Folder Plus is an In-App Multitasking Capable File Manager/Viewer/Editor, with 3-Finger Swipes You Switch between Tasks of File Managing, Viewing, Editing, etc.

• Tuner + Metronome [iOS Universal; Category: Music; Now free, down from $1.99] Tuner + Metronome combines two of the most useful musician tools: an highly accurate tuner and a perfectly timed metronome.

• PowerCam[TM] HD [iPad; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $0.99] get set to power up your iPhone with Wondershare PowerCam.

• World War Z [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99] The World War Z game challenges you: play to survive. In a race against time, travel the world to rescue your loved ones in the midst of the deadly Zombie pandemic.

• TinyLegends[TM] Monster Crasher [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Thousands of lives are depending on you. And valiant warriors are waiting for your call to eliminate the impending threat once for all.

• Commando Jack [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] You are Commando Jack, the baddest, meanest, toughest soldier planet Earth has to offer, and it's up to you to save the world from alien invasion.

• Occasions+ [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $0.99] Occasions+ is the best way to keep track of and remember important occasions in your busy life.

• mPass Pro [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $4.99] mPass provides a safe and simple way to store and manage all your passwords and private information.

• Random Heroes 2 [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Sequel to the amazing Random Heroes; now with more guns, explosions and crazy characters.

• RPG DarkGate - KEMCO [iPhone; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $6.99] Presenting Dark Gate, a full-blown fantasy RPG.

• Star Defender 3 [iPad; Category: Games; Now free, down from $1.99] Get ready to fight through hoards of alien beasts in Star Defender 3.

• LetterLasso [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] A new dynamic touch-based spelling game where a player attaches moving letters together in the correct order to spell a word.

• Battle Academy [iPad; Category: Games; On sale for $9.99, down from $19.99] Approachable, absorbing and visually impressive yet detailed, Battle Academy aims to revolutionise the strategy games market with a blend of intuitive design and compelling game play.

• Toca Hair Salon 2 [iOS Universal; Category: Education; Now free, down from $1.99] Our bestselling app Toca Hair Salon is back in an even better version, with new characters, new tools, new accessories and even more hairstyling fun. Apple's App of the week.

OS X Software

• Two Dollar Tuesday [OS X; Category: Various; On sale for $1.99] Two Dollar Tuesday offers three OS X apps for $1.99. Titles include Snail, Keynote Quarter and DM1:Drum Machine.

• Fantastical [OS X; Category: Productivity; On sale for $19.99, down from $29.99] Presenting the calendar app you'll actually enjoy using. Type in that you have "Lunch with John on Friday at 1pm" and Fantastical will schedule it.

• EverFont PRO - Font Preview Tool for Developers and Designers [OS X; Category: Utilities; Now free, down from $2.99] A font sampling tool for developers and designers, or anyone who just want to check out all the beautiful fonts included in Mac.

• iBank [OS X; Category: Finance; On sale for $49.99, down from $59.99] The Gold Standard for Mac money management. 10th anniversary sale, $10 off until July 15.

• popCalendar [OS X; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $0.99] popCalendar is a tiny calendar that fits in your menu bar giving you a faster access to your timetable.

• Snap [OS X; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $0.99] Launch an app in a snap. Ridiculously easy shortcut management for the Mac.

• ForkLift - File Manager and FTP/SFTP/WebDAV/Amazon S3 client [OS X; Category: Productivity; On sale for $4.99, down from $19.99] ForkLift is a robust and elegant file manager and FTP/SFTP client.

• MoneyWiz - Personal Finance [OS X; Category: Finance; On sale for $19.99, down from $29.99] Do more with your money. View all your accounts, budgets and bills in one place. Experience reports on a whole new level. Sync Everything across devices.

Daily Deals for June 19, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Summer's almost here (Friday!), which means that many TUAW readers are either on vacation or starting to think about getting away while the weather's nice. Today, Shawn "Doc Rock" Boyd and I will talk about how we use technology in our travels to keep us connected, make traveling easier and help us capture memories of those trips.

To join in to watch the live feed and participate in the chat, just click here. You'll join us on the AOL On Network. If you can't watch the entire show today, come back to this page within 24 hours to see the video or visit http://tuaw.com/tuawtvlive to see the latest show. Past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.

TUAW TV Live: Travel talk with Steve and Doc originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The iTunes video store is a strange market to track. Most of Apple's attention and press these days is going to the App Store, and obviously iTunes wouldn't exist without the music store. But the video store, where you can buy and rent movies and TV shows, is sort of the quiet third pillar of Apple's digital retail service. And Horace Dediu of Asymco has posted that it's doing big numbers indeed. After Apple announced new numbers for both TV show and movie downloads (1 billion and 380 million, respectively), Dediu crunched the numbers, and determined that the rate of spending on iTunes video is about US$1.75 billion per year.

That's sizable for sure, though as you can see in Dediu's chart above, video still only makes up a small piece of the amount of money traveling through the various iTunes stores. Dediu also says the picture of what users are spending on iTunes is becoming more clear. He estimates that users spend the most every year on apps, about $16 a year. Furthermore, $12 a year is spent on music, per user, and $9 a year is spent on software (on the Mac App Store or elsewhere). Then, about $2 a year is spent on books, and $4 a year is spent on video. So iTunes video definitely isn't the biggest store that Apple is running, but it does make up a fairly sizable piece of the entire pie.

Asymco's Horace Dediu measures the iTunes video store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Let's say you go to a restaurant almost every day for years. It's your favorite restaurant, and you've practically memorized the menu. The staff knows you, your favorite dishes and you know a little about the chef. Then one day you walk in and everything has changed. The menu looks weird, there's a bunch of new dishes and the staff is a little distracted-- but the food is amazing. Everything else is throwing you off but you cannot deny that the food is better. It's as if the chef changed out the kitchen entirely and got 10 times better overnight.

After over a week of hearing pundits work their magic, I keep returning to my notes from chats with developers who were at WWDC and AltWWDC. For anyone who is worried about iOS 7 or Mavericks let me tell you right now: breathe, relax, things are going to be great.

Beauty is skin deep

Yes, iOS 7 looks really different. As one writer said, it will be polarizing. Consumers are a blob of people are scared of changes in technology. Forcing users to grok some new interactions, no matter how much more sense they make, will prove a little problematic for Apple. I anticipate slower uptake from existing users at first. But as word spreads about how much better iOS 7 is, I think those people will jump on board.

If you're only looking at stills of iOS 7 you really aren't seeing the full picture. Parallax is a subtle thing, maybe the new active desktops are useless, but the zooming hints of depth. There are so many cognitive touches that will make iOS "just work" better that it's hard to delineate them all (never mind that I'm going to try to avoid chatting too much about things that are covered in Apple's non-disclosure agreement with developers -- although I am not a developer and have signed no such agreement). Suffice it to say that what you'll see when you start using iOS 7 is a better sense of where you are in the OS at any given moment. By zooming in and out, by seeing what pages are open as you multi-task, you'll feel like you have more context at any given point. This interesting method for using 3D spatial cues has prompted some interesting thoughts, like this great opinion piece by Jeff Rock. When you get designers thinking about this stuff, great things happen.

Something that is impossible to understand when simply looking at frozen pixels on a screen is the interaction when using the OS. iOS has relied on buttons for many interactions, and iOS 7 does away with a good bit of this. Last week I kept joking with developers about the "Oregon Trail" your thumb takes as it traverses down, left, up, right, etc. just to do a simple thing. In iOS 7's Settings, however, if you want to go "back" you no longer have to reach way up to the left corner to tap a little button -- you just swipe to bring the previous screen back, much as you do on the iPod nano today.

All of those little interactions add up to a significantly enhanced experience in iOS 7. Anyone who has been fixated on the pixels they see within a tiny rounded square is missing the forest of UX for the trees of UI.

New kitchen, new rules

Folks, there are 1,500 new frameworks. More importantly, those frameworks are all coming together to enhance the user experience and build better apps. Some of those frameworks may even hint at future Apple products.

Every single developer I spoke to was excited about what they saw at WWDC sessions. iOS 7 isn't just "flat" design and a few new interactions, it's a significant boost to an already powerful mobile operating platform. There are new tools and toys that developers are still wrapping their minds around. In the end, you're going to see another app Rennaisance. I don't think I'm overstating it -- users have no idea how much better apps about about to become.

As one example, I was told by one source that at some point Eddy Cue corralled more engineers to fix the iCloud Core Data sync issues. Apple finally woke up and realized it had a serious problem on this one, and dedicated the resources to fix it. If anyone wonders whether Apple listens to developers or users, there's your answer. Apple listens. But as the WWDC keynote hammered home, Apple does its best not to ship features until they are ready. When something breaks, it works to fix it, but not in a haphazard way, because we've all seen how "quick fixes" can sometimes make things worse.

The biggest disappointment among developers: A continuing lack of inter-app communication. Yes, there's a way to do it with URLs, like LaunchCenter Pro and other apps have utilitized, but that's not a round-trip solution and it's often confusing to your average user. We're talking about true connections between apps that allow realtime data sharing and cross-talk. My theory is this is still on a whiteboard at Apple, but the intricacies of doing it "just right" will mean a wait for at least another year. Developers tended to agree with this theory -- or maybe they're just being hopeful.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

There are some incredible things coming in Mavericks and iOS 7. Macworld has a nice rundown of some features you might have missed in Mavericks. How about this for you power users: I heard AppleScript has been seriously beefed up and it can now dip into Cocoa. If tagging didn't float your boat, maybe that will.

Every single thing I heard at WWDC and AltWWDC indicated that Apple continues to relentlessly perfect its product. For someone like myself who has followed the company his entire life, this is not a surprise. For those who are younger and maybe grew up in an era where Windows NT was a common fixture and Apple was relegated to the design department, this might be a revelation. Apple's "Designed in California" and other propaganda videos shown at and after WWDC point to its core values of making the best products it can, and helping people do more with those tools.

And if it's any indication of progress, I took a hands-up poll at AltWWDC's panel on the keynote. About half of the people who had jailbroken their iPhones said they wouldn't continue to do so after they saw what they wanted in iOS 7.

"Can't innovate, my ass." -- Phil Schiller

It should go without saying that iTunes Radio will be a hit and likely introduce people to streaming radio who, until now, have resisted Spotify, Rdio or Pandora (there's a good opinion piece on this over at Engadget). It should also go without saying that the new Mac Pro will be a hit. The folks at Aerohive were impressed with the new Airport and Time Capsule hardware, and who isn't loving more battery life on the new MacBook Airs?

In-between the propaganda films and dizzying array of new stuff, there was a steady drumbeat last week of Apple messaging to its core constituents: We are here, we are still innovating, we are still kicking ass. If you don't believe this, prepare for some tasty claim chowder in 300 days after sales and update numbers come out.

I'm happy to report that Apple is still unafraid to tear down its own creations to build something new. While Mavericks is getting a good overhaul, iOS 7 fully embraces the ethos of radical change for the better. Those who don't get this don't really get Apple's core values. Developers are on notice to update their apps. iOS 7 will be radically different, and it should be. And that's a very good thing for everyone. I can't wait to see what's next.

WWDC Redux: Don't Worry, Be Happy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

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Daily Update for June 19, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Feedly is a service that's risen in popularity recently for the most part because the much-loved RSS service Google Reader is coming to close on July 1, but the company is definitely doing its best to make a space for itself as something more than just an alternative. Today, Feedly released the Feedly Cloud, which not only creates a standalone web-based RSS reader app, but also hooks all of your feeds into the cloud, which developers can then hook their own APIs into for various purposes. Just like Google Reader's API, the idea is to allow Feedly's work to power other readers, and in fact the service is connecting into IFTTT right away at launch, and opening up other options for future apps and tools.

This also means that Feedly is available right inside your web browser (previously, the app required a plugin or extension in your browser to work correctly), and can be pulled up from anywhere. Personally, Feedly has become my reader of choice, partly because it works so similarly to Google's service, and partly because it's so easy to migrate from one service to the other.

If you use Google Reader and haven't yet chosen a new service, you're running out of time, as Google is finally shutting everything down on July 1. Feedly is the best alternative I've seen so far, and this move to the cloud shows that the company is very interested in not only grabbing Google's refugees, but keeping their patronage for as long as possible.

Feedly RSS reader launches cloud service originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Just last week I was bemoaning the fact that neither Parallels nor VMWare Fusion provided an easy way for a developer to create a virtual machine (VM) for testing of OS X Mavericks, so I ended up installing the new Mac operating system on a separate partition. Today Parallels released an update to Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac that not only allows the update of existing OS X VMs to OS X Mavericks, but also allows Mavericks to be a host machine for Parallels.

If there's a downside, it's that you still can't install OS X Mavericks on a blank VM; instead, you'll have to install a previous version of OS X on a virtual machine, then acquire the installer from the Apple Developer Center and upgrade the VM. The update can be applied to an existing install of Parallels Desktop 8 by launching the app and selecting Check for Updates under the Parallels Desktop menu.

As of yet, there's still no word from VMWare on how they're progressing on OS X Mavericks compatibility, but we'll be sure to pass along any information that we hear about.

Dev Juice: Parallels Desktop 8 update makes OS X Mavericks VMs, hosts possible originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Disney's got two big releases arriving on the App Store last week and this week, one we've been waiting on for a while, and another that combines one of the company's oldest properties with one of the newest.

The first is Avengers Alliance, which is now out and available on the App Store as a free download. This game started off on Facebook, and it's still incredibly popular over there (or at least I assume it is, given all of the references and requests from it in my feed). Marvel originally teased an iOS version to us a little while back, but now the game is out in all of its glory. Unfortunately, Disney/Marvel didn't figure out a way to connect the iOS version up to the Facebook version, so the reviews on iTunes are full of people angry that they can't carry their progress over. In the meantime, however, if you've been waiting for an iOS version of the game to play, there it is.

Disney has also announced a new game called Where's My Mickey, coming to the App Store this week, which combines none other than Mickey Mouse with the popular Where's My Water game. The title will have five chapters, all with animated episode intros, as well as new weather mechanics to play with. As usual, there will be collectibles that can open up new levels, and the tablet version of the game will have exclusive XL levels designed to be played on a big screen. Where's My Mickey will be US$0.99 on the iPhone, and $1.99 on the iPad, and be available on the App Store tomorrow morning.

Avengers Alliance out now on iOS, Where's My Mickey coming tomorrow originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Reflow for Mac (US$19) and iOS ($5.99) is a tool that makes composition and practice of music easier. A few weeks ago you may have seen TUAW's Editor-in-chief Victor Agreda, Jr. interview Sébastien Bourgeois, creator of Reflow, in our Origin Stories series. The interview spiked my curiosity about the app, so I took a closer look.

While there are some great music notation apps out there for Mac (Tabular) and iOS (Weezic), what caught my attention about Reflow is that it supports both Mac and iOS. Plus, Reflow takes advantage of the latest Mac OS X and iCloud sync features.

Let's say you're composing a song in Reflow on the Mac. Reflow (which supports fullscreen mode) will automatically save your work as you progress with autosave. And if things take an unsurprising turn, simply engage versions (just like you would in Pages, for example) and go back to the last iteration of your work that suits you best to carry on from.

Finally, Reflow takes advantage of iCloud support, meaning you can be working on the Mac one minute and switch over to your iPhone or iPad and carry on where you left off the next.

These simple features make a huge difference to the creative process by letting you focus on the music.

But all of these great features would be meaningless if Reflow didn't have the basics to make a fantastic music notation app. Fortunately, it does. The app's beautifully simple interface lets you build multi-track (guitars, bass, keyboards, drums) compositions with musical notation or tablature. It's as easy as clicking or typing in a note or beat, playing on a MIDI keyboard or, for guitarists, dragging and dropping chords in from the extensive chord diagram database. Of course, you can create your own chords, too.

Furthermore, Reflow gives you an audio representation of your work using a lightweight audio engine, so you have a great idea of what your composition will sound like before the real players step in. And you can modify and edit your work during playback. Reflow also lets you build and re-arrange your own song structures, so if you suddenly decide the intro sounds better as a middle-eight, just drag it over.

Finally, Reflow also supports Guitar Pro and Power Tab files for import. Export your compositions in Guitar Pro, PDF, Wave and MIDI files, or share by email.

For songwriters and composers looking to write for a typical band, Reflow has all the tools you'll need. But where Reflow stands above the rest is in its creative process and workflow. With iCloud support, Reflow allows you to transition work seamlessly between Mac or iOS and takes the worry out of saving your work as well as going back through previous versions.

Reflow: A music composition and notation app for Mac and iOS with iCloud sync originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week during WWDC, I sat down with Neil Ticktin of MacTech and we interviewed a bunch of developers about their thoughts on what Apple announced. We'll be rolling out those videos as quickly as we can, but Neil and I also spent some time discussing among ourselves what we thought about iOS 7, Mavericks and the new Mac Pro.

TUAW and MacTech discuss WWDC announcements originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The man in the unenviable position of being deeply involved with Apple's ongoing patent infringement litigation with a number of companies has left Apple. AppleInsider reports that Boris Teksler, formerly Apple's head of Patent Licensing & Strategy, has taken a new job as president of the Technology Group at Technicolor.

Teksler testified on behalf of Apple in its US patent infringement suit with Samsung last year, revealing that he warned Steve Jobs and Tim Cook in 2010 that a number of Apple patents might have been infringed upon by Samsung. Teksler outlined the potential infringements to the Apple execs in a presentation showing that "rubber-banding," gesture heuristics and email threading were all appearing on Samsung products.

As a result of Teksler's presentation, Jobs and Cook met with Samsung executives in an attempt to reach a licensing agreement. That fell through, resulting in the patent battles still going on worldwide.

Teksler has a tremendous history in the world of intellectual property. Before working for Apple, he co-founded HP's Intellectual Property Licensing business while working at the venerable Silicon Valley company for 16 years. At Technicolor, Teksler will help the company in making the most of its intellectual property assets.

Apple's head of Patent Licensing & Strategy departs for calmer waters originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GigaOM noticed that Apple quietly released an update to Siri that offers to put a user in contact with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, should he or she mention suicide. Should the person decline the offer, Siri then brings up area suicide prevention centers in a second attempt to provide resources.

As GigaOM notes, Google has had this search since 2010. Apple noted in its customer privacy statement on Tuesday that among the most common requests from law enforcement are ones from police hoping to prevent suicide.

There's a lot of useful and even more silly ways to take advantage of Siri, but having a proactive response to a serious issue is a wonderful thing to have in the program.

Apple updates Siri to help those considering suicide to get help originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is redirecting US$30 million of its budget to provide roughly 35,000 iPads to 47 district schools, the Los Angeles Times reports. Because the devices will come pre-loaded with educational software, the price per unit clocks in at a hefty $678. LAUSD is the nation's second-largest school district with nearly 695,000 students as of data released in 2009, only surpassed by the New York City Department of Education with more than 1 million students.

The LA Times says that the actual benefits to Apple will actually be in the hundreds of millions of dollars during the two-year contract. LAUSD's superintendent John Deasy appeared in a video as part of Apple's textbook event in New York City in 2012, which was the launch of iBooks Author and iTunes U.

[via All Things D]

Los Angeles schools award $30 million iPad contract to Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple announced today that HBO GO and WatchESPN are now available on the Apple TV. Eddy Cue, Apple senior vice president of Internet Software and Services said that "HBO GO and WatchESPN are some of the most popular iOS apps and are sure to be huge hits on Apple TV."

The two new content providers are joined by Sky News, Crunchyroll and Qello. Sky News on Apple TV will deliver 24/7 news to viewers in the US, UK and Ireland. Crunchyroll is a Japanese anime and Asian media provider, and will let subscribers view the latest HD shows one hour after airing in Japan.

Qello is an on-demand streaming service for HD concerts and music documentaries, and offers free or paid subscriptions. Both Qello and Crunchyroll will be available for subscription on Apple TV. The full press release from Apple is included below.

HBO GO, WatchESPN come to Apple TV originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When you enable the Personal Hotspot feature on your iPhone, iOS will generate a password on your behalf. It's convenient, but recent research from FAU in Germany suggests it is not very secure.

According to researchers Andreas Kurtz, Felix Freiling and Daniel Metz, the default hotspot password in iOS 6 uses a short English word with some random numbers at the end. Earlier versions of iOS used a similar pattern that included two words separated by two numbers.

Not surprisingly, these passwords can be cracked in no time via a brute-force attack. Using one AMD Radeon HD 6990 GPU, the team was able to guess a password in 50 minutes. When they bumped the GPUs up to four AMD Radeon HD 7970s, they were able to drop the password-cracking time to a mere 50 seconds.

One reason the cracking was so easy is that Apple apparently uses a password list that picks from 1,842 words, and the selection of these words is not done randomly. It wouldn't take much effort for a savvy hacker to figure out this pattern and write a tool that would compromise a hotspot password faster than you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

The take home message is to change your hotspot password from the default one that is generated by iOS to one of your own choosing. It's easy enough to do -- just tap Settings > Personal Hotspot or Settings > General > Cellular > Personal Hotspot, depending on your device and software. Then tap the WiFi password field and type in a new phrase. The new password must be at least eight characters long and use ASCII/Unicode characters. You can read more about the Personal Hotspot feature on Apple's iOS support page.

[Via Engadget]

Researchers easily crack iOS-generated Hotspot passwords originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Silicon Valley Historical Association has released a short video clip of Steve Jobs from 1994, part of a 20-minute interview he gave while at NeXT. Jobs talked about his future legacy and discussed if he would be remembered for his work.

The clip's release is a promotion for the Silicon Valley Historical Association's 60-minute documentary based around the interview. Titled Steve Jobs: Visionary Entrepreneur, the documentary is available on the Silicon Valley Historical Association's website. A digital download is US$14.99, while the DVD costs $24.99 and an audio-only version is available for $4.99.

Steve Jobs talks about his legacy in new video from 1994 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rockstar Games has announced that it is bringing its popular console and PC title Max Payne 3 to the Mac on Thursday. Rockstar has yet to release its pricing, only stating that the Mac version of the game supports "a number of advanced graphics options, scalable high-resolution textures and character models, DirectX11 features, multi-monitor support and 3D."

As far as what users need to run the game, Rockstar recommends the following:

• Mac OS X 10.7.5 Lion
• Intel Dual-Core Xeon / Core i Series 2.4 GHz or greater
• 4GB System RAM
• NVIDIA(R) 8800GT 512MB VRAM or AMD Radeon HD 4870 512 VRAM
• HDD Space: 35GB

'Max Payne 3' coming to the Mac on June 20 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Facebook has updated its iOS app, adding new status icons and new privacy features. The version 6.2 update follows updates made to the web version of Facebook, especially regarding the all-important privacy status. Now after a user has posted a status update, photo or a link, they can tap a drop-down arrow next to the update and change the privacy settings. Users can change the privacy settings for older posts as well.

Users can now select emoticons and other status icons while writing a status update. The emoticons are meant to be selected after a user has written a status update, with the intention that the emoticon will give that users friends a quick visual glance as to how that person is feeling.

Here's a complete rundown of all the changes made in Facebook 6.2:

o. Add icons to status updates to show what you're feeling, reading, watching and more (English only).
o. Easily change who can see something you've shared.
o. Start a new conversation with photos you receive in messages.
o. Bug fixes.

Facebook for iOS is a free download.

Facebook update boosts privacy features to iOS app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple has released an update to its Configurator app. The OS X app allows users to configure and deploy iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices in an enterprise environment, such as schools or government institutions. While no major changes were introduced, there are several minor improvements that administrators of institutions will find useful. Here's the news from the release notes:

Apple Configurator 1.3 contains improvements and bug fixes including:

o. Significantly improved reliability, scalability and performance
o. A new status view that includes time estimates and error information with recovery suggestions
o. Ability to cancel scheduled or in-progress operations
o. Administrators can install apps on devices configured to not allow users to install apps

Apple Configurator is a free download in the Mac App Store.

Apple updates Configurator app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Square Enix's Bloodmasque was undoubtedly the strangest game I saw at E3 last week, and in a year defined by indie titles and two new HD consoles, I think that's saying something. Square Enix has had a weird time with the App Store -- other companies like Capcom and EA have found a lot of success in smaller titles, but Square Enix has clung to its own console traditions, releasing relatively large and high-quality, high-production titles for a relatively high cost. Bloodmasque follows this trend (though the price has yet to be announced just yet), and it also brings one weird little twist that was actually more charming than I expected.

The game is based in an alternate universe, sort of steampunky version of Paris in 1890, where an empire of vampires (yes, a vampire empire) rules the world. One plucky adventurer has the guts and the magical powers to stand up to those empires, and that adventurer is you. Literally you, I mean, because the game scans your face, and then inserts it right on to the main character. That's me and my character above, though keep in mind that this was day three of E3, so if I look a little tired, that's why.

The face-scanning thing is a gimmick, and yet strangely it works: After my face was scanned in and my hair was tuned to the right shape and color, I watched as my character (a little more fit than I am) saved a damsel in distress, and carried out a vampire fight scene. I tapped to attack, swiped to dodge and then when the vampire was almost dead, pulled off a jumping leap and staked him right in the back of the neck. You can actually record three different faces, so you get one frowning, one standard and one smiling. Each of them can look very different, which can make the animation a little strange. Even under the best of conditions, the face looks weird and a little creepy, sure, but I could tell it was me, so I guess that's the point.

Bloodmasque itself is really just a series of missions, which you navigate around via an overworld map. There's a light social game built on it as well -- you can choose two friends to join you in battle scenes, and their faces will also show up on screen as you play (you can elect to keep your face private, if you like, or you can choose a premade face if you're not interested in showing your mug to the world). Your friends get bonuses when you use them in battle, and vice versa, so having an oft-used mug will earn you more blood for upgrades and XP for missions.

There are exploration levels, too, but I found them pretty bland, unfortunately. We'll have to wait until the full game arrives to see if the story pulls us in at all. But the setting is distinct (steampunk is always a plus), and that face gimmick makes for a very interesting twist indeed. If the combat can sustain the fun, Bloodmasque could be a riotous way to put a character together, featuring your very own look.

Square Enix seems attached to the idea that selling premium games at a premium price will work, and I'm not one to disavow them of that, especially as lots of other companies race towards the bottom. Bloodmasque should be an interesting experiment -- it's set to come out sometime later on this summer.

Square Enix uses your face for action in Bloodmasque originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Thinking of buying new headphones for listening to music on your iPhone or iPod touch? You might want to try the Dirac HD Player or the Lite version instead to see if it can improve the sound from the headphones that came with your iOS music player.

Dirac is a Swedish company that does all kinds of high-end electronic equalization for the auto and electronics industry. You can hear their work in BMW, Rolls-Royce or Bentley autos, not that I get into too many Bentleys or other high-end cars...

Dirac has applied its sonic expertise to fixing some of the audio issues with Apple's headsets. The app is not designed for any other headset, as the EQ is quite specific to Apple's original iPhone and iPod touch headphones or EarPods.

The Lite version is free, and doesn't allow you to create or modify playlists, but the audio quality for the free and paid version (US$2.99) is the same.

I gave the app a listen on a variety of rock, jazz and classical tunes I had on my iPhone, and overall I would say the sound improved. My tests were with the Apple EarPods that came with my iPhone 5. The midrange seemed to be boosted, the edge was taken off strings and there was a bit more distinctness to the bass lines. Sometimes I felt the sound was different, not necessarily better, but in most cases I liked the improvement. There are no adjustments to make, other than to decide if you are listening on Apple headphones or EarPods.

A couple of caveats. You can only listen to music from your iTunes library. It won't work on other audio sources, like streaming radio. iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud aren't supported yet either, but they are coming.

If you are interested, I would suggest trying the free version to see if you like the sound improvement. If so, you might want to spring for the paid version for the extra flexibility.

I've listened to some other audio enhancers like the SRS iWow app and hardware solution. The results are more dramatic than the Dirac app, but the SRS app requires a hardware clip-on. However, it does work with any headphones and has many more adjustments.

The Dirac HD Players are optimized for the iPhone 5, and require iOS 5.1 or better.

Gallery: Dirac HD Player

Dirac HD Player can improve the Apple headphone and EarPod experience originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While Mavericks won't be officially released for a few months, developers already have their hands on the beta, and are putting the operating system to the test. One intrepid YouTube user, MrThaiBox123, has uploaded a video showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of the system's multi-monitor abilities. And he's done this with six 27-inch monitors. You know, just like your average work space.

It's important to note that the issues MrThaiBox123 deals with could all be fixed by the public release this fall. Still this is a fascinating look at both the upcoming operating system and the troubleshooting that comes with beta testing.

Testing the pros and cons of Mavericks' multi-display support originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A new update has been released for the popular social video app Vine that adds a sharing button beneath posts in your feed, along with the standard bug fixes that come with every update. Sharing is a nice touch that the app has been sorely lacking since its launch. When you hit share, you're given a list of options: Twitter, Facebook or embed.

When you share your own videos, the link is sent directly to the feed of your choice with no option to insert a personal message. The Vine is simply shared with the text you attached to it. However, when you share a friend's Vine you're given the option of attaching your own text to the repost, so you can tag friends... or perhaps enemies.

You can find the Vine version 1.1.3 in the App Store right now.

Vine 1.1.3 update adds a share button originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's been over a week since Apple announced the new Mac Pro, and while public opinion has been quite positive, the creative professionals who will most likely be the target market for the shiny cylinder haven't been heard from... until now. Macworld UK's Karen Haslam followed up with a number of power users, and found that while many are thrilled with the prospect of Apple's new flagship product, there are some concerns as well.

The lack of internal expansion in the new design is of concern to several commenters. Writing for Broadcast Engineer, David Austerberry noted that "If I upgrade, that spaghetti under the desk will be joined by more Thunderbolt spaghetti connecting to external storage." Referring to the turntable base of the new Mac Pro, Austerberry says, "If I need to plug in an external drive to bring in video content, I can attempt to plug in at the back, but the chassis isn't going to turn easily with all the cables plugged in. Some front connectors would have been dead handy!"

Despite the concerns about internal expansion, Final Cut Pro trainer Larry Jordan recently blogged that 80 percent of current Mac Pro users don't have any PCI cards installed except for the graphics card. Jordan also wrote that "Apple essentially provided a virtually unlimited number of card slots for users that need the maximum in expandability," in reference to the use of the still unproven Thunderbolt 2 bus.

Pros need a lot of storage. Video editor Lou Borella bemoans the lack of Thunderbolt peripherals, saying that the "missing piece is the lack of high-speed Thunderbolt-native RAID 5 storage systems" and "very, very few 5- to 10-drive RAID 5 systems, which we editors need the most."

Most of the pros seemed thrilled with the prospect of the Xeon E5-powered Mac Pro and fast PCIe flash memory. But most were also concerned about the lack of choice of GPU in the new Mac Pro. Borella "was drooling at the thought of two NVidia Titans" in his future Mac Pro, but Apple has apparently decided that the two built-in AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs are enough. Some Mac users have software that isn't optimized or even compatible with the new graphics card, so the ability to swap out GPUs is a major concern.

For the most part, many of the pros were optimistic, with Borella noting that "This machine will change the way my peripherals sit on my desk. It will cause me to take a hard look at my current monitor situation. It will cause me to re-evaluate my home network and my NAS devices. It might even cause me to give a harder look to FCPX. For good or bad this Mac Pro will change everything and cause a ripple effect in my entire computing life... It's probably about time that some company takes me to the next step."

We'll hear more about the Mac Pro, including pricing and expansion possibilities, as the fall release date draws closer. If you're a current Mac Pro owner and have your doubts or hopes about the new model, please leave us your comments below.

Mac pros react to the Mac Pro originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Agricola is one of the most popular board games around these days -- it's sort of a farming simulation game, where you can take two turns every round, and then periodically get rewards paid off in a harvest. Playdek is an up-and-coming iOS developer that's mostly done card games so far -- they're behind the Penny Arcade card game, as well as the excellent Ascension and a more complicated one I really like called Nightfall. Now, Playdek has teamed up with the creators of Agricola and Lookout Games to produce this iOS adaptation, available right now on the App Store for US$6.99.

The way the game works is that every round, you send out a family member to perform some task for you, including growing crops, bringing in resources or building fences for animals. During the game, you can add more members to your family, which means you'll have more chances to bring in resources, but you'll also have more people to feed when the harvest comes around. The game is complex, but the core idea (of building up your farm bit by bit) is strong, so after playing through the tutorial and seeing the process for a while, it's easy to start building your own strategies and plans.

Just as with the rest of their titles, Playdek has done a great job here in the presentation -- the game's stark but beautiful music goes well with the theme of fighting just to have enough, and all of the title's various processes and features are clearly displayed with charming and iconic touches. The game uses a top-down 2D drawn style, which might not have been quite as impressive as a full 3D farm environment, but works very well in getting all of the information you need across clearly. Plus, in addition to four gameplay modes, there's online or offline multiplayer, including a pass-and-play mode which is always a nice. Playdek knows well how to translate card games over to iOS, and this title proves they've been able to bring that expertise to board games as well. Agricola might be a bit pricey for those unfamiliar (or uninterested) in the original, but if you're looking for a full-featured, well-made adaptation of the popular board game, this is definitely it.

Daily iPhone App: Agricola is Playdek's great adaptation of the board game originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSS

Daily Update for June 18, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The clever folk over at Kintek have posted a handy system-to-system guide for anyone working in the mobile development space. This metaphor overview quickly references how items like buttons, switches, one-of-n selection and other common interface items are expressed by default in the target arenas.

You'll find items from Android, iOS 6 and iOS 7 listed side by side, so you can quickly review their visual presentation. Resource links take you to developer documentation. It's nicely done and well worth checking out.

[Via Swiss Miss]

DevJuice: iOS/Android PortKit translates visual metaphors originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD). Prices are subject to change.

Deals from Dealnews

• StackSocial: [Mac Software] The Name Your Own Price Double Down Mac Bundle for $4
• DiscountMags: [Magazines] Macworld Magazine 2-Year Subscription (24 issues) for $13
• MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Software] Flavours for Mac downloads for $10
• Adorama: [Camera Accessories] LumiQuest Event Shooting Kit for $35 + free shipping
• Paydeals.com: [iPad Accessories] ZAGG iPad and Android Tablet Accessories from $25 + free shipping
• all4cellular.com: [Camera Accessories] 160-LED Continuous Light Panel w/ Mount, Filters for $25 + free shipping
• DealGenius: [Surge Protectors] Coleman Cable 10-Outlet Surge Protector 2-Pack for $20 + free shipping
• Paydeals.com: [iPhone Accessories] Griffin TuneFlex AUX Car Charger Mount for iPhone for $7 + free shipping
• TigerDirect: [Keyboards] Ultra Slim USB Keyboard for $0 after rebate + $2 s&h
• Adorama: [Digital Tablets] Wacom Bamboo 4-Button Craft Tablet for $55 + free shipping
• Paydeals.com: [iPad Accessories] Sena Florence Leather Folio for iPad for $13 + free shipping
• TigerDirect: [Battery Backups/UPSs] Battery Backups at TigerDirect from $80 + $15 s&h

iOS Software

• Gridditor [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99] Gridditor is a new way to quickly and easily edit photos.

• World War Z [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99] The World War Z game challenges you: play to survive. In a race against time, travel the world to rescue your loved ones in the midst of the deadly Zombie pandemic.

• TinyLegends[TM] Monster Crasher [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Thousands of lives are depending on you. And valiant warriors are waiting for your call to eliminate the impending threat once for all.

• Commando Jack [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] You are Commando Jack, the baddest, meanest, toughest soldier planet Earth has to offer, and it's up to you to save the world from alien invasion.

• Occasions+ [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $0.99] Occasions+ is the best way to keep track of and remember important occasions in your busy life.

• mPass Pro [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $4.99] mPass provides a safe and simple way to store and manage all your passwords and private information.

• Random Heroes 2 [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Sequel to the amazing Random Heroes; now with more guns, explosions and crazy characters.

• RPG DarkGate - KEMCO [iPhone; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $6.99] Presenting Dark Gate, a full-blown fantasy RPG.

• Star Defender 3 [iPad; Category: Games; Now free, down from $1.99] Get ready to fight through hoards of alien beasts in Star Defender 3.

• LetterLasso [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] A new dynamic touch-based spelling game where a player attaches moving letters together in the correct order to spell a word.

• Battle Academy [iPad; Category: Games; On sale for $9.99, down from $19.99] Approachable, absorbing and visually impressive yet detailed, Battle Academy aims to revolutionise the strategy games market with a blend of intuitive design and compelling game play.

• Posing App [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $2.99] The ultimate posing reference for both photographers and models.

• CIA : Operation Ajax [iPad; Category: Books; Now free, down from $4.99] Operation Ajax tells the true story of the first CIA backed coup which toppled Iran's democracy in 1953. Combining subtle animation with a film-quality soundtrack, the story unfolds in a groundbreaking cinematic reading experience.

• Net Master - IT Tools & LAN Scanner [iPhone; Category: Utilities; Now free, down from $5.99] Net Master is a utility application developed for Network Administrators and IT Professionals but presented in a format targeted for non-professionals.

• My Measures & Dimensions [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $2.99] Just take a photo, add arrows, angles, text or notes. Now the measures are stored and always in your pocket wherever you go.

• 7 Minute Workout [iOS Universal; Category: Health & Fitness; Now free, down from $0.99] 12 high intensity bodyweight exercises. 30 seconds per exercise, 10 seconds rest between exercises.

• Paper Titans [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $2.99] Paper Titans is a charming and gentle papercraft-inspired puzzle adventure set across 45 lovingly crafted and beautifully realized levels.

• Over [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $1.99] Add beautiful text and artwork to your photos and share them on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr & Instagram.

• Tapatalk Forum App [iOS Universal; Category: Social Networking; Now free, down from $0.99] Tapatalk is the top forum app that allows you to connect to thousands of internet forums with ability to access private messages and upload images.

• Toca Hair Salon 2 [iOS Universal; Category: Education; Now free, down from $1.99] Our bestselling app Toca Hair Salon is back in an even better version, with new characters, new tools, new accessories and even more hairstyling fun. Apple's App of the week.

OS X Software

• Two Dollar Tuesday [OS X; Category: Various; On sale for $1.99] Two Dollar Tuesday offers three OS X apps for $1.99. Titles include Snail, Keynote Quarter and DM1:Drum Machine.

• Fantastical [OS X; Category: Productivity; On sale for $19.99, down from $29.99] Presenting the calendar app you'll actually enjoy using. Type in that you have "Lunch with John on Friday at 1pm" and Fantastical will schedule it.

• EverFont PRO - Font Preview Tool for Developers and Designers [OS X; Category: Utilities; Now free, down from $2.99] A font sampling tool for developers and designers, or anyone who just want to check out all the beautiful fonts included in Mac.

• iBank [OS X; Category: Finance; On sale for $49.99, down from $59.99] The Gold Standard for Mac money management. 10th anniversary sale, $10 off until July 15.

• popCalendar [OS X; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $0.99] popCalendar is a tiny calendar that fits in your menu bar giving you a faster access to your timetable.

• Snap [OS X; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $0.99] Launch an app in a snap. Ridiculously easy shortcut management for the Mac.

• ForkLift - File Manager and FTP/SFTP/WebDAV/Amazon S3 client [OS X; Category: Productivity; On sale for $4.99, down from $19.99] ForkLift is a robust and elegant file manager and FTP/SFTP client.

• MoneyWiz - Personal Finance [OS X; Category: Finance; On sale for $19.99, down from $29.99] Do more with your money. View all your accounts, budgets and bills in one place. Experience reports on a whole new level. Sync Everything across devices.

Daily Deals for June 18, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The excellent iOS RPG Knights of Pen and Paper has been updated to the +1 Edition (as we heard it would be back at GDC) and is now available as a free update on the App Store. This new version, which is technically 2.02, brings lots of new content, game updates, new dungeons to explore and many other extras. For example, there's now a place called The Tavern, where you can keep old heroes and swap in new ones. Several new battle options nearly turned Knights of Pen and Paper into entirely new game.

The +1 edition was spurred on by the game's new publisher, Paradox. Thanks to that collaboration, the game is also now available on Steam for US$9.99. But again, the iOS version is a free update, so if you've grabbed the game already, do be sure to download and give this version a try. If you haven't purchased it yet, you can grab it now for $2.99.

Knights of Pen and Paper now updated to +1 edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GOG.com has launched a huge summer sale today, with over 500 games available for very cheap and more changing in and out every day. I'm mentioning it here because the site has a big Mac section with classic games like Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate and even the great System Shock 2 all on sale for less than US$5 each. Alpha Centauri is one of my favorite games ever, and it's also on sale, as is the recent indie success FTL: Faster Than Light.

GOG is even offering the excellent dungeon crawler Torchlight for the low, low price of completely free, so definitely grab that and play it if you haven't yet. The big sale lasts through July 5, and there will be more titles in the mix as the event goes on, so stay tuned for more great games to play on your Mac this summer.

GOG.com hosts big summer sale, including lots of cheap Mac games originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What do you do when your one and only iPad app is a runaway success? If you're FiftyThree, the development firm behind the beautiful journal / art app Paper (free, many in-app purchases available), you get funding for expansion into new areas.

FiftyThree announced today that it received US$15 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreesen Horowitz, with such stellar investors as Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Bright Capital, Highline Ventures and SV Angel joining the party. Paper has been profitable from day one; it's usually in the Top 10 Paid Apps on the App Store, and over 80 million users have downloaded the app.

What's FiftyThree planning on doing with $15 million? Co-founder and CEO Georg Petschnigg says that he wants to add to his team of employees in Seattle and NYC, and create a suite of software, hardware and services. GigaOM's Erica Ogg talked with Petschnigg and although he wouldn't elaborate, the idea of a Paper-branded stylus is a natural outgrowth. Petschnigg's big picture for the firm appears to be collaboration: "We've been focused on iPad there, but the next part we're working on is services that will start to answer the question of how people work together and collaborate."

All secretive talk aside, we're looking forward to seeing what's next from the team at FiftyThree.

Paper for iPad developer receives $15 million in funding originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pushing towards a paperless future, the neat folks at Neat have released version 2.0 of Neat for iOS. The new build of the scanning-on-the-go application features much faster performance, scan annotation, new sharing and collaboration options, plus a new expense-reporting tool.

Neat has made its bones as a desktop scanning solution, offering both compact and ADF-enabled scanners that work with the company's Mac and PC applications for document management. The Neat mobile app extends that find-my-files experience for access on the go, with scans and folders synchronizing to the NeatCloud online service. You can quickly share folders or individual scans to collaborate with colleagues, or search the OCR / indexed text of your documents to find what you need quickly.

The expense report feature is intriguing; it creates a summary PDF from a collection or folder of receipt scans, totaling up the expenditure and listing categories as it goes. It's not going to supplant dedicated expense-reporting iOS tools like Concur, but for mobile freelancers who want a quick way to send expense overviews while simultaneously filing the receipts for safekeeping, it may get some traction.

The NeatCloud platform also includes an optional human-powered verification step called NeatVerify, which will run the automatic OCR results from your receipt or business card scans (no documents) past the eyes of a real, live person for checking. You can get 30 credits for this service for US$4.99 a month, so it's probably best to save it for key items.

Speaking of credits, while the Neat application is a free download from the App Store, the required NeatCloud service works on a paid subscription basis. After a 30-day free trial, you will need either the $14.99 or $29.99 monthly NeatCloud plan (discounted if you sign up for a year) to use the app; both plans offer additional features like extra users, cross-service search and more. Compare and contrast the $45 annual cost of an Evernote premium subscription, and you get the sense that Neat is aiming at the more demanding side of the market.

Neat revises mobile scanning app, adds expense reporting originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Casual artists looking to expand their sketching skills to the iPad should take a close look at Tayasui Sketches. The app landed in the iOS App Store earlier this month and rivals Paper as one of the best easy-to-use sketchbook apps.

Sketches reminds me of an artist's workbench with a canvas in the middle and a handful of tools neatly arranged on the side. Sketches includes six drawing tools, one fill tool and one eraser to get you started. You can use a US$1.99 in-app purchase to buy the complete set of 12 tools and their interchangeable tips. Besides the new tools, the pro version also gives you the ability to change the size and opacity of your tool tip.

Sketches may look simple on the surface, but there are a few key features that make the app a useful tool for serious sketchers and not just child's play. First and foremost is the ability to zoom in on the canvas and add small details to a drawing. It's great for adding a wrinkle to a forehead or the veins on a leaf. You can also draw a shape and fill it in with a pattern in one or two taps. You can even tweak the colors using a level tool that'll let you get the right hue, saturation and brightness. About the only thing missing from the app is support for notebooks. It would be wonderful to be able to group your individual sketches into a notebook to organize them.

Tayasui Sketches is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Daily iPad App: Tayasui Sketches is a basic, but beautiful sketching app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Flexibits has released Chatology for Mac (US$19.99), which lets you search your Messages chat history with great ease and success. Its looks will make it familiar to just about anyone who's used a Mac within the last ten years and and its integration with Messages is just lovely. Say goodbye to Apple's chat search.

Looks

Chatology is similar to iTunes, iPhoto and others as it has a list on the left and related details on the right. Again, it will be super familiar to most Mac owners, so you'll be up and running in no time. Click any name on the right to view the associated chat logs in clear, legible text. Conversations, images and links are a mere click away.

Finally, you can opt to see your conversations as balloons or boxes (I prefer balloons).

Gallery: Chatology for Mac

Use

Chatology finds the chat logs stored on your Mac at launch and displays each conversation according to the person on the other end. Click any name in the leftmost column to see your full history with that person in the center column, sorted by date. You'll also see the conversation's start time and duration.

You can refine your history by viewing logs from today, within the last seven days, the last 30 or within the last year. Once you've selected a particular history to scour, you can view the full conversation, just images or just links. While testing this app, I was able to find two images I remembered seeing in chat but failed to drag out. It was crazy easy to find them: I just pulled up the conversation, clicked "images" and there it was.

There's a search box, too. Simply type in the term you're after and there it is.

Here's what I love about Chatology. There's a preference to enable Messages integration. When enabled, you'll be brought right to Chatology when you hit Command-F in Messages. It's like launching über-search mode.

Finally, you can export any conversation as a plain text file, use Quick Look to view images and delete a chat log, all from the app.

Conclusion

Those who have lots of conversations in chat, especially those that might include desirable reference information, will do well to install Chatology. Likewise, it's a good choice for users who are not satisfied with the search feature in Messages.

Chatology for Mac is available now for US$19.99 from the Flexibits Store. It requires Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later. Please note that Chatology for Mac will only be available from the Flexibits Store. It will not available from the Mac App Store. Unfortunately, Apple's policies won't allow an app like Chatology on the Mac App Store.

Pick it up now and get searching.

Chatology for Mac lets you easily search Message histories originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As noted by AppleInsider, AT&T has begun its FaceTime over cellular rollout to users. Back in May, AT&T stated that, by the end of 2013, all users would be able to use FaceTime over cellular. It appears that transition has begun. According to AppleInsider:

So far, activation of the service has been verified in parts of New York, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, California and Hawaii. Voice and video quality is nearly on a par with the WiFi implementation of the service, suggesting AT&T is not throttling those subscribers who choose to use the feature while on the go.

In January AT&T began rolling out FaceTime over cellular to users of its tiered data plans. By the time this current rollout is complete, all AT&T users will be able to use FaceTime over cellular, including those on grandfathered-in unlimited data plans.

[Editor's Note: A couple of weeks ago I noticed FaceTime over cellular was enabled for me, and I'm in Tennessee -- others confirm similar activations in the state. - VA]

AT&T begins FaceTime over cellular rollout originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Goal Zero's solar charging products are a favorite here at TUAW, and the company loves New Yorkers -- it provided a number of charging products during the power outages after last fall's Hurricane Sandy. Now Goal Zero, AT&T and Brooklyn-based design studio PENSA are teaming up to offer public solar-powered charging stations in NYC. Street Charge will be going live today at Fort Greene Park, with a total of 25 units bringing power to the people this summer.

Additional Street Charge devices will be installed as the summer heats up at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Coney Island, Riverside Park, Rockaways, Summerstage in Central Park, Randall's Island, Governor's Island, Union Square and Hudson River Park. The 90-day trial program is light-impact -- solar power means no digging up parks or pathways to lay cable.

The top of the "metal tree" is covered with three monocrystalline solar panels to charge up batteries located in the "trunk." There are three tiny tables, equipped with built-in charging cords for iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and phones with micro-USB connectors. Each of the USB ports provides five volts at up to two amps of current (10 watts), enough to fully charge an iPhone in about two hours although the companies expect most people to just "top off" their devices. That current level is compatible with iPad fast charging as well. Three female USB connectors are also available for those who bring their own cords. The bottom of the "branches" feature LED lights to illuminate the area at night.

The design of the Street Charge units is also perfect for striking up a conversation with others while your phone is getting juice. Neil Giacobbi of AT&T was quoted about that social aspect on The Verge this morning, saying "What's [the charger scene] going to be like at 4:30 in the morning in Union Square? I have no idea, but we're going to find out."

AT&T hasn't said if it will sponsor Street Charge units in other metropolitan areas, but those who are interested in the solar charging stations can get a quote on how much it will cost to deploy one or more in their city. You can also check out this Serbian park charger, flagged by a Verge commenter as an early example of the genre.

Goal Zero and AT&T join up for Street Charge in NYC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.