Some applications, or even some ideas, just make you want to write about them. They make you grab that (virtual) pencil and put down your opinion for the world to read.

Bodega is one such application. The team responsible for this new product (IDFusion Software and Centrix.ca) aims to solve one of the ancient problems of the Mac users developers community: application search and distribution.

The Application

As the successful App Store already solved the problem for iPhone and iPod users, Bodega wants to bring an elegant and organized way to search, find, install, and keep track of all our favorite applications on the Mac. A very Mac-like program resembling a little shop would present you with a variety of categories, a shelf of featured products, and the essential search engine.

Two of the nicest and more original features of Bodega are the local applications section (which allows you to keep updates track of your installed apps, and even the ones you didn’t buy through Bodega), and the press links section (which helps not only users who may want to find reviews about possible purchases, but also developers who may want to link reviews, news, or blog spots regarding their applications.

Bodega is a very responsive and light app (I’ve never been a fan of the slow-loading iTunes App Store); it has some nice New Releases, Shopkeeper’s Picks, Top Free, and Top Paid Downloads sections. The money is supposed to be made by sponsors’ ads, which will be nicely displayed on the store, not the apps.

Developers Playground

If you’re a developer and you want your application to be sold in the Bodega, you can become part of the developers group by opening a free account.  Once you confirm your account, you will be able to add applications press links, generate reports, see ratings/comments about your applications, and much more. There’s even a dedicated place for all of you Mac developers at this stand with all the information you need to know to get started.

Once an app is submitted, the guys in charge will, as they say, “... moderate it strictly to ensure it’s a legit submission, test links, and make sure it’s not malware.” I’m sure they’re working hard to make this a pretty straightforward and objective process. Learning from Apple mistakes on the evaluation of submitted applications could be a way to go here.

Bodega currently has over 170 applications on its shelves, and a lot more coming its way. Time will determine the future of this initiative. Users, developers, and the Bodega team’s ability to improve and promote their work will be a key factor of success. So far, the idea is great, the application is promising, the hopes are high, and the support undeniable for these guys who dared to bring a solution to the Mac software-distribution table.

Product [Bodega]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for August 5, 2009:

Macintosh

• Popular Mac-only game publisher, Red Marble Games has announced the release of I-Play’s popular Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets game for the Macintosh. Unique, with an engaging storyline developed by award-winning game designer Jane Jensen and beautiful art, Dr. Lynch is a compellingly fun game that raises the standards in the crowded hidden-object genre. Take on the role of Dr. Ignatius Lynch, investigator of paranormal claims.
• bambooapps has announced the update of Keep Your Word for Mac OS X Leopard. Keep Your Word is a vocabulary and flashcards cataloger and trainer for Mac and iPhone. It lets you build your own dictionary, classifying and grouping the terms exactly how you want to. Version 1.6 brings many new features, like a new study mode, new exercise mode, new grouping and classification options or a more flexible layout. Get a 50% off purchasing the app on August 7 and 8 using the coupon HAPPYANNIVERSAR.
• Once again, An Event Apart attendees show their incredible creativity and skill. On the second day of An Event Apart Boston 2009, a web app that let attendees indicate where they were sitting by associating a Twitter ID with a spot on a seating chart made its debut. The app, coined A Seat Apart, was created by Allister Klingensmith, a managing partner at New York City’s Sugarspun Industries. Klingensmith’s app assigned a known static physical value, an attendee’s seat, to a known static ethereal value, that attendee’s Twitter name, which let attendees collaboratively create a map of themselves.
• Freeverse’s Sound Studio has been updated to version 3.6 and is available now. The newest additions to the software include more Core Audio formats and introduce IMA 4:1 for iPhone development. AudioUnit plugins and Resampling have been tweaked for maximum efficiency and new shortcuts and toolbar adjustments make the program even more streamlined. With sample rate converter quality now at maximum and other various performance enhancements, Sound Studio is the premier Mac sound editing software for any digital audio project.
• SkypeCap has announced SkypeCap for Mac 3.1, an update to their Skype video and audio session recorder for Mac OS X. With a focus on ease-of-use, SkypeCap for Mac allows recording of audio and video conversation from Skype to video and audio files. SkypeCap for Mac saves your Skype sessions so that you could hear and watch them again later or share them with someone else.
• Macvide has announced ScreenCap 2.2, an update to their screen recording and capturing utility for Mac OS X. Developed specifically for Mac users, ScreenCap allows video recording, single screenshot or timed screenshot series capturing from your Mac. All of the most popular video and image formats are supported. ScreenCap offers an easy-to-use interface that guides the user through the captturing and recording process.

iPhone/iPod

• AppAdvice wants to let you know how to get push notifications now.
• Newtoy has announced Words With Friends 1.0, their new game for iPhone and iPod Touch. Words With Friends brings the same addicting turn-based gaming style of Chess With Friends to crossword gameplay. Players engage in “crossword combat” in several different ways. With Friends lets players have dozens of games going simultaneously, adding new opponents while waiting for friends to make their moves, even passing notes with the in-game chat function.
• LoopInsight has announced the formal launch of The Loop. Founded by Apple and technology industry veteran and personality, Jim Dalrymple, The Loop provides comprehensive and insightful news, editorial, and commentary on iPhone, iPod, Macintosh, associated third-party software and accessories, Apple itself, and industry trends in which it is involved. The Loop is an innovative continuation of Dalrymple’s 15 plus years of work with the venerable MacCentral, and then Macworld.
• Readdle has announced the release of AniGif 1.0, their new iPhone application that lets people create animated images from their photos and send anywhere in the world. AniGif uses photos from the iPhone camera to make fun and inspiring animations to watch on the iPhone, send by email and even post to Twitter. AniGif sends animations as email messages with animated GIFs attached to the email. Anyone with a modern email client can view the message on a phone, laptop or computer.
• Agile Partners and musician Jason Forrest have introduced Star6, an application that transforms the iPhone into a performance-ready sample instrument. Star6 is the world’s first fully-featured, performance-grade sample instrument for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows anyone to create an infinite variety of amazing sounds from their own samples or by using Star6’s free presets (on-the-go, wherever they are).
• Boinx Software has published the recording of the first German iPhoneDevCamp, hosted by App Records and Boinx Software in Puchheim, near Munich. The iPhoneDevCamp Munich was a satellite event of the iPhoneDevCamp 3 at Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, CA on August 1st. The presentations (in German language) by leading iPhone developers about new market opportunities and ways to improve development efficiency were recorded and streamed live with BoinxTV.
• Greyhound Games has announced Sub Hunt for iPhone and iPod touch. Sub Hunt brings arcade style action to the iPhone in a way that no other game has, placing you in control of an advanced prototype submarine as you battle your way through scores of enemies. Depth charges, mines, torpedoes and bombs are just a small subset of what the enemy will relentlessly throw at you.
• Have you been waiting for it? Here you are! This is not just a pinball. This is The Deep. Built up on the unique 3D engine, winning over by realistic physics and smashing music, The Deep Pinball will not leave untouched even the hypercritical gamer.
• Agile Web Solutions today released 1Password and 1Password Pro 2.2, major updates to its award-winning password and identity management apps for iPhone and iPod touch. 1Password 2.2 gains new features like Quick Copy and Paste and the option for a complete database reset, while 1Password Pro 2.2 syncs folders from 1Password for Mac and copy multiple fields to the clipboard. For a limited time, 1Password Pro is still on sale for almost 50% off its regular price.
• Riverfold Software has announced that it is giving away a free iPhone 3GS and a year subscription to Flickr Pro and Vimeo Plus just for trying Clipstart. Clipstart 1.1 adds support for importing directly off of the iPhone 3GS. The app allows tagging, search, and upload to Flickr, Vimeo, and YouTube. The Clipstart iPhone Contest is open through August 15th. To enter, just download Clipstart and choose “Enter iPhone Contest” from the Help menu.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for June 24-25, 2009:

Macintosh

• Veenix Technologies has announced a special summer software bundle for its highly acclaimed TypeBook Creator software for Mac OS X. Purchasers of the Studio Version or Corporate Version of TypeBook Creator will receive a free copy of Veenix Font Tools, font management tools featuring a unique fast-font-previewing system. Veenix TypeBook Creator was developed for Mac graphic professionals and allows them to easily create and print type specimen books and font sample sheets of their fonts.
• Zevrix Solutions has announced the release of Instant Backup 1.6, an update to its simple solution to securely back up selected data on-line and locally. Instant Backup is designed to back up the most valuable and sensitive projects just when you need it, to ensure they’re always extra safe. And FTP backup assures that the data won’t be lost in the case of theft, fire or flood. The new version allows users to process data without creating the compressed disk image.
• Boxee has announced users can now watch live baseball games with MLB.TV Premium on boxee.  MLB.TV Premium, MLB.com’s online streaming service for baseball fans, delivers high quality video streams of live games and premium features like DVR functionality and HD Video (where available.)  This addition brings live sports content to our rich content platform. Boxee hopes other sports follow MLB.com’s lead of giving fans a choice of how they enjoy watching their favorite teams.
• TheMacBundles first bundle was released in early June and has received widespread praise from journalists, consumers, and developers for the unique marketing model and value that it brings to both consumers and software developers. TheMacBundles is pleased to announce that the next bundle will be released on June 29th and will continue in the footsteps of the first bundle by bringing consistently high quality programs to consumers at a bargain price.
• locr is continuously offering new geotagging software solutions for Apple Macintosh, Windows PCs, and mobile phones. The new locr “DropBox 1.0” for Mac OS X allows users to upload photos directly from the desktop to the locr website, using drag and drop. Within the locr community people from all over the world share their travel experiences. Photo locations are displayed on digital maps and information about motif and surroundings are provided.
• BinaryNights today has announced a special promotion for ForkLift, their popular file and FTP manager for OS X. Forklift is a powerful file manager and ferociously fast FTP client clothed in a clean and versatile UI that offers the combination of absolute simplicity and raw power expected from a well-executed Mac software. This grandiose experiment cuts software prices with a mindboggling offer on ForkLift for a week. The singular promo ends on June 30.
• Dragan Milic today announced Springy 1.5.3, a powerful archiving utility for Mac OS X. Springy integrates seamlessly with the Finder and includes some incredibly useful features. Users have the ability to see at a glance, the contents of an archive or disk image without being forced to extract any file from it, add, and/or extract files of choice from an existing archive, as well as previewing them. All archiving tasks can be done via Drag and Drop or through Finder contextual menu plug-in.
• Delivering on the specialized requirements of the Mac community, Seagate has introduced an advanced line-up of mobile and desktop FreeAgent for Mac storage solutions and accessories: the FreeAgent Go for Mac with USB, FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac, the 2TB FreeAgent Desk for Mac and FreeAgent Go Dock+, a powered USB-hub and dock for the FreeAgent Go. Providing a complete storage toolkit for today’s creative professionals, such as web designers, musicians and graphic artists, as well as multimedia enthusiasts, these enhanced FreeAgent for Mac external hard drives each include performance and capacity improvements to help store, record, protect and share creative inspirations.
• Humble Daisy has announced ProfCast 2.6.0, a adding Podcast Producer support to their flagship lecture recording and podcast creation solution for Mac OS X. ProfCast is a versatile, powerful, yet very simple to use tool for recording lectures including PowerPoint and/or Keynote slides for creating enhanced podcasts. ProfCast offers an integrated workflow that makes creating, recording, and publishing podcasts easy.
• Vemedio today release the first major improvement update to Snowtape, the easiest and most intuitive software for recording internet radio. Snowtape enables the user to quickly find and record his or her favorite music, add album artwork and exports it right into iTunes.
• Macware is kicking off the summer with a huge summer savings sale through their website. Save on your favorite Macware software titles with this special, limited time offer. Now until July 7th, you can take 50% off your entire Macware purchase through the Macware website. This is a special summer offer that won’t be repeated. Simply enter MACB2 at checkout to receive your discount.
• Josh Lockhart has announced RapidSearch 3, an upgrade to his popular RapidWeaver search plugin. RapidSearch 3 is the easiest way to add powerful Google search to any RapidWeaver website. RapidSearch 3 retrieves Google search results immediately and displays the search results inline on your website. Your visitors never leave your website, and your branding remains intact. Version 3 includes many new improvements and a recommended download.
• KavaSoft has released HyperImage 2.1, an application for downloading web photo galleries. HyperImage is an industrial-strength tool for downloading entire websites worth of pictures all at once. Just point HyperImage to any website, and watch as thousands of pictures stream down to your computer. HyperImage includes a built-in image browser with infinitely resizable thumbnails, so you can easily browse through all the pictures from a particular page or website.
• KavaSoft has announced KavaMovies 1.3, an update to their Mac movie database. KavaMovies lets you organize the movies you’ve seen, the movies you want to see, and the movies in your collection. It connects to the internet and downloads tons of information about each of your movies in realtime. Click a movie to see who’s in it. Click an actor to see what they’ve been in. Directors, genres, keywords, charts, awards, languages, years - everything is connected.
• Other World Computing, a leading PC and Mac technology company, announced today lower pricing of up to $300 and a new 0TB “Add Your Own Drives” Kit for the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 desktop hardware RAID storage line. Featuring Hardware RAID 5 redundancy to protect against data loss, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 has four SATA hard drive bays for up to 8TB of storage; a “Quad Interface” of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA ports for Mac and PC compatibility; and data transfer speeds of up to 300MB/s. With this combination of features, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 offers the highest level of data capacity, performance, and reliability in a Plug and Play desktop hardware RAID solution.
• Dockland Software has announced Fantasktik 1.4, an update to their taskbar for Mac OS X Leopard. Fantasktik is an innovative toolbar that shows all open documents and applications on the Mac and allows users to switch between windows with a single-click. Version 1.4 adds the ability to close windows from the taskbar, launch Expose on any open application directly from Fantasktik, and more.
• Paradigma Software has released Valentina DB 4.2 for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, the ultra fast columnar database for business and developers, and Valentina Reports 4.2, the cross-platform database reporting solution for Windows and Mac OS X. Cocoa Developers now receive Valentina iPhone Library for building client-server iPhone applications free. New options for PHP and Director developers.
• Zevrix Solutions has released BatchOutput Server 4.2, an update to its output workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign. The software automates printing and exporting to PDF and PostScript by processing InDesign files from watched hotfolders. BatchOutput Server automates, simplifies, and streamlines output workflows of publishing houses, printers, prepress service providers and ad agencies. The new version allows users to keep entire job folders after output for further processing.

iPhone/iPod

• ustwo, the design team behind iPhone app MouthOff, has invited twelve of the biggest names from the illustration world to create a “signature” mouth to add to the game. MouthOff is a realtime sound reactive app offering players a set of animated mouths to choose from. The idea is to hold your iPhone in front of your mouth and talk, shout, laugh, scream or sing, and the mouth animates in time with the sounds you make. There are currently 25 mouths on the game, plus the 12 new SIgnature Series mouths.
• On June 3, 2009, independent software developer Danilo Campos announced the release of GlobeJot 1.0, the new travel organizer for iPhone and iPod touch. After a day of sales, it was discovered that the application suffered from a critical bug in its final version, causing a faulty app to become a generous donation. Version 1.0.1 includes multiple bug fixes and improved data save behavior. GlobeJot will be returning to the iTunes App Store today, June 24th, 2009.
• Andesigned has announced Total Baby 1.0, the newest addition to their Baby Tracker Family for iPhone and iPod touch. Total Baby combines 11 essential logging and tracking functions for your child’s care through a smart and sleek interface that makes tracking easy and fun. With innovative new features unmatched on any platform like dual timers for multiple children and twins. Welcome to the future of Baby Logging.
• G-Monkey Productions has released iBacon 1.0, their novelty game app for iPhone and iPod Touch. iBacon uses 30 fps video loops to cook real bacon. Users can pinch virtual cooking tongs to flip individual slices and even tilt to pour off the bacon grease, tilt to eat bacon, as well as shake to turn off the smoke alarm, and more. Vegetarian approved, eat bacon guilt free.
• START MOBILE has announced the launch of the Pride mobile art gallery for the iPhone. The Pride Wallpaper Gallery features sixteen rainbow images created by digital artist Samala. At the request of the artist, 100% of START MOBILE revenues from this mobile gallery are being donated to The Courage Campaign. The mobile art wallpapers are optimized for display on the iPhone, and all the images can be ‘flipped’ to reveal additional information about the artist.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The excitement continues to build for tomorrow’s WWDC keynote and the developer announcements that are sure to follow. Yesterday, we took a look at what to expect from iPhone OS 3.0, as well as at Apple’s strategy for rolling out updates and why they include (or, more importantly, don’t include) certain features in each iteration. Today, we’ll examine Snow Leopard, the next big update to Apple’s Macintosh operating system.

Mac OS X v10.6

The code name for this latest release of Mac OS X is Snow Leopard. The name is important not just because it’s another big cat ( like the other names they have used: Tiger, Panther, Jaguar, etc…) but that it is very similar to the code name for the current release of Mac OS X v10.5: Leopard. Snow Leopard will seem a lot like Leopard to most end users. Expect a few cosmetic changes and maybe some subtle differences, but the Snow Leopard release will be all about what’s under the hood.

When OS X was first released, it was a revolution for Macs and, in many ways, for the PC industry as a whole. It was a modern operating system that had been built on top of a proven Kernel, but was still very accessible to the average user. Once again, we see the themes of stability and security coming in to play, as most consumer operating systems were buggy, unreliable and virus-ridden. Apple released a sleek, fast, stable and secure OS that was easy to use and very powerful in what it could do. It appealed to consumers and power users alike. It was, and still is, the minority platform, but it quickly became the one to watch.

Now, with Snow Leopard, we have the 7th generation of this operating system (We started with 10.0, and not 10.1). It has come a long way since March of 2001, and has matured well over the years. However, every release has been packed full of new features to keep people buying the new OS. With Snow Leopard, Apple is taking a much needed break from new features and has spent the last year-and-a-half streamlining the OS and the apps they provide with it. This is a bold step because without a lot of new features, a large majority of their user base will not be motivated to upgrade until they buy new hardware. Certainly Apple recognizes this loss of revenue opportunites, but they’re staying true to their vision of security and stability in streamlining the OS. For this, Apple deserves our applause.

The reason this streamlining is necessary is because Apple pulled off an amazing transition a few years ago when they moved us from the PowerPC processors to today’s Intel processors. This was not an easy task, but they pulled it off very smoothly and with very few problems. To accomplish this, the OS had to make some compromises. Now that the transition is complete and far enough behind us, they can focus on building an OS that really takes advantage of this new architecture. This release will see better use of multi-core processors, more efficient memory access, and even the ability for developers to use the latent power of the graphics processors for non-graphic purposes. In short, it will be a more stable, secure and reliable OS that is easy to use and does not intimidate those who are attempting to use it.

Evolution of a revolution

Both the iPhone OS and Mac OS X were revolutionary operating systems when they first came out. They allowed us to do things that we weren’t able to do before. These two operating systems are the real jewels in Apple’s crown and the keys to their success. Millions of people have purchased, used and discussed these systems and the devices they power. They have changed the way we think about computers and mobile devices. The anticipated releases of the new systems are far more evolutionary than revolutionary, but every revolution needs to eventually mature and evolve into its full potential. We will see some new features for consumers, but I have a feeling that both platforms’ developers are very excited about this year’s WWDC because of the evolutionary changes to the revolution they first signed up for.

Welcome to the evolution.

Also see WWDC: Evolution of a revolution part 1 - iPhone OS 3.0.

Full Story » | Written by Ed McKell for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As I’m sure you’ve heard, Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) kicks off on Monday, and expectations are very high. Now that Apple has announced they will no longer be attending the Macworld expo, this is likely to become their premiere event to a non-press audience. Swirling around the web are lots of WWDC rumors guessing what Apple will do and anticipating with excitement the possible hardware announcement, but I want to spend a little time discussing what WWDC is really all about: Operating Systems.

It’s all about the OS

WWDC’s keynote has become in the last 10 years a platform for Apple to make announcements for all sorts of things, and it is likely to contain some surprises this year as well. However, it’s just the tip of the iceberg for WWDC, and it’s what you can’t see underneath that is some of the best stuff at the event. Keep in mind that this is a developer’s conference, and attendance is limited. Therefore, the entire conference is geared towards the people who make the applications for your Apple device that you love so much, and for the second year in a row, it’s a sellout. This means, unlike Macworld, this is not a product showcase, but a chance for some of the greatest minds of these platforms to get together and get a look under the hood of what is coming.

If you take a quick peak at WWDC’s conference schedule, you will quickly realize that almost all of the sessions are completely focused on the operating systems, only talking about the hardware when it interacts with the software that runs it. This year, like last year, there are two different but related operating systems to highlight. For the iPhone, we have the much anticipated release of iPhone OS 3.0 and for the Mac we have the much more quietly expected Mac OS X v10.6 (Snow Leopard). Both of these will be important releases that will likely occur soon after WWDC, if not at the conference itself. At the very least, we expect to find out more about when to expect these releases. Now, let’s look more critically into these releases and why they are important.

iPhone OS 3.0

iPhone OS 3.0, despite its name, will be the new OS for both the iPhone and the iPod touch, and will be available sometime this summer. This release brings some much anticipated features to the iPhone, including copy and paste, stereo Bluetooth, multimedia messaging (MMS), peer to peer (P2P) communication with nearby iPhone users and universal search. All of these features will be available to the current generation of iPhones, while features like MMS and stereo bluetooth are not expected to work with the first generation iPhone.

This is an important release for the iPhone OS not just for the features it will bring, but also for the maturity of the platform. Many see this release of the OS as the one that will finally fulfill the expectations for the original iPhone. Think of it as if iPhone OS 1.0 was the infant, 2.0 was the gangly teenage years, and 3.0 will finally be a mature, sophisticated adult. There will be a little flash on the surface, but the real substance will be underneath, as developers will now have more access to the resources the iPhone possesses.

Apps today live in a bubble. They can interact with things outside their bubble, but only in very limited ways. The bubble isn’t bursting, but it is getting a lot bigger. With 3.0, developers will be able to work more with Google Maps and the iPod multimedia library, and directly interface with hardware attached in the dock port (and possibly over bluetooth, as well). This means you could finally have an alarm on your iPhone that can use your iPod music as an alarm, not just the ringtones you have created. Or, an app that helps you find a local restaurant could have the map in the app instead of forcing you to switch out to the Maps app to see where it is. You may also get the chance to see all sorts of great (and probably not so great) hardware accessories that interact with your iPhone in some very cool ways. Suddenly, your iPhone can become the central hub for even more activity.

The question that needs to be asked here is, “Why?” Why has it taken so long for Apple to allow this kind of interaction? Isn’t this the sort of thing that computers and even mobile devices have always done? I can’t answer those questions authoritatively, but I can speculate on why I think it has taken so long. Apple’s answer to similar questions has always been that they limit things either because of stability, security or both. While this answer may be frustrating to the consumer, limiting for the sake of security and/or stability are core to Apple’s success with the iPhone as they evaluate where the iPhone is going and what it is doing. Ultimately, it is in the best interest of the consumer for Apple to be very intentional in their choices (albeit slow).

Coming soon, another piece will detail the smartphone’s evolution and its future, but for now, let’s just say that many smartphones that came before the iPhone were useful, but troublesome. If you wanted your smartphone to work like it did out of the box, you needed to leave it with the software that came with it out of the box. Sometimes, even then, it would still take a lot of time to make it do what you wanted it to do. Similarly, when Apple released the iPhone, that’s the way it worked. But they intended all along for Apps to be written and downloaded, starting first with only Apple approved Apps be on the device. With the release of “teen OS” 2.0, they allowed Apps to be written but highly restricted them to prevent third party apps from destabilizing the phone. For a mobile platform like the iPhone to succeed, it needed and needs to be as bulletproof and user-friendly as it can be. Smartphones had rarely appealed to the average consumer in the past because they were not easy to use. A consumer device needs to be—first and foremost—a stable, secure and reliable device that is easy to use and does not intimidate those who are attempting to use it.

So, iPhone OS 3.0 will usher in new features for the developer as well as the consumer, and it will finally unleash even more potential from the phone. This helps the platform to be more stable, secure and reliable. It also helps everyone—including consumers, press and developers—understand how Apple expects the platform to be used in the future. So, instead of throwing it at us all at once, we receive it in small, un-intimidating doses that are much easier to swallow. At the same time, Apple gets the chance to refine these systems even more to make sure they work correctly. In the end, with each step, Apple refines and reveals another piece of the puzzle, building the base to test things they ultimately want to do with the iPhone. Now they have the base and they will leverage that base to take the platform to even higher heights.

Check back with us tomorrow as we take a look at the importance of Mac OS X v10.6 (“Snow Leopard”).

Full Story » | Written by Ed McKell for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Think you’ve got the best iPhone app out there? Best Mac OS X program? Well, if you’re an Apple Developer Connection (ADC) member or registered iPhone developer, from now through May 4th you can now submit your app for consideration in the Apple Design Awards 2009. The “best designed applications” will be honored at this year’s WWDC, to be held June 8-12 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

From Apple’s website:

The Apple Design Awards reward and celebrate technical excellence, innovation, and outstanding achievement in iPhone and Mac software development. Each year, winning products set new standards for usability, performance, technology integration and adoption. This year’s winners will raise the bar even higher.

iPhone awards will be presented to:

• Up to four winners who have designed applications using iPhone SDK for iPhone SDK 2.2.1 (applications must be released versions and available on the App Store).
• One winner who has designed an application using iPhone OS 3.0 beta (application must be a pre-release version).
• One student winner who has designed an application using iPhone SDK for iPhone SDK 2.2.1 (application must be a released version and available on the App Store).

Mac OS X awards will be presented to:

• Up to four winners who have designed applications using Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (applications must be released versions).
• One winner who has designed an application using Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (application must be a pre-release version).
• One student winner who has designed an application using Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (application must be a released version).

Prizes include MacBook Pros, Cinema Displays, iPhone, iPods and more. Almost makes me wish I’d spent my high school and college years learning to write code instead of learning to write novels about UFOs and pointless robots.

Apple Design Awards 2009 details and entry forms are available at developer.apple.com/wwdc/.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Each year, Apple holds an event for developers of Mac OS X and the iPhone OS. This event—The World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC)—is held in the summer months, and Apple have set the dates for this year’s conference as 8th - 12th June 2009.

The event draws hundreds of developers together, offering huge amounts of help and information, through presentations and one-to-one set-ups from some of Apple’s engineers. A lot of the event means nothing to a lot of people, unless you’re a part-time coder or have an interest in developing applications for Apple systems. But there’s also a presentation that the rest of the world looks in for. This presentation is Apple’s chance to tell us what they’re up to, usually regarding development. Obviously, Apple won’t confirm this just yet, but it’s quite a safe bet that we’ll finally get our hands on iPhone OS 3.0. Currently only available to users of Apple’s developer program, we learnt OS 3.0 would be finished for the summer—and what better time to release than WWDC?

For iPhone 1.0, we saw the original iPhone, of course. For iPhone 2.0, we saw the iPhone 3G. Got the pattern yet? Again, nothing set in stone here, but rumors suggest a third remake of the iPhone will follow OS 3.0 out of Apple HQ. AT&T have been preparing a 7.2MB access speed, which should be ready by the summer. Ready for the new iPhone? There’s also another rumor hinting at video recording capabilities, not a minute too soon. It’s thought that video recording wasn’t able for the iPhone 3G because the memory used is not quick enough for video frame rates to be read to the memory. It seems strange that watching video was perfectly fine, but not to record.

Moving to the computer, there’s also the latest version of Apple’s OS, Snow Leopard that is expected to make an appearance this year. The World Wide Developer Conference will most likely be used to show an official release, and to set a date for its release…hopefully within a few months of the event itself.

So, WWDC 2009. For developers, there’s a lot of information about what to expect and on how to book your space over at Apple’s developer site. For everyone else, stay tuned for more updates regarding the event and possible products that could emerge.

Full Story » | Written by Ed Parry for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As I am writing this, the MacHeist 3 Bundle is about to be revealed. Last year, many were disappointed with the MacHeist bundle, as it had many apps that had been seen in the previous year, and no really spectacular app. This year, that was acknowledged, and a much better bundle has been promised.

Right off the bat, Eventbox is free just for showing up at the live unveiling. It will likely be added to your loot even if you didn’t tune in, but that’s another maybe. At a $12, it’s already a $12 savings. Great way to begin the night.

After a bit of a late start (what’s 10 minutes among friends?), Lisa, Veronica, and Chris chatted for a bit, went totally dark for an antagonizing minute, then introduced the first app: iSale. Not terribly impressive, as if you don’t use eBay, it’s useless. But it’s the first app, and I have a feeling we’re only going up from here. iSale is a $40 value.

Next up? The Apple Design Award winning Picturesque. Picturesque is an image-enhancer. You can get those Apple-style perspective/reflection images, put shadows, strokes, and more. Great for desktop publishing, it’s a much easier way than Photoshop, worth $35. It’s getting excited!

Now they announce that the first 25,000 buyers of the Bundle will get Big Bang Board Games for free. For those who didn’t get it free with their Mac, this is a great extra, and worth $25.

Sous Chef is the next app in the list. Though of no use if you don’t cook, it’s a great, and very pretty way to keep your recipes organized and share them with friends. Sous Chef is a $30 value.

Now we get a game! World of Goo is a physics based puzzle and construction game in which you drag live globs of Goo to build bridges and towers and other things to get them to safety. It actually looks really cool. This is one I’m excited about. Plus, it’s valued at $20.

And now, PhoneView. PhoneView provides desktop access to the content on your iPhone, a disk mode to store files on your iPhone or iPod touch, and much more than probably should be included in iTunes. It’s priced at $20 as well.

Next up is LittleSnapper, a brilliant screenshot app, much like Skitch, that has integration to their own web service, FTP, Flickr, etc. If you’ve ever wanted to scribble on your desktop, now you can. (It has more useful uses as well.) A great app, which would normally cost $39.

Acorn is the next app on the agenda. It’s another image editor, so it’s questionable given how Picturesque is already part of the bundle. To be fair, Acorn is more about touching up a photo, whereas Picturesque is about stylizing them. Still, a bit of a stretch. It costs $50 normally.

Still no huge apps at this point, but the next app is Kinemac, a $300 app. That’s exciting in and of itself. Kinemac is a 3D real-time animation and presentation software, with the simplicity of a 2D tool. It’s like Motion, but not confusing as all-get-out. The only problem with Kinemac? I have a feeling it’ll drive up the bundle price. Once again, it retails for $300. Wow.

Now we’re getting to the unlocks. These are the apps that are part of the bundle only after a certain amount of bundles are purchased. After $100,000 is raised for charity, Wiretap Studio will be unlocked. Wiretap can record any combination of audio feeds together at once. It’s pretty cool, but definitely not an exciting app. It retails for $70.

Three more apps to go now, and the next app is available as an unlock (the required charity level wasn’t mentioned.) It’s BoinxTV, a fantastic app that turns any recent Mac into a live TV studio, allowing you to add lower thirds, cut between cameras, and much much more all live. It retails for $199 normally. Now that is exciting.

The Hit List is the next app, part of the “Mega Unlock” where two apps are unlocked at a certain charity level. The Hit List is a GTD app to organize tasks in your life. With a simple and easy to use design, it might just be the To-Do app I’ve never been able to find. We’ll see. The Hit list retails for $50.

The other half of the “Mega Unlock” is Espresso, a web development app that combines editing, real-time previewing, and publishing in one window. It has a sleek UI and intuitive interface, and it retails for $60.

All together, these apps cost about $900, according to Chris Pirillo’s math. Chris asks us how much we’d expect to pay? $500? $250? No? $100? Still high? $50. Okay. $50. That’s it, right? What? Lower?! What’s a good price then? $39!

That’s right. $900 worth of software, including Live TV software, 3D animation software, and much more. For $39. Plus, if you’ve been doing all the heists, you have an $8.00 bundle discount. That means, for $31, you can have $900 worth of software. My writing skills are going out the window as I scramble to add money to my PayPal account.

Check out and buy the bundle at MacHeist.com!

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Authors: Sal Soghoian and Bill Cheeseman
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Edition: First (January 9, 2009)
ISBN 10: 0321149319
ISBN 13: 978-0321149312
Pages: 896
Price: $44.99

It’s been called the “Chinese Democracy” of the Apple community by Andy Ihnatko. The book that we all knew Sal Soghoian, Apple’s product manager for AppleScript, would someday write, though we waited and waited. Well, that day has come, and thankfully it doesn’t share a whole lot more in common with Chinese Democracy. For instance, you won’t regret buying it. It also won’t get you a free Dr. Pepper. So are you ready to automate away repetitive tasks?

Funny that Andy Ihnatko should make reference to how long it took for this book to come out.  Sal Soghoian has actually been waiting for a decent (indecent?) amount of time to publish these 880 pages of pure gold. Too bad you can’t automate publishing…or can you? (Clearly not, otherwise Sal would have beaten us all to it).  In any event, the book is out now; published by Peach Pit press in the Apple Training series.  Plus, it’s Apple Certified so you know it’s good to the core.

It only takes one chapter of this book to realize that AppleScript can be as simple or complicated as you make it; or indeed, as weak or as powerful as you desire.  Within one chapter you’ll be writing simple AppleScripts.  But don’t worry, Sal doesn’t throw you into the deep end of the scripting pool. Rather, he taps you just enough to fall into the shallow end.  The first chapter teaches you all about scripting simple things about the Finder, an application that we all use everyday.  While this might not be extremely useful, the ideas apply to all scriptable applications.

Sal will hold your hand as much as you need throughout AppleScript 1-2-3.  You don’t need to have any previous experience with anything other than possibly a Mac.  You don’t have to be a programmer, because everything is clearly explained from the basics.  He provides a ton of sample code to get you started, and you’ll find yourself exploring along the way.  That’s the sign of a good book, in my opinion—whether it can get you thinking.  I know I was experimenting the whole way through, and I discovered some fun things as a result.  If you are more familiar with such things, you can speed through certain portions of the book, which is fine too.

I should take a quick break and address those of you who don’t know what Applescript is.  Shame on you.  Actually, you’re far more likely to have heard a bit about its automating powers already.  You might have even told yourself you wanted to learn it, if you only had the time.  I know I’ve used that excuse enough times. It’s okay, really.

AppleScript is a scripting language that allows you, through English-like sentences, to tell your computer to do various things.  For instance, you can move a window, change its size, open an application, delete a file, etc. What may surprise you is how much like the English language AppleScript actually is. There are nouns and verbs, and tell blocks.  Okay, that last part is a bit different, but hey, it’s a scripting language.

AppleScript Utility is the application you’ll use to write AppleScripts, and it comes with your Mac.  Sal gives you a full tour and some information that you might not have found anywhere else.  In chapter two of this book you’ll find out all about the Dictionary.  No, not the book that I always argued was readable to my elementary school teachers, but it’s similar.  This Dictionary will help you find the commands you want to use inside in your AppleScripts.  If you want to tell your program to do something, this is where you look.  Unfortunately, Dictionary support varies by application, as it is provided by the developers who wish to have their apps be scriptable.

If you’ve ever used my favorite excuse for not learning something (I just don’t have the time), and you’re now ready to change, this is the book for you.  AppleScript is a powerful tool, and AppleScript 1-2-3 is the next best thing to being best buds with Sal.  AppleScript is not as hard or intimidating as you might think, and this book will make you realize that for yourself.  And let’s be honest, who would you rather have teach you AppleScript than Sal Soghoian?  I don’t know of a better person for the job.  So take the next few weekends and learn something useful already!

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Have you ever had that impulse on jumping to that new trend that everyone’s talking about, but you get yourself lost when you try to approach it?

It’s happened to me a few times since I began getting interested in technology and software applications in general.  Sometimes that new tool or device seems to be a great idea, and you think that you or your business could really benefit from it but, when you try to put your hands on it, it just becomes impossible for you to go from the idea to the fact.

Subversion is, in my opinion, one of the typical cases of this statement.  The idea behind it is great, the implementation is very good (no matter what Linus Torvalds says about it), and I don’t know a single person who, after I explain the idea behind the SVN, thinks that is not useful in his/her work environment. So, why doesn’t everyone use it? If it’s so great and so helpful improving control and productivity on projects, how is it that we don’t find subversion controlled projects everywhere?

The answer to me is really easy to point out. Making this thing work out is pretty difficult most of the time! I’ve written before about the strategy to follow when using SVN (from client or sever point of view) and other fine tools you could add to make yourself a nice work environment, but let’s face it, the tech work behind setting this environment is no trip to the beach.  So, many people get tired of trying and just give up more often than they succeed.

So, there’s no hope for those who would like to use subversion without wasting half the time of the project setting it up? Not so fast; there’s still hope.

Once in a while, a great group of dedicated professionals commit to a even greater idea so hard that they come out with that tool designed to make everyone’s life easier.  For the purpose of this article, that tool is Cornerstone, and that nice group of people behind the project is Zennaware.

Cornerstone is that wonderful, easy to use and flexible tool everyone (especially the ones who have dealt with tedious installation and setting processes) is waiting for, even when you’re not aware it’s actually being made.

Being deeply involved with subversion for a few years now, has made me an errant user of many Linux distributions (for server installations), Windows and Linux clients, and, since I’m a diehard Macintosh user, Mac SVN clients, as well.  This has been one of those enriching experiences that you would definitely give away if you had a Cornerstone-like tool from the beginning.  It was a necessity, not a choice, for sure.

Thanks to the work done with Cornerstone by the group at Zennaware, Mac users all around have the chance to use a world-class application meant to make interaction with subversion as easy as it should’ve been from the beginning.

Let’s start with the fact that this is not only a subversion client per se; what we have here is a fully equipped subversion tool—the only thing you’ll need to have in order to manage your projects with subversion from now on is a Mac.  This application brings a fully functional Subversion 1.4/1.5 installation, and every update of subversion will be included in the tool, so you won’t have to worry on updating SVN in your system as an isolated task.

If you prefer, you can use Cornerstone just as a client and keep your dedicated server architecture intact (as it is in my personal case), but that’s exactly my point here: if you prefer, if you want, if you like.  This is an important improvement on the “you have to” way of do things that’s been the rule since the beginning.

Another key factor in the process of building a good application for Mac users is making it Mac-like.  Cornerstone says “Mac Pride” in every click.  The incredible amount of detail reminds me that I’m working in a Mac all the time.  The application is fast, clean and sleek.  The help goes far away from just the application; it also includes subversion documentation and best practices, everything in the Apple Help Book format.

Writing about every nice feature would take another whole article. Rather, I invite you to go to the Zennaware website and see for yourself this wonderful tool and everything it’s capable of.

You’ll have a fully functional trial version for 14 days, and if you make the decision to buy it, you’ll have to pay a reasonable price of $69 for a single user.  You’ll also have a 5-user pack ($259) and a 10-user pack ($449), ideal for the enterprise environment.

Cornerstone is, without a doubt, a great and flexible application made to make our job easier when working with subversion.  You’ll have a nice working environment even if you’re on a laptop with its all-in-one UI mode optimized for use on small displays, or the multiple-window UI mode optimized for use on desktop systems with large (or even multiple) displays.

This is a serious candidate to end my search for subversion tools.

Product [Cornerstone]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

When it comes to developing for the iPhone, there’s no dramatic change in comparison to any other software development project. Aside from the technical aspects of programming for a mobile device, general guidelines have to be followed in order to achieve the highest chance of success.

This is the first of a short (I guess it’d be three of them) series of articles in which I will share some thoughts, explain some ideas, and lay out some strategies to deploy iPhone applications. I’ll be going through everything we need to start programming (ideas, time, skills, docs, tools, motivation, etc), and some of the best techniques to attack a problem and organize a team of professionals (developers, graphics designers, and more).

Even though I’m not an expert on the subject of iPhone development, I’ve been involved directly in the software engineering discipline for a few years now; I’ve had my share of consulting and project planning, and, of course, I’ve written a lot of source code lines by now. 

As an Apple fan, I’ve now been tempted by the idea of writing iPhone applications, I guess I’m not alone here, so I wanted to contribute with my grain of sand (that’s a translation from a Spanish idiom, I’m not even sure it means something for everyone) on this topic everyone is talking about these days. I hope I can count on your feedback here if you have something to add or if you know for a fact that something is missing or incorrect. Your experience and opinions will be highly appreciated. I’m sure we can make this a very interesting column, all together.

Well, let’s get down to business now. After that (questionably interesting) introduction, I’d like to tell you about the genesis of any project, the source of inspiration and emotions every entrepreneur has felt at least once in his/her life: the idea.

Every project, no matter if it has failed or succeeded, has begun with an idea. Some ideas have come from commercial or corporate studies, some other from mistakes, and some of them (my personal favorites) have come to light from a necessity. Maybe the necessity of one person, which ends up also being needed by thousand or million more, making that idea the “why didn’t I think of that?” of the moment.

The idea behind the adventure is one of the key factors of success. The project can’t exist without it, but just having it—even when it’s a great one—doesn’t mean you have anything granted yet.  So many good ideas have been lost in time, on the hands of the wrong people, or in the wrong moment in history, that it’d be impossible to track them all.  We should just have this fact in mind and try not to feed all these statistics of shame. Let’s admit it, it’d be painful to see my neighbor (or some kid from across the pacific) successfully implementing my idea five years after I told him (I could’ve mentioned it to the kid; not likely, but possible), just because when I tried that it wasn’t the right time, or I missed an important feature, even when it was in front of my eyes.

Having a good idea is half the way in the starting days of any project; it would guide you and give you a path to follow. If somehow you find yourself lost with the many aspects of a big project, looking back to the bases, thinking and focusing on the main idea of everything, could represent salvation for your project, and calm for your being.

In the next article we’ll be reviewing what we should do after we got that good idea. There are many options, and I’ll be mentioning a couple of them for those who like to be involved in the programming and/or designing activities (kind of Steve Wozniak), and some other strategy for those of you who have an idea and want to lead the group of professionals to the top of their abilities without getting your hands into the mud directly (kind of Steve Jobs).

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

In a previous post, I wrote a little bit about the activities involved in the management of collaborative work using Subversion. That post was completely server-side oriented. 

Now, I’d like to address the other side of the coin, the client side of Subversion. I’ll be describing the most common activities related to SVN Clients for the Mac and the best way to use them, and will provide a few more useful tips from the perspective of, let’s say, a programmer.

Read on for info and tips.

Once the server is set up with Subversion (to efficiently control versions of files), the website of the Trac (to monitor task progress), and the initial import of the repository (the main structure of files and folders), all we need to do to get started with the fun part of the job is to get a Subversion client.

A while ago, the availability of applications to handle this task was a little bit poor; nowadays, this is a different reality. First of all, I’d like to clear the general concept of the client. Then, we’ll be listing a few of them from which you can choose.

The SVN Client is the application that will let you manage the repository and your working copies from you local computer. It’d be correct to say it’s the interface between you and the Subversion server.

There are a lot of clients out there, and the first one you’ll encounter is the client embedded in the Subversion itself. This is not my choice at all, not because it doesn’t cover every need, but instead because it’s command line oriented. This makes everything more complicated for the beginner, and it’s a bit less friendly in general terms.

That’s possibly the main reason for the existence of third party clients. There’s a wide range of options for every operative system on the market. We could find them in three main categories:

• Stand-alone
• Desktop integration
• IDE plug-ins

A complete list of flavors can be found at the Subversion official site. Also, a very useful comparative matrix can be found at Wikipedia.

If you are a Windows user, let me save you valuable time on your decision making process. The desktop integration client called TortoiseSVN, is by far the best one out there.

When it comes to the Mac, we have some interesting options. Here are the most remarkable ones, and some of their features:

• SVNX is an open source GUI for most features of the svn client binary. It handles the main features of any client—such as browsing your working copies, spotting changes and operating on them—but it also allows you to browse logs and revisions of your repositories. Right now, its current version is 0.9.13, and its website still says it requires Mac OS X 10.4. I’ve installed it on Leopard (10.5.4), and it works fine. What I like the most about this client is the OS integration of the interface, and the way it organizes every item on different adjacent sections.
• SyncroSVN makes easier the document and code sharing between content authors or developers. This multiplatform (it was developed in java) Subversion front-end allows you to browse repositories, check for changes, commit changes, update your working copy and examine the revision history. Its current version is 3, and it costs $59. It’s a really good client, but there are so many free and open options that I wouldn’t recommend anyone pay for a SVN Client.
• SmartSVN is a powerful and easy-to-use, graphical client. It is project centric, it runs on all major operating systems, and it’s targeted at professional developers to make their daily work visual, efficient and comfortable. Actually, this one is the client I use on daily basis. I won’t say it’s the best, but it’s definitely my favorite. Its interface is clean, simple to configure and use, and it’s always being updated. It’s not an open source project, but it has a free version, the one I use. Its current version is 4.
• Versions is one of the new kids on the block. Even though it’s still on a beta stage, it seems to be one of the big contenders as the future preferred client for the Mac. As they state on their website, “Whether you’re a designer, developer, editor or project manager, chances are you already have plenty on your mind. Versions saves you the hassle and makes working with Subversion easy for your entire team.” That’s a really good way to summarize the job of any good Subversion client.

The steps to configure the clients are basically the same for all of them. You should introduce the URL of your repository, your user account data, and the local folder to download and modify your working copy.

Then you should just worry about working on you local copy of the repository, updating the code in order to have your image always updated, and commit your changes every time you can. I’d recommend doing it frequently and always writing a brief comment about the changes being uploaded. That would be the beginning for any nice citizen in any Subversion neighborhood.

• See also Managing the server side of collaborative work with Subversion

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Nowadays, every experienced company or group of people dedicated to software development knows there are a lot of variables to handle when you work on a project from a collaborative point of view. The project leader has to handle every detail regarding time, costs, human resources, deadlines and quality of the delivered product. If you add to this picture a contractor, then your are adding more things to control, and, most of the time, more potential headaches.

There are many possible solutions for this scenario, but the one I’d like to address now is based on three main components: Subversion, Trac and a Mac. This proposal needs to be separated in two parts: on one hand we’ll have the server side, and on the other hand we’ll have the client side. We’ll now be focusing on the server side of the solution.

First, let’s describe briefly the two most unknown components of the trio. Subversion is a version control system, which aims to manage current and historical versions of almost any kind of file. It’s frequently used to manage source code, digital documents, web pages, etc. One of the remarkable strengths of this software is that it manages to handle multiple concurrent modifications to the files involved in the project, from different locations. By itself, it’s a very powerful tool for collaborative work and project control.

Trac on the other hand, is a web-based tool presented by its creators as an enhanced wiki, which aims to control (in a very simplified way) software development projects. It also serves as an issue tracking system, and was born to work seamlessly on top of Subversion. Trac brings to the version control of source code and documents the power and flexibility of the Web.

When they work together, Trac+SVN provides any company a strong set of tools designed to help control and monitor every single participant of any project, without even worrying about geographic location or work habits.

So, now that you’re interested in the potential of these simple but powerful tools, and you’d like to implement them (at least as a test) in your work environment, let’s review a few directives you need to know in order to set your Subversion server.

For this job you’ll need:

• A web server (it could be a Linux PC if you don’t have a Mac available for this task): Here, you’ll have to install both Subversion and Trac. Mac OS X already includes Subversion in most installations, so you’ll want to check if your server already has it.
• Subversion: This is an open source project, and you can get it and install it in so many ways that we’d need a single article to describe the task. The best source of information is at the Subversion Official Site.
• Trac: This is also an open source project. Its installation is a little bit more complicated than the Subversion one, but plenty of information about that process can be found at the Trac Official Site.

Once you have your server going, you’ll just have to set up a few accounts for the Trac and the repositories users. This could be done with the same tools that Apache uses to create regular user accounts (assuming that Apache is the installed web server).

The basic steps to follow for every new project, once your server is working, would include the following tasks:

• Create the repository for the project with the subversion commands.
• Import the initial source code (or set of documents) to the path of the repository.
• Initialize the Trac environment for your project with the Trac commands.
• Assign read/write permission for the repositories.

Following these general steps, you can set your Trac+SVN server in a day or less, and then began to work in a very effective way with as many programmers and analysts as you need. For this configuration you’ll just need you computer and two open source, industry leading, tools that, for no cost at all, will serve the purpose of your company for many years to come.

• See also Managing the client side of collaborative work with Subversion

Products [Subversion and Trac]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Looking for a deal this summer? Indie Mac Software has what you need. From July 7th until the 15th, you can get 20% off select software by using the coupon code of DF2008. The companies involved in this deal include Azure Talon, Lucerne Systems, M Cubed Software, Wonder Warp Software, and You Software. These five companies are offering a total of nine different applications for you to choose from, so head on over to the site and help them out.

Azure Talon
Exces - Using the strong AES encryption standard, this application allows you to quickly and easily protect your data.

Lucerne Systems
Horizon - Sporting a calender based interface, this software is the “...easiest way to manage your finances.”

M Cubed Software
Code Collector Pro - This software allows you to easily store and share code snippets and is integrated with codecollector.net.
Minim - If you podcast or create music, this is for you. It simply organizes all of your audio and keeps track of the metadata.

Wonder Warp Software
ShoveBox - This application allows you to keep track of all those images, text snippets, and URLs that you don’t have time to deal with but want to look at later.
SimpleChord - This “part tool and part toy” application allows you to look up chords and create your own progressions.

You Software
You Control - This application allows you to easily create menus to extend your Mac’s usability.
You Control: Desktops - Working sort of like Spaces, this application simply gives your more room by creating a virtual desktop.
You Control: Fonts - Keep track of your fonts with this simple WYSIWYG font menu.

Products [Indie Mac Software]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Do you hate having to wait for your PHP scripts and files to upload to your server to make sure they work? If so, you would get along great with the people over at MAMP, or Macintosh, Apache, Mysql and PHP. MAMP simply installs a local server environment in its own folder on your hard drive and doesn’t affect your main operating system at all. You can then run and test PHP scripts and other database tasks without having to upload the files to your server. MAMP is completely free and is licensed under a GNU General Public License.

Currently on release 1.7, this application comes with a simple to use widget to start and stop the localhost servers. It works just as you would expect, and I’ve had no problems with it on my machine. There is a MAMP Pro that costs money, but many of you will find that MAMP does what you need just fine.

If you are a developer who is sick of waiting for files to upload so you can test them, check out MAMP, and be ready to start saving a ton of time.

Product [MAMP]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Ergonis Software has just launched an application for Mac OS X called Typinator that will make designing websites a whole lot easier. With over 100 built-in abbreviations, web designers won’t have to type as much code, and therefore they won’t have to worry about making as many spelling mistakes. As Christoph Reichenberger, founder and CEO of Ergonis puts it, “Regardless what tool they are using, most web designers are typing plain HTML code all the time, sometimes at least assisted by their HTML editor. With the new HTML snippets set for Typinator, you can insert over 100 HTML elements without having to click through a list of templates. Just type a double less-than sign followed by the name of the desired HTML element and Typinator will insert the corresponding HTML code and place the insertion point appropriately.”

You can watch a demo at their site, download a trial, and buy the app for around $38.89 for a single license. Typinator could really help web designers cut some of the time it takes to make a website by speeding up the process of typing all those repetitious tags. It works with Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, and can import your TextExpander shortcuts to make switching even easier. Check it out and let us know what it’s like.

Via [Macsimum News]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

iPresentee is offering five new iWeb Themes that are geared towards small businesses. These themes include Office, Global, Illusion, Papery, and Money, and come in at only $30 for the entire package or $10 each. In order to use these themes, you need Apple’s iWeb 2.0 or installed. According to the product description, “Each iWeb Theme for Business has seven templates: Home, About Us, Services, Support, Clients, Contact Us and Blank. All themes can be adapted for developing personal website.” There are plenty of screenshots over at their site, and most of the themes look pretty well designed.

iPresentee also offers other iWeb templates as well as different Keynote stuff (animations, themes, 3D graphics, etc). They all look pretty cool, so be sure to check out their site. If you have bought or used any of their themes or anything else, let us know what you think about it.

Via [Macsimum News]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Former Apple Senior Software Engineer Scott Kovatch, now Adobe’s Senior Computer Scientist, announced Tuesday at WWDC that he will be heading up a project within Adobe to help port Java SWT from Carbon to a Cocoa interface. Although work on the project has already started, Kovatch sated he will not join the group full time until mid-august. 

The Standard Widget Toolkit is a tool used to give Java applications native GUI for each supported platform. The Mac OS X version was written back when Carbon had a slight performance advantage over Cocoa, but that has changed, and support for 64-bit Carbon has been dropped entirely. In addition, according to this Mac OS X report, after 10.6 or 7, Mac OS will be entirely written in Cocoa Touch.

The Cocoa port of Java SWT is anticipated to be ready for the release of Eclipse 3.5 sometime in 2009, but nothing is official as of yet.

Via [Infinite Loop]

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Momail, a Stockholm based company, is the first company to announce support for the “next big thing” smart phones. Those next big things are the 3G iPhone and the Samsung Omnia.  The following is from a WebitPR press release:

”These devices will sell large volumes and their specifications makes them very suitable for consumer mobile email and Momail. Our server based solution gives us the possibility to add support for new devices very fast and today we support over 80 percent of devices shipped. So, with Momail, iPhone and Omnia users will soon be able to enjoy the world’s smallest, smartest and most cost-effective mobile email, says Roger Grönberg, CEO of Momail.

The Momail service provides the user with a single mailbox for all of their e-mail addresses, in an “easy to use, fast, efficient, no spam environment.” Momail uses a Mobile Message Optimization & Protection Engine (MMOPE) to provide its users with speed and reliability, along with an IronPort to stop mobile spam and viruses. 

Momail already provides services for a range of other “super mobiles” soon to be released, including the HTC Touch Diamond, LG Secret, Nokia N96 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

Via [WebitPR Press Release]

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The Keynote may be the main attraction at WWDC, but there is always much more to come even after Steve leaves the stage. In today’s WWDC happenings, the Apple team detailed the server version of Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. The following comes from a MacNN report.

“As with [Consumer Version of Mac OS 10.6], Server will focus on making all aspects of the OS mutlicore-ready through Grand Central, with the option of tapping into GPU power via OpenCL. Because Server will operate on a 64-bit kernel, it should in theory support up to 16TB of RAM.”

iCal, Mail and Address Book will all be receiving upgrades, increasing their speed and stability. Other highlights include the addition of Podcast Producer 2, along with native programs and templates for creating blogs, wikis, mailing lists, and RSS Feeds.

Via [MacNN]

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Amidst all the Mac OS X 10.6 Hype, Apple has officially seeded Safari 4 to developers. This new version focuses on performance and stability. Using the Squirrelfish program with WebKit, Apple says Safari 4 will be “the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.”  Since speed, quality, and stability are the main focus of 10.6, it seems Apple is getting a jump on those upgrades. Another example of lightning quick web applications is the newly announced MobileMe, the replacement for .Mac. 

With upcoming system upgrades and subsequent release of 10.6, Apple is really focusing now on speed and stability, especially in web apps.

Via [MacRumors

] 

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Good news for those working with the iPhone SDK. Yesterday, during all the WWDC hoopla, Apple quietly posted the seventh edition of the iPhone software development kit. The newest edition of the SDK is build 9M2199, and weighs in at a download size of 1.19GB. Registered users of the SDK can go to the Apple Dev Center to download the new build as an update, or you can go to the same site to register for the program and download the build.

Via [World of Apple]

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This post is part two of a seven part series covering the iPhone applications and games announced at the WWDC Keynote on Monday, June 9th.

Push, a new feature from Apple could save a lot of battery and processing power. According to Steve and Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software, background processes were one of the biggest detriments to battery life in iPhone 1.0, but now there is a solution. By maintaining a constant IP connection, 3rd party and Apple apps can notify an iPhone user of things like new mail messages, and the like. The program will be available for users in September, with developer seeds headed out next month. As long as you have cell phone service, the system will work, as it is enabled to run using either Wi-Fi or cellular. 

For more on the new iPhone apps revealed at WWDC, follow the links below.

  • Auctions
  • Push Notification Service
  • Typepad
  • Mobile News
  • Band
  • Modality and MIMVista
  • At Bat

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This post is part one of a seven part series covering the iPhone applications and games announced at the WWDC Keynote on Monday, June 9th.

The first group to demo an app was iPhone App Lab. Their app was aptly named Auctions. It is certified by both Apple and eBay, and is available for free in the App store in iPhone 2.0.

The eBay application provides iPhone users with an easy way to buy and sell in the world’s largest online auction base, and Safari is no longer needed. From your iPhone, you can bid on items, check your watch list, check bid status and view item details, including photos of the listing. I think this is a decent app, but not really worth paying for, so it’s a good thing it will be free.

For more on the new iPhone apps revealed at WWDC, follow the links below.

  • Auctions
  • Push Notification Service
  • Typepad
  • Mobile News
  • Band
  • Modality and MIMVista
  • At Bat

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Okay, its official. 3G iPhone rumors have become a little too much. Asking “Will a 3G iPhone be released at WWDC?” is up there with the likes of “Does a bear use the restroom in the woods?” and “Is the Pope Catholic?”  In other words, yes. It will be there. I am willing to bet my first-born son on that (though you may be waiting a good 10 to 15 years for a payout should I be mistaken, but, as you may see above, I’m pretty darn sure I’m not). 

Now that I have stated how certain I am of 3G at WWDC, let’s start a new discussion. Other than the look and feel of the new iPhone, what will be changed in iPhone OS 2.0? Read on to hear my take on the subject.

1. iChat - This is one of the most disappointing app lacks from iPhone 1.0. Currently, you cannot enable any kind of AIM client without first Jailbreaking your iPhone—an act that voids your warranty and makes Steve mad. As you may know, it can get you banned for life from Apple stores. There will be some serious booage from the WWDC crowd should Apple not bring this one home.
2. Video Conferencing - A less anticipated feature than iChat, but important nonetheless. Many 3G iPhone rumors have speculated that there will be a a camera not only on the backside, but on the front, as well. This could add an interesting aspect to an already loved product. It’s hard to tell whether this possible feature would appeal more to the intrepid on-the-go business man or the kid-at-heart (or just the kid) who wants to share LOLCats pictures with their friends.
3. Blogging App - Another possible great app for the iPhone. I think this app would be good if there was a partnership between Apple and one of the major blog hosts, such as Blogsmith or Blogger.
4. Digital Video Capabilities - Another missed feature in iPhone 1.0. I think an app like this would be well received. Almost all cameraphones, and not just the smartphones, have this capability. Come on, Steve. You guys are supposed to outperform destroy the competition.

Just imagine collective “Huh?” at WWDC if Steve made the special point of saying no 3G iPhone. Now that would be a disappointment of Vista proportions.

Any thing I missed here? Anything you want to see in iPhone 2.0? Let your voice be heard in the comments below!

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WebKit,  the engine behind Safari and all of Mac’s other HTML needs, seems to be looking fairly far into the future.  It looks as if they’re anticipating the imminent release of Mac OS X v10.6 (or whatever it may be called, details on that in a bit).  Flickr user factoryjoe, famous for his screenshots, has a picture showing files deep in the heart of the most recent WebKit Nightly Build.  In the picture, a folder is shown labled “10.6,” linking as an alias to “10.5” above that.  Above that is the 10.4 folder. 

When it all gets boiled down, I think there are two explanations possible for the situation.  The first is the possibility of a preemptive strike of sorts when it comes time to start writing for 10.6.  This method is not unheard of for developers.  The second, and much more likely situation, is that the developers of WebKit have gotten wind of the new OS and have actually starting to develop WebKit for 10.6.  This may be due to Apple’s possible need of an open source foundation for their 10.6 browsing needs.  Although there is no date even rumored yet for a release, it should be here relatively soon.  Let’s just hope there are no Leopard-esque delays with the next version. 

As for the name, read on.  Back in 2004, when Apple trademarked the names Tiger and Leopard, they also trademarked the names Cougar and Lynx.  Thus, we have the two most likely names for then next iteration of the Mac Operating system, and heck, maybe the unused name will be saved for 10.7.

Via [The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

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For those who focus development on the iPhone, and missed there chance to go to WWDC ‘08, you may just be in luck.  iPhoneDevCamp 2 is a three day series of workshops and conferences, all dealing with development on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This follow up to iPhoneDevCamp 1 is a non-profit, and is sponsored by the likes of Adobe Systems, Belkin, iLounge and ANSCA Mobile, among others. 

Should you attend, you will be immersed in the development world, learning tidbits from professional coders, designers and developers, and work with other attendees to make your own programs and migrate existing Mac programs to the iPhone.  “If you’re a Cocoa Touch developer, web developer, UI designer, or tester, this is the place to be the first weekend of August,” says TUAW writer Steven Sande, and for the people mentioned above, it certainly will be the place to be. 

No registration info has been released, but make sure you check the iPhoneDevCamp 2 website periodically for more info.

[iPhoneDevCamp 2] via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]
 

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If you can’t beat ‘em, develop for ‘em!  At the moment, that it what Research In Motion, producer of the BlackBerry, may be doing.  The company has seen falls in sales of elephantine proportions since the introduction of the iPhone, and they seem to be in a hole out of which they cannot be dug.  Some analysts even predict the iPhone to totally make the BlackBerry an after thought in the world of SmartPhones. 

With that in mind, RIM may be hedging their bets in terms of an BlackBerry fallout.  A recent company memo called for applicants for a special team, and although the exact memo is nowhere to be found, an unidentified RIM employee did leak the following to Electronista. 

The position does have some specified requirements however, namely familiarity with Mac development in Cocoa and Objective C. Applicants must also be familiar with Javascript and XML, but knowledge of Sync Services, Bluetooth and USB are merely considered assets.

Now why would an Apple competitor be interested in someone with these talents?  There are many speculations, one of them being that they may actually start applying some of their SmartPhone know-how to developing applications for the iPhone.  This may prove to be a fairly good plan on RIM’s part, diverting more of their time and money into a seemingly more successful venue.  Other speculations point towards a reverse-engineering some of the components of the iPhone and adding them to the BlackBerry to increase the overall appeal RIM’s only major product.

All of this is with warrant, as the imminent release of the 3G iPhone is well poised to knock RIM down another notch in the SmartPhone industry.  And with the 3G iPhone rumored by Fortune Magazine to see a price drop to only $199, that would destroy one of the BlackBerry’s few advantages over the iPhone- affordability.

Leave a message below with your opinions on the believability of the claims.

Read [Electronista] and TUAW]

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For those of you who use Aperture, a new version of the SDK for the popular photo management app has arrived. If you can’t remember straight, Aperture 2.1 added a greater ability to write and create plugins, extras, and even editing tools. A month later, the SDK has arrived, allowing the general public to stop looking at and finally create these add ons. Hopefully with the SDK out, Aperture’s functionality will be greatly improved (sorry, I’m a Lightroom fan.) The SDK is available for download from ADC, so go, check it out, and start coding!

[ADC] via [TUAW]

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A few days ago, Apple quietly release the fourth installment of its iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), and it is available on the Apple Developer Center site. 

The most publicized and prominent change in the newest SDK version are certain changes to the iPhone simulator.  Previously, a developer would be unable to render 3D graphics in the iPhone simulator, and would be forced to test out those changes on the iPhone or iPod touch.  The Simulator now supports OpenGL ES, allowing the previously mentioned rendering to happen within the iPhone simulator, right on your computer.  Another prominent addition to the SDK is code signing, so though invalidated code will work in the iPhone Simulator, it would be worthless on the iPhone. 

Other less significant changes in the SDK include a slimmed down program, while still maintaining the full capabilities of the last version.  Xcode 3.1 has been included, along with UIFont, UIApplication, Audio ToolBox, and more NSXMLParser support.  With 200,000 subscribed developers and counting, you can be sure to expect a good handful of great new apps available when the App Store opens its doors in June

Via [MacNN]

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Gizmodo has done some looking around iPhone Firmware 2.0, and has found a great feature in the 2.0 Safari. Tapping and holding on an image, as you can currently do with links to see the URL they point to, provides the option of saving the image to your iPhone. Once saved, you can do with it what you like, just as a regular photo. Send it via Mail, set it as a wallpaper, or use it as a contact picture.

This is a great feature and is yet another thing I eagerly await in iPhone firmware 2.0. Now where’s that copy and paste implementation?

Speaking of which, what is wrong with using a simple tap twice, holding on the second tap approach? it seems natural enough. Double tap as if to zoom in, but hold on the second tap, and after a second, you can begin to drag to select text.

How do you think that would work? Have an idea of your own? Sound off below.

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As you know, Apple recently released a new build of the iPhone beta SDK to developers.  At first, this build may seem like just another update, but Zibri, creator of the popular iPhone hack tool, ZiPhone (which was recently updated), would beg to differ.  After looking through the code of this new release, he found evidence of support for a 3G chipset for the iPhone.  The code mentions “SGOLD3,” a chipset created by Infineon that supports 7.2Mbps HSDPA and a 5 mega-pixel camera.  This would be a nice step up from the iPhone’s current S-GOLD2 EDGE chipset and 2 mega-pixel camera.

Hopefully this evidence turns out to true because I don’t think iPhone owners can handle any more false rumors, such as Walt Mossberg’s 60 day 3G iPhone promise that turned out to be a misinterpretation.  However, unfortunately, there is also evidence in the code to prove that this may all just be a over reaction as well.  MacRumors has pointed out that the code also contains a reference to “SGOLD1,” a chipset that never appeared in the iPhone.  Only time will tell what’s in store for iPhone 2.0 and when it will be available, but let’s hope it’s soon!

What are your thoughts? Is this concrete evidence of a 3G iPhone, or just another over hyped news story?

Image via [Mac|Life]

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What did you do when you saw your beloved iPhone screen turn that ominous pink color? What you should’ve done is headed over to iPhone Dev Center and downloaded the hefty, just released 1.4GB iPhone beta SDK update.  This version, build 5A240d (but who’s counting?), will replace the original OS beta that was released to developers and stop those nasty “time out” errors, as well as those PSOD’s, allowing developers to continue creating their applications in tranquility. This update fixes numerous problems such as improving exchange support and searching for contacts in the global address list.

Of course, this beta is all leading up to the official SDK which is expected to be launched in June.  It will be free for iPhone owners, but, again, iPod Touch owners aren’t as lucky and will have to pay a fee.  Now, go download this release and help improve the iPhone in the future!  Note: You may have to wait because we’re sure Apple’s servers are taking a nice beating right now.

Photo via [TUAW]

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The mEgg Hunt, “brings seasonal fun” where Mac users will surf a Mac developer’s site and try to find an egg. Once they find an egg they’ll receive a code towards 20% off the purchase of the software. The Easter mEgg Hunt just revealed the list of participants, so once you see them, get hunting! (Then reading Apple news)

Apokalypse Software Corp. - Mori - Your notes, organized / Clockwork - On time, in style
Azure Talon Software - Exces - file encryption made easy
Black Cat Systems - Productivity Software for the Macintosh
Boinx Software Ltd. - Makers of iStopMotion FotoMagico and Mousepose
Chimp Software - Turn your Mac into a $2000 alarm clock with iRooster
Critical Matter, Inc. - Color Picker Pro: professional CSS and HTML color picker
www.x-tables.eu - Developer of Tables
DayTime Software - Makers of Differencia, The Data Comparison Tool
Dejal Systems - Simon, Time Out, Caboodle, Narrator, BlogAssist & Macfilink
Fluidmac - Creativity tools for Mac OS X
GroupSmarts, LLC. - MemoryMiner: Award-winning Digital Storytellin
Houdah Software - Makers of HoudahGeo & HoudahSpot
Indev Software - Revolutionary Enhancements for OS X Mail.app
Karelia Software - Sandvox - Easy, Elegant Website Creation
Lemke Software GmbH. - GraphicConverter & CADintosh
MildMannered Industries - Software for Superheroes
nova media MDS GmbH. - Worldwide mobile Internet access
Outer Level - LicenseKeeper - Keep your serial numbers safe outerlevel.com
Volitans Software - Makers of SMART Utility
Yellow Mug Software - Maker of
YourView - FileChute, EasyBatchPhoto, and more

Wow, that is quite a bit of software, and some good discounts Mac users can benefit from.

Via [macPRcaster]

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Given all the jailbreak attempts and subsequent successes in the iPhone 1.0 software, you might be expecting a thicker security layer in iPhone 2.0 software. Well, so much for that. iPhone 2.0 is already hacked.

iPhone 1.2 (which will be released to the public as 2.0 in June) was hacked by the iPhone Dev Team early Wednesday. Screenshots show applications running on the iPhone, which requires a developer certificate. None as of this time have been issued by Apple.

The hacked firmware only runs on non-AT&T carriers, but that should be available soon.

Read [ModmyiFone.com] Via [Engadget]

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Sun Microsystems announced that they are developing a Java virtual machine for iPhone.

The virtual machine will be based on the Java Micro Edition (ME). Apple showed no interest in putting Java on the iPhone, and so Sun said that after the SDK announcement, they would do it themselves. VP of Java Marketing at Sun, Eric Klein, told InfoWorld that the JVM would be free on Apple’s App Store alongside all other developer apps.

“We’re going to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible,” Klein told InfoWorld.

Read [InfoWorld]

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Today’s iPhone roadmap event was chock full of news. Here is the quick and dirty breakdown of what all was announced as part of the iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0 software.

iPhone Developer SDK
The SDK provides developers with the same APIs as Apple, so they can develop full fledged applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

MacRumors compiled this list of the contents of the SDK:

Cocoa Touch - Multi-touch events, Multi-touch controls, Acceleromter, View Hierarchy, Localization, Alerts, Web View, People Picker, Image Picker, Camera
Media - Core Audio, OpenAL, Audio Mixing, Audio Recording, Video Playback, JPG, PNG, TIFF, PDS Quartz, Core Animation, Embedded OpenGL
Core Services -
Collections, Address Book, Networking, File access, SQLite, Core Location, Net Services Threading, Preferences, URL utilities
Core OS - OS X Kernel, BSD TCP/IP, Sockets, Power Management, Keychain, Certificates, File System, Lib System, Security, Bonjour

Application Store
The user will purchase third party applications via the Application Store, a new app with the 2.0 software update. The developer sets the price, $0 included, and gets 70% of the revenue. Apps can be downloaded direct to iPhone, iPod Touch, as songs can be on the iTunes WiFi Store. Apps can also be purchased on iTunes and moved to your iPhone, and developers can push updates direct to the application.

Built in Exchange Support
Apple also announced that it has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft, and will build it into iPhone 2.0, so that it can connect to Exchange Servers 2003 and 2007. This provides secure push email, calendars, contacts, and more. This is big for companies holding out because of lack of Exchange support.

The iPhone SDK is available as a beta right now. IT departments can sign up for beta versions of iPhone Software 2.0 with Exchange Support at apple.com. iPhone Software 2.0 will be released as a free update in June of this year.

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This Tuesday was the first Tuesday since the beginning of 2008 that Apple did not announce a product. Looking back on the remarks Steve Jobs made at Macworld 2008, most specifically his implication that we would see an update every week, it seems they have fallen short on their promise. Not so. This Thursday, Apple will unveil the iPhone/iPod Touch SDK. So many are forgetting that to count in the week, Apple doesn’t have to release a product on a Tuesday.

So now the question becomes, can Apple really release something on every single Tuesday of the year? In my opinion, they easily can. Apple this year has changed their approach to updates, seemingly forgoing the “events” where they unveil one or more products at a time. Instead, they have released something every week with no prior announcement. Whether it is small, like the addition of a 2 GB iPod Shuffle, or big, like the MacBook Air, or even a price change, I see Apple as easily filling up the year with updates.

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Apple has sent out an invitation to press contacts inviting them to an iPhone/ iPod Touch SDK “Roadmap” meeting.

In an invitation sent to reporters, Apple wrote, “Please join us to learn about the iPhone software roadmap, including the iPhone SDK and some exciting new enterprise features.”

9to5Mac reports that “the event will largely cover enterprise topics like Exchange and Lotus Notes syncing.”

Apple on Tuesday released iPhone and iPod Touch Firmware 1.1.4, which was listed as 165 MB of bug fixes, but also likely laid groundwork for the SDK, which will allow for third party iPhone/iPod native applications. Currently the onyl way to get applications on the iPhone is through web-apps, which run through Safari and are not native, or Jailbreaking your iPhone/iPod Touch, which voids your warranty.

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Product: ScreenFlow
Link: ScreenFlow
Price: $99.99 USD
Rating: 10/10

ScreenFlow is now the best screen capture application out there. The recording process is nothing special, it’s the editing software that makes it a 10 out of 10 program. Video review after the jump.

Video by Adam Fisher-Cox

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