Mac Apps

Editors Play New Reel in Final Cut Fiasco
June 30, 2011

Apple has attempted to dial down the flack it's received since the release of its latest movie-editing application, Final Cut Pro X, by publishing an FAQ that addresses some of the editing world's edgier criticisms. Meanwhile, professional film editors angered by Apple's recently released Final Cut Pro X video editing software are flocking to sign a petition.

Apple Amps Up Productivity With Final Cut Pro X
June 21, 2011

Video editing pros, get out your wallets. Apple released a new version of Final Cut Pro on Tuesday. Final Cut Pro X reinvents video editing, according to Apple. Magnetic Timeline allows users to edit on a flexible trackless canvas. Content Auto-Analysis categorizes content during import based on shot type, media and people. The background rendering feature allows the user to work without interruption.

Heavy-Duty Hard Drive Weeding Machine Drives a Hard Bargain
May 09, 2011

Hard disk drives have a tendency to fill up with all sorts of useless files. I try to keep up on the small stuff by using the trash often and frequently, but there's always some large files lurking deep within the bowels of your Mac. And inevitably, I look at the bottom of a folder and realize I've got just 10 GB left of my 320 GB hard drive.

Lion Scopes Out Territory in Apple Ecosystem
February 25, 2011

Apple may be hoping that Mac operating system release number eight becomes the eighth wonder of the technological world. The company released a developers preview of the OS, code-named "Lion," on Thursday. However, Lion is primarily a "user interface evolution rather than a back-end functionality upgrade," according to Appitalism founder and CEO Simon Buckingham.

Mac App Store: The Good, the Bad and the Ambiguous
January 11, 2011

In between gobbling up the tech gadget news coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show last week, I dutifully cleaned a bunch of useless data off of my MacBook, gave it a new pristine Carbon Copy Cloaner backup, then updated all my Apple software applications, including the all-important 10.6.6 update to Mac OS X -- if you don't have 10.6.6, you can't get the new Mac App Store.

Pirates Make Off With Mac App Store Booty
January 07, 2011

Within hours of Apple's unveiling of the Mac App Store on Thursday, hackers announced they had found a way to pirate apps on the site. The hack took advantage of the fact that some apps don't validate receipts properly. The first app hacked was the "Angry Birds" game. Someone later claimed in a tweet to have hacked the game "The Incident."

Dragon Dictate for Mac Is an Expert Listener
December 29, 2010

For many years, the speech recognition world for PCs and Macs was split between Dragon Naturally Speaking for Windows and MacSpeech for OS X. That changed earlier this year when Nuance, the maker of Dragon, bought its Mac rival. Both companies continued to produce their programs that allow spoken words to be turned into computer text until recently, when the combo released Dragon Dictate for the Mac.

5 Ways the App Store Will Rock the Mac Platform
December 21, 2010

Frankly, I'm surprised at how excited I am to see the Mac App Store coming Jan. 6. For me, first and foremost, it's about easy application discovery and instant buying from a trusted source. Sure, you can download many Mac apps from a variety of developer websites, but then you're also sharing a lot of key details about your identity, home and billing information.

The Winds of WikiLeaks' War
December 11, 2010

The fallout from WikiLeaks' late-November release of hundreds of thousands of private U.S. State Department messages continues to spread, and it's grown well beyond the spewing of outraged rhetoric. Feeling pressure from the public and possibly the U.S. government itself, businesses are attempting to lay siege to WikiLeaks, cutting it off financially and technologically.

No Demos? No Big Deal: Mac App Store's Still a Net Gain for Devs
December 07, 2010

While the latest rumors suggest that Apple may open its new Mac OS X App Store as soon as next week, controversy still abounds: Last week Apple told its developer community not to submit demos, trials, or beta software to the Mac OS X App Store for review. If you read this as a developer, this might spark outrage at Apple's overt control of the applications it's willing to peddle.

Apple to Devs: No Half-Baked Goods in the Mac App Store
December 03, 2010

Apple released the latest build of Mac OS X 10.6.6 Thursday and also announced new restrictions on application developers who want to sell their wares on the upcoming Mac App Store. It has barred developers from offering demos, trial versions or betas of their products on the Mac App Store. Apple has also issued instructions on file system usage requirements and the creation of custom controls for Mac apps.

Mac Gains New Outlook With Latest Microsoft Office
October 26, 2010

Microsoft has come out with its latest edition of Office for Mac, ditching the old Entourage e-mail and calendaring client in exchange for an Apple version of Outlook. Office for Mac 2011 replaces the 2008 edition with better cross-platform compatibility, speed and performance improvements, as well as the debut of the controversial "Ribbon" menu which has been a part of the Windows version since 2007.

How Users Will Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Mac App Store
October 26, 2010

There's been a lot written in tech publications regarding Apple's upcoming Mac App Store, which the company introduced at last week's media event. For plugged-in tech geeks, a common first set of related thoughts spring into negative questions: Will Apple patrol the Mac App Store too strictly with an obscure puritan glee? Will Apple's many restrictions stifle Mac developers?

For Apple, a Week of Hot Air and Market Share
October 23, 2010

Apple held its big Back to the Mac event this week, showing previews of software and hardware to come. On the hardware side, it has a new, aluminum body MacBook Air. Weighs less than three pounds and boasts up to 30 hours of standby time, five to seven hours of actual use. It comes in two sizes: 13.3 inches and 11.6, which teeters right on the brink of netbook territory.

Apple Decides the Desktop Shall Be App-ified
October 21, 2010

Apple announced Wednesday it will debut the Mac App Store, an online store through which users can purchase, download and install Mac OS X applications, within 90 days. Looking ahead further, the vendor said it will incorporate the Mac App Store in Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release of its operating system for computers, which is scheduled to ship next summer.

Apple Hints at a Lion, Delivers Fresh Air
October 20, 2010

What would happen if a MacBook and iPad hooked up? Apple's answer is the new MacBook Air. "It's one of the most amazing things we've ever created," Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared Wednesday at a company event held at its headquarters. "We think it is the future of notebooks." What does the future look like? It comes in two models -- one with an 11.6-inch display and the other with a 13.3-inch screen.

Mac-Loving Engineers Can Have Their AutoCAD and iPads Too
August 31, 2010

AutoCAD, a popular design and engineering tool from Autodesk, is returning to the Mac after an absence of some 18 years. Autodesk is launching a version that runs natively on Apple's Mac OS X. To be released in October, it will cost US$3,995 without a support subscription, and $4,445 with one. Autodesk is also releasing a free version of the AutoCAD application for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Extensions Ride Shotgun in New Safari
July 28, 2010

Apple on Wednesday released Safari 5.0.1, the latest version of its Web browser. It has extensions enabled by default, as well as security patches. The extensions include tools for Twitter and other social networks, news and shopping. They are organized into categories and are available at the Safari Extensions Gallery.

Safari Autofill Full of Fail
July 23, 2010

Safari's Autofill feature, which can be set to automatically insert a user's data such as name and address into Web forms, could expose users to theft of their personal information, according to security expert Jeremiah Grossman. Grossman, the founder and CTO of security firm WhiteHat, wrote in his blog that the feature autofills HTML form text fields with specific attribute names.

Bean: An Open Source Mac App That Grows On You
April 09, 2010

Word processing isn't what it used to be. With the rise of the Web, the need for feature-gorged programs like Microsoft Word have diminished. On the other hand, for many scribblers, barebones text editors are just too limp to satisfy their needs. That gap between bloated and feeble applications has opened a very comfortable niche for an offering like Bean. Bean is a free, open source word processor.