Mac posts

Filed under: Deals

A Dozen Daily Deals, Day 2

by Jason Clarke (RSS feed) on Nov 26th, 2009

As Victor mentioned yesterday, for the next few days we'll be featuring daily deals from our friends at DealNews.com. Lots of good stuff today, so why not get started browsing for Christmas gifts on stuffing day? Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Walmart: [Black Friday] Walmart Thanksgiving Day Sale live now
Best Buy: [Black Friday] Best Buy Thanksgiving Weekend Sale: Netbooks from $180, more
MacMall: [Black Friday] MacMall 72 Hour Apple Black Friday Sale: Up to 25% off Apple systems after rebate
RadioShack: [Black Friday] Radio Shack Shack Friday Sale live now
Sam's Club: [Black Friday] Sam's Club Black Friday Sale live now
JR: [Black Friday] JR.com posts Black Friday Sale
6ave: [Black Friday] 6th Avenue Electronics Thanksgiving Day Sale live now
DicksSportingGoods: [Black Friday] Dick's Sporting Goods Black Friday Doorbuster deals now live
iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Gameloft iPhone / iPod touch Apps: Real Tennis 2009, Blades of Fury, more for 99 cents each
Lowe's: [Black Friday] Lowe's Super Friday Sneak Peek Sale live now
GoGamer: [Black Friday] GoGamer Black Friday Madness: Deals from 1 cent + $3 s&h
iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] CoPilot Live North America for iPhone downloads for $20

Tags: black-friday, dealnews, deals, electronics, hgg, iphone, ipod, mac, sale

Filed under: TUAW Business, TUAW Tips

Featured job of the week: Mac developer for graphics focused project

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (RSS feed) on Nov 25th, 2009

Job Description

Join an award-winning ex-Apple graphic designer as well as a respected computer vision/graphics researcher, with patents licensed by a number of well-known technology brands, to take a patent-pending technology and build it into a best-of-class Mac application.

We are looking for a talented developer with a passion for building creative solutions in the graphics space.

Candidate will be responsible for overseeing software development, testing and launch. The expectation is for this product to be a game-changer; we're looking for a talented developer who can help make that a reality.

For more info, and to apply, check out the full requirements and contact info on this job's page.

Tags: developer, employment, featured job, FeaturedJob, graphics, job, mac, work

Filed under: Humor, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Found Footage

Finder icon birthday cake will make your day

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Nov 22nd, 2009

If there's one thing I like better than pie, it's cake. And if there's a best kind of cake, it's definitely one that's shaped in the form of something geeky. Which means the video above, which shows what seems to be a tasty confection in the form of Apple's Finder icon, hits the spot perfectly. David B.'s wife made it for him for his birthday earlier this week, he says over on his Twitter account. He doesn't say what kind of cake it is, but given that it's Finder, I'm going to guess chocolate. An iTunes icon cake would give off a more "vanilla" vibe to me.

We've also, you'll remember, seen this Finder icon parading around on pillows as well. Which isn't too surprising -- who could pass up a face like that? Not only is he a handsome dude with a mischievous smile, but he's got access to all your files and passwords. That's the kind of guy you'd better get along with.

Thanks to Chris Pirillo for the tip!

Tags: birthday-cake, chocolate, finder, icon, itunes, logo, mac, parading, vanilla

Filed under: Software, Freeware, Developer

Chrome for Mac due in December?

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Nov 12th, 2009

I sure thought Google Chrome was already out for Mac, but apparently that was just a developer preview -- they haven't yet done an official release (it's been a tough road to travel, I guess). But the wait is almost over, according to Mashable.

They've spotted a message on a developer list that hints at a beta release as soon as this December, assuming the extensions team gets their BrowserActions ready, the code clears the appointed timelines, and the stars align over the Pegasus constellation in the fifth quadrant. (Can you tell I don't know anything about what it takes to ship a new browser? Or, for that matter, about astrology?)

But I do know something about using browsers, and it'll be nice to finally have an official version of Chrome to run on the Mac. There have been a couple of unofficial attempts at getting the base software running, but especially since I plan to use more and more of Google Wave, being able to run it in the "official" Google browser will be nice.

Tags: astrology, browser, chrome for the mac, ChromeForTheMac, december, development, google, google chrome, google-chrome, GoogleChrome, mac, open source, open-source, OpenSource

Filed under: Steve Jobs, Apple History

Found Photos: Rarely seen Steve Jobs

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Nov 7th, 2009

As Dave Caolo told TUAW readers a few days ago, Fortune named Apple CEO Steve Jobs "CEO of the Decade" for his phenomenal leadership at Apple and how he has remade four industries (music, movies, mobile telephones, and computing) in the past ten years.

Part of the Fortune article was a collection of rarely seen photographs of Steve Jobs. From the early days with Steve Wozniak, to his recent battles with pancreatic cancer, the photos chronicle the life of the iconic CEO.

Two of my personal favorites in the gallery are a photo taken in 1982 of Jobs and the Mac team having a working lunch as they hammer out the design of the first-generation Mac, and another of a barefoot Jobs meeting with Bill Gates at the Jobs home in Palo Alto to talk about the future of computing for Fortune.

The entire set of posts, along with the photos and video, are a fascinating look into the many successes and few failures of the engimatic Mr. Jobs. If you have a chance, take a look at it this weekend.

Tags: apple history, AppleHistory, CNNMoney, Fortune, mac, photos, steve jobs, SteveJobs

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Bluetooth, Apple

Apple patent application details simple "Grab and Go" sync

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Nov 7th, 2009

Apple, being the innovative corporation that it is, applies for patents many times per year. While many of these items may never make it to market, the company is proactive in making sure that possible patents are filed as soon as possible in order to protect the intellectual property that's been developed.

One such filing from last year describes a fascinating cloud-based, cross-platform sync service referred to as "Grab & Go." The filing showed up earlier this week and demonstrates how synchronization of data over multiple devices could be simplified. Grab & Go creates pre-defined data sets with categories like family, entertainment, or business that a user could literally "grab" and move to a device. The patent document shows how sharing files between devices (whether the device is a smartphone, computer, tablet, or even a game console) could be made easier.

The software is flexible enough to adapt to different connection types (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, to name a few) and can provide different levels of encryption and security. The filing even discusses a possible requirement of having two or more devices within a certain distance of each other in order for synchronization to begin.

If you're up for a long, but interesting read over the weekend, head on over to the US Patent & Trademark Office and check out the details of Grab & Go. It could be a foretaste of things to come, or just another long legal document.

[via AppleInsider and Engadget]

Tags: apple, apple tv, AppleTv, bluetooth, iphone, mac, patent, sync, wi-fi

Filed under: TUAW Business

Need a Mac or iPhone developer? TUAW job boards are here!

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (RSS feed) on Nov 3rd, 2009

Notice anything new at TUAW? We've had our job boards up for a week now, making sure all the tape would stick when new jobs were posted, and I'm proud to say that the doors are wide open for job seekers and for those looking to fill positions. We've got a button up top that'll take you straight to the boards, and on every post there's a handy button (see below) which will start populating with relevant job searches based on the content of our posts.

tuaw job application emurse work employer

Still not convinced? Did I mention that those looking for hires will see their jobs on our boards, on the boards at Download Squad, plus those jobs are sent over to Juju, Simply Hired, Indeed and other job aggregation services. TUAW and Download Squad together serve up over ten million views a month, and serve over a million visitors each month. If you don't think your job posting will get seen, think again. We'll also write up interesting and amazing people and positions right here on the main page of TUAW from time to time, further extending your hiring reach.

If you're looking for developers, designers, Mac sysadmins or just about anything else, stop by the TUAW job boards and give it a try.

Tags: designer, developer, emurse, for hire, ForHire, iphone, jobs, mac, tuaw, work

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends

SuperDuper! 2.6.2 now even more so!

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 13th, 2009

Many Mac pros are unnaturally fond of SuperDuper!, the accurately-named backup utility from Shirt Pocket Software. The application is inexpensive (free, actually, if you don't want advanced features -- the best US$27.95 you've ever spent, otherwise), powerful, and easily makes fully-bootable backups of your Mac.

The latest version of SuperDuper! has just been released. Version 2.6.2 is now available and has a ton of new features and fixes. Here's the scoop from the revision history:

Significant copy speed improvements (up to 2 times faster!)
Preserves compression when copying
Fixed extra copying under Snow Leopard
Scheduled copies in old format are now disabled and we prompt the user to recreate
Scheduled copies work on Japanese systems and with more Unicode/composed character drive names
Backup-on-mount should work on 10.4.11
Adjusted SDUtil path to improve robustness when application is moved (now symlinked/refreshed)
Minor copy tweaks
Reworked SL status to use 1000B = 1MB, 1024B = MiB for Leopard and earlier.
Fixed crontab escaping if user has tcsh as their default shell
Fixed issues with explicit Spotlight disable/enable under 10.5+

If you currently have SuperDuper!, you'll be notified of the update the next time you fire it up. If you don't have it, get it.

Thanks to Scott for the tip!

Tags: backup, mac, software, superduper, update

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Beta Beat

Google Chrome browser for Mac coming later this year? You can test it now.

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 12th, 2009

Despite rumors that the Google Chrome Web browser for Mac would not ship until 2010, it appears that the golden version of the new browser may be heading to Macs a lot sooner than expected.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that CEO (and former Apple board member) Eric Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brin had a few things to say about the new browser, including (according to 9to5Mac) that Chrome browser for Mac will ship in "a couple of months."

Apparently, the relatively slow adoption of the beta version of the browser has been due in part to the fact that development of the Mac version has lagged behind work for other platforms. To quote Schmidt, "The fundamental story about Chrome is speed. We were hurt by slowness to bring out a Mac version. People who move to Chrome have trouble moving back because of the speed."

The Mac beta version is available and can be downloaded by those who are willing to use a browser without certain privacy features that is "not appropriate for general consumer use." I've had it on my Macs for about the last week and have been impressed with the speed of page rendering, although not with the current compatibility with some sites.

So, TUAW readers -- is Google Chrome (the browser, not the OS) too little, too late? Or is it a web browser that will make a difference on the Mac platform? Voice your opinions in the comments section below.

Tags: beta, browser, chrome, google, mac

Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends

Tips and tricks: Putting Things in your Dropbox makes syncing simple

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 10th, 2009

After several years of trying to figure out what task manager for Mac and iPhone worked best with my peculiar style of organization, I finally settled on Things from Cultured Code. The Mac application is easy to use, uncluttered, and can take advantage of many keyboard shortcuts, while the iPhone app [iTunes Link] gives me a portable version of the Things database to take on the road. While the iPhone app can do a local sync to a Mac, it still doesn't do over-the-air syncing, which I hope Cultured Code will add in a future release.

When I made Things my task manager, I needed to make sure that I could use the same database on both my desktop Mac and my MacBook Air, since the Mac version doesn't do syncing either. It turns out that one of the easiest ways to do this is to use the wonderful cloud storage application Dropbox to hold my Things database, and then point Things on both Macs to use the shared database.

Fortunately, a Brit by the name of Bradley Wright had already done all of the hard work and had written up some command-line instructions on how to do this. Brad does all the work in the Terminal; here, I'll describe how to do most of the work in the Finder with the exception of creating a symbolic link at one point.

Continue reading “Tips and tricks: Putting Things in your Dropbox makes syncing simple”

Tags: Cultured Code, CulturedCode, features, Mac, software, syncing, Things, tips and tricks, TipsAndTricks

Filed under: Desktops, Hardware, Switchers

Report: 12% of US households own a Mac

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 5th, 2009

A new NPD report says that 12% of US households now own a Mac of some kind. That's a nice gain -- just a year ago, back in 2008, the same stat was at 9 percent, so Apple has made nice jumps just in the last 12 months. But before you start crowing about Apple's impending superiority, here's another fact that might have you thinking twice: of those households, a whopping 85% also own a Windows computer. In fact, 66% of those Apple households actually own three computers or more. So many more Apple owners own more than one computer, and of those, it's pretty darn likely that one of them is still a Windows PC. That's certainly the case at my house (I own a Mac mini, a MacBook, and a PC), and I bet it's true for lots of you Mac users as well.

There is good news for Apple in terms of iPods however: 63% of Apple-owning households also have an iPod on hand, though I'd question whether that's chicken or egg: do they own an iPod because they owned a Mac or vice versa? Additionally, Apple users are more likely to have navigation systems in their cars, they're more likely to earn over $100,000, and they're likely to have twice as many gadgets as other users -- 48 gadgets on average for Mac owners, compared to 24 for the average consumer household.

While those stats are interesting, none of them seem super surprising -- Apple has a reputation for high-end gadgets, and so anyone who seeks out their products is going to pick up some other gadgets as well.

Tags: apple, gains, households, ipod, laptops, mac, mac-mini, npd, npd-report, research, statistics, survey

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Reviews, Retro Mac

TUAW Review: StuffIt Deluxe 2010

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 3rd, 2009

If there's one Mac application that has seemingly been around forever, it's StuffIt. This compression and archiving utility was the tool to use for compressing files years ago, and I'll still occasionally run into a .sit file extension when pulling up old files. The original application was the source of a bit of Mac folklore, as it was developed and supported for quite a while by a young student by the name of Raymond Lau.

Mac OS X did its best to kill off StuffIt by adding built-in support for Zip compression, but the utility has continued to flourish over the years. During the last week, Smith Micro released the newest version of the application, StuffIt Deluxe 2010 (US$79.95, with an introductory price of US$29.95 through October 15, 2009).

Since compression has been part of Mac OS X for quite a while, you might think that this application would have limited usefulness. Smith Micro is spinning StuffIt Deluxe 2010 as a better way to share large files over the Internet. How does it work? Read on, my friends...

Continue reading “TUAW Review: StuffIt Deluxe 2010”

Tags: compression, fail, i hate this app, IHateThisApp, mac, review, software, stuffit, utility, vintage

Filed under: Software, Wireless, Odds and ends, Freeware, iTunes, Developer

BlackBerry alert! BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac arrives

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 2nd, 2009

A TUAW reader zapped us a note with his BlackBerry device to tell us that as of today, BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac is available (we first noted it as "coming in September" back in July).

It's a free download [link], and requires Mac OS X 10.5.5 or better, BlackBerry device software version 4.2 or higher, and iTunes 7.2 or newer. Key features of the software include the ability to synchronize your iTunes library with your CrackBerry, sync calendars, contacts, and appointments, & add or delete apps and files.

This is the first time that Research In Motion (RIM) has developed their own solution for syncing Macs and BlackBerry handhelds. In the past, the company made a version of PocketMac for BlackBerry available at no cost to Mac-owning customers, and other third-party developers such as Mark/Space have had BlackBerry solutions available for many years.

Thanks to Storry for the tip!

Tags: blackberry, desktop, mac, software

Filed under: Gaming, Humor, Software, Odds and ends, Developer

Bioshock for Mac on October 7th

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 24th, 2009

I can personally attest to Bioshock being a terrific game, but the problem is that probably, many of you can as well. Let's be honest -- it actually came out for PC and consoles a full two years ago. At this point, a Mac port is probably useless, but it's coming out anyway. Feral Interactive has announced that they'll be releasing the port on October 7th of this year, so those of you Mac diehards who refuse to play games on any other platforms can finally get your fix. The game will be released for $49.95 in the US, and can be preordered on Feral's store right now. Or, you know, you can run out to Best Buy, pick up a copy for $20 and run it in Boot Camp, it's up to you.

If you are going for the Mac version, however, you should know that the game doesn't support the Intel GMA integrated video cards, so you'll need a dedicated video card in your Mac to play it. Bioshock is a great game, as I've said, and if you really stretch it out, it might give you a good six months of free time entertainment -- just in time for you to pick up the Mac port of Hellgate: London, a game released in December of 2007. Oh wait.

Tags: bioshock, boot-camp, consoles, false, feral-interactive, games, gaming, hellgate-london, humor, integrated-video, intel-gma, late, mac, mac-diehards, pc, porting, two-years, videogames

Filed under: Multimedia, Software

CameraBag makes it to the desktop

by Mel Martin (RSS feed) on Sep 24th, 2009

We took a look at CameraBag for the iPhone in June. It's a nifty little app that applies several pre-set filters to your photos. Now, the developers have released an almost identical app for the desktop.

Users got hooked on the ease of adding filters and altering photos, and they wanted it on their desktops and laptops too, so now it's a reality.

CameraBag Desktop for the Mac gives you 9 basic filters, 7 vary the color to match various films, and 2 filters provide gray scale filters.

The filters can be layered one on top of the other if you desire, and with the 'reprocess' command. Every time you press it you get a variation on the original filter.

As on the iPhone app, you can choose a border for your picture, and then output the picture at the original size or you can scale it down.

The filters mimic the look of old instant camera films, and a host of other camera, film and lens combinations.

CameraBag is not for the advanced digital photographer, but if you want to take an image and quickly apply a filter and a border this is a welcome tool.

I'd like to see some more things added, like saturation controls and sliders for color temperature and sharpness. Adding those features combined with the filters would give a user almost unlimited control of the look of the images. As it is, your starting point is always what the designer of the filter had in mind. While you can reprocess, you have no control, and the parameters change at random.

In the gallery I've included some variations on a single photo to show you some of the possibilities. You can also visit a web page to see how customers have used the CameraBag technology.

CameraBag is US$19.00 and can be ordered direct from the developer.

Gallery: CameraBag screenshots

Tags: CameraBag, digital photography, DigitalPhotography, image, mac, Mac application, photo, photo filters, photo frames, software

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A Dozen Daily Deals, Day 2