Mac Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Productivity Tip: When and how to use paper vs software

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (May 14th, 2013)

One of the problems with giving people advice is that certain topics are so... personal. Our previous experiences, current technology and outside pressures inevitably corral us into a particular line of thinking or acting. So it is with the debate over paper vs. software solutions. Personally, ...

Former Google, Apple employees working on educational robots

by John-Michael Bond (May 14th, 2013)

Sure, kids can play with an iPad to learn how to program, but what about robots? Play-i is a startup company seeking to develop affordable (under US$100), programmable robots as an educational tool for children. Normally this would sound like the plot of a bad '90s sci-fi movie of the week, ...

Pixelmator and Acorn: economic, practical image editors

by Erica Sadun (May 14th, 2013)

Last week, after Adobe announced its move to a subscription-based cloud plan, our own Kelly Hodgkins asked me to look at software alternatives for some Creative Suite apps. We know that none of these apps provide a full replacement for Photoshop or Illustrator. What she asked me to do was to ...

Mac 101: Upgrade to SSD

by Shawn "Doc" Boyd (May 14th, 2013)

If you are looking for a way to get more out of your MacBook or MacBook Pro, consider a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs offer faster data read and write speeds, fast file transfers, speedier boot times and will save you some battery life. In the past, SSDs were considered somewhat pricey upgrades ...

Caturday (late): Max and his Magic Trackpad

by Steven Sande (May 12th, 2013)

You thought you were going to get through another weekend without that TUAW classic Caturday? Well, you're wrong. Today's feline geek is Max, a six-month-old Singapura who loves to help his human, Sumner Paine, work on his 27" iMac. According to Sumner, "He helps me type on the keyboard, he ...

Kensington USB 3.0 Multi-Display Adapter adds video options to your Mac (giveaway!)

by Steven Sande (May 11th, 2013)

Have a need to attach more monitors to your USB 3.0-equipped Mac, but don't want to use a Thunderbolt, Mini DisplayPort, or HDMI port? Kensington may have just the thing for you -- the Universal Multi-Display Adapter (US$79.99 MSRP), AKA the USB 3.0 Multi-Display Adapter. We previewed this ...

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Update 14.3.4

by Steven Sande (May 10th, 2013)

In case you haven't launched Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 in the past few days, there's an update for the office suite that became available on May 7. The 14.3.4 update of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is considered to be a "critical" update, and includes a number of fixes. Most of the fixes ...

Apple issues stability fix firmware update v1.2 for Thunderbolt

by Steven Sande (May 10th, 2013)

Have a Mac equipped with Thunderbolt? Then head on over to your friendly neighborhood Mac App Store this morning, click on Updates and get yourself a nice firmware update. Firmware update v1.2 for Thunderbolt "provides stability fixes for Thunderbolt and Target Disk Mode" and requires a machine ...

Pixelmator 2.2 available with over 100 new features and improvements

by John-Michael Bond (May 9th, 2013)

Popular image-editing app Pixelmator has released version 2.2, which brings a slew of new features to the already powerful program. The update comes with an expanded collection of shapes, tools to manipulate them, enhanced gradient palettes and a new paint selection tool among the more than 100 ...

Sony waives its publishing fee; Would Apple ever do the same?

by Mike Schramm (May 8th, 2013)

Video-game maker Sony has been making a big push for independent developers lately, both on its handheld PS Vita system and on its upcoming PlayStation 4 console, and yesterday, the company took another big step. Sony has decided to waive its usual US$99 fee for PlayStation Mobile developers, ...

Reality Absorption Field: Backups Capsule

by Ross Rubin (May 8th, 2013)

Despite the great success and momentum of the iPad, the iPhone is still probably Apple's product that continues to receive the most attention by the broadest number of consumers as well as by investors. The smartphone slips easily into a pocket, accesses cloud from virtually anywhere, has a slick ...

Feed Wrangler: A subscription-based RSS reader for web and iOS

by Matt Tinsley (May 8th, 2013)

Feed Wrangler (US$19/year) is David Smith's subscription-based RSS aggregation and syncing service for web and iOS devices. If you're a Google Reader user, you're probably aware that the service will shut down on July 1st. This means you'll either go back to browsing your favorite news and blog ...

Viber expands its VoIP service with new OS X app

by Mike Schramm (May 7th, 2013)

Viber is a voice-over-internet app that's seen some success on iOS already, but today the company announced a brand-new version for both OS X and Windows. Viber Desktop has all of the features of the iOS app, including free messages and calls to other users, synced contacts and history between ...

Targus announces line of Mac-compatible docking stations

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (May 7th, 2013)

Following on the heels of Kensington, Targus announced this morning that it has made its USB 3.0 docking stations Mac-compatible. Targus' docking stations have four USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports. The stations can handle resolutions of up to 2,048 x 1,152, deliver 1080p video and graphics ...

Adobe to go subscription-only with Creative Cloud software

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (May 6th, 2013)

As Adobe finds its footing in a cloud-based world, it pulled a move that most likely will generate a backlash from the students and creative professionals that rely on its software. Adobe announced that the Creative Suite software will be rebranded as Creative Cloud and confirmed it will no longer ...