MacBook, PowerBook, iBook, and other portable computing is covered
in The 'Book Review. iPod, iPhone,
and Apple TV news is covered in The iNews
Review.
All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News & Opinion
Products & Services
Software
News & Opinion
Is Your Mac Ready to Take Full-advantage of Snow
Leopard?
Macsimum
News's Dave Merten says:
"...Snow Leopard runs on a 64-bit kernel, and to take full-advantage
of this new OS, you need a Intel-based Mac running a 64-bit processor.
So how can you tell if your Intel-based Mac has a 32-bit or 64-bit
processor? Follow the instructions below to find out...."
Also see Pre-order Mac OS X 10.6 'Snow Leopard' for
$29.
Link:
Is Your Mac Ready to Take Full-advantage of Snow Leopard?
Run Windows on Your Mac for Free
MacFixIt's
Topher Kessler says:
"Virtualization is one of the most useful features of current
computing hardware, allowing you to run multiple operating systems at
once on a computer at near-native speeds. Despite its benefits, one of
the big problems is that while many people have Windows software, they
do not want to pay extra for running it on their Macs."
Link: Running
Windows for Free on Your Mac
Microsoft 'Update' Breaks Office 2008 for Mac
The Register's
Rik Myslewski reports:
"Microsoft's recently released Service Pack 2 for Office 2008 for
Mac makes it impossible for many users to open Office files created on
PCs.
"The 'update' - Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2
(12.2.0) - was released last Monday...."
Link:
Microsoft 'Update' Breaks Office for Mac
Apple Thrives Because Its Tribe Spreads the
Word
The Irish
Times' Ravi Mattu riffs on how a sense of community matters, from the
playground to the workplace, and how Apple's corporate success has been
not only due to Steve Jobs' vision, Jonathan Ive's brilliant industrial
design sense, and smart corporate management, but in large part
attributable to the fact that many of its most devoted customers think
of themselves as more than mere consumers but rather "citizens of a
kind of Apple nation, whose loyalty to the brand is about more than
owning the best gadgets; it is about being part of a tribe and
spreading the word...."
Link:
Apple Thrives Because Its Tribe Spreads the Word
Products & Services
Apple Expands Time Capsule to 2 TB - Drops
Price
PR: Apple has expanded the maximum Time Capsule capacity to 2
TB, and will continue the existing 1 TB model as well.
Consistent
with Apple's recent price-cutting trend, the new 2 TB model sells for
the price of the previous 1 TB model while the 1 TB Time Capsule drops
to $299, and a the 500 GB model has been discontinued.
With Time Capsule, the nagging need to back up has been replaced by
automatic, constant protection wirelessly.
Time Capsule
includes a wireless 1 TB or 2 TB hard drive designed to work with Time
Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. Just set Time Capsule as the designated
backup drive for Time Machine, and that's it. Depending on how much
data you have, your initial backup with Time Capsule could take
overnight or longer. After it completes, only changed files are backed
up - automatically, wirelessly, and in the background. So you never
have to worry about backing up again.
If you multiple Mac computers, Time Capsule can back up and store
files for each Leopard-based Mac on your wireless network.
For current deals on new and discontinued Time Capsules, see
Low End Mac's Best Time
Capsule and AirPort Prices.
Link: Time Capsule
Software
Pre-order Mac OS X 10.6 'Snow Leopard' for $29
PR: Amazon has made Apple's forthcoming major upgrade of the
OS X operating system available for pre-order at $29.
Projected to ship in September, Snow Leopard is a truly exciting and
even revolutionary development of Mac OS X, featuring half the
footprint of previous versions, great new features in Expose &
Stacks, quicker Time Machine backup, and faster wireless network
interaction.
Free shipping on orders over $25 and Amazon.com's Pre-order Price
Guarantee. If the Amazon.com price decreases between time of pre-order
time and the end of the day of the release date, you'll get the lower
price.
Picasa 3 - The Easy Way to Find, Edit, and Share
Your Photos
PR: Picasa and Picasa Web Albums allows you to organize,
edit, and upload your photos to the web from your computer in quick,
simple steps. Arrange your photos into folders and albums and erase
their blemishes using powerful editing tools in Picasa. Then use Picasa
Web Albums to share those perfected photos online with family, friends,
and the world.
Organize: Manage your photos in one place, and find photos you
forgot you had
Edit: Eliminate scratches & blemishes, fix redeye, crop and
more
Create: Turn photos into movies, collages, slideshows and more
Share: Upload seamlessly to Picasa Web Albums to share with friends,
family & the world
New in version 3.0.6:
- Fixed an issue where applying the 'Retouch' edit created a 0 KB new
file.
- Fixed an issue where Picasa for Mac caused very high CPU usage for
some users.
- Various crash fixes.
System Requirements:
- Mac OS X 10.4.9+
- Intel CPU
- 256 MB RAM
- 100 MB available hard disk space
Free
Link: Picasa
for Mac
Consistent Keyboards Keyboard Utility
PR: When you connect a PC-style keyboard to a Mac, the
Windows key acts as the Command key and the Alt key acts like the
Option key. In other words, the keys' positions are reversed compared
to an Apple keyboard. You can swap them in System Preferences, but the
swap affects all keyboards, so if you sometimes use the keyboard built
into your MacBook and sometimes an external keyboards, you have to turn
the swapping on or off each time you switch from one keyboard to the
other (e.g., when you arrive at work in the morning). AppleScript UI
scripting can make this chore somewhat less painful, but it is still
cumbersome and slow.
Consistent Keyboards is a little daemon that runs in the background
and swaps the Option and Command keys - but only on PC-style keyboards.
Thus you don't have to do anything when you switch between
keyboards.
New in version 0.7:
- Known bug: Consistent Keyboards is not able to swap Command and
Option while the focus is on a secure text field (e.g., the password
prompts in most applications). This is a Mac OS X security
feature.
System Requirements: Consistent Keyboards runs on Intel- and
PowerPC-based Mac computers. It works with Mac OS X 10.4 ("Tiger") and
Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"), but 10.5 already has similar functionality
in System Preferences.
Platform Support: PPC/Intel
Consistent Keyboards is open source, covered by a BSD-style
license
Link: Consistent
Keyboards
Bodega - A Revolutionary Way to Discover Mac
Apps
PR: IDFusion Software
announces the first public release of Bodega, a free corner store for
Mac apps. Mac users have never had an easy time finding new
applications. Bodega, free for both users and developers, changes all
of that. A one-stop shop for software needs, Bodega makes it simple for
people to discover great, new software, while also giving developers a
new way to sell their wares.
Bodega's creators have been working closely with developers in
advance of the first public release, available now. With an already
impressive lineup of software companies on board, Bodega features an
extensive catalog of applications - a catalog that continues to grow
daily - and includes paid, free and open-source apps.
"We've had a phenomenal response from both users and the development
community," said Phil Letourneau, User Interface Designer for Bodega.
"Everyone is very excited about having a single, dedicated place to
discover new applications."
In addition to a simple,
easy-to-use search interface, users can also browse the top- rated and
most-downloaded applications, giving them an easy way to see what's hot
in the Mac community. And Bodega's ratings and comments make it easy to
find software others are raving about, while skipping those not worth
the download.
The storefront also gives users links to press clippings and blog
postings, so they can see what tech writers have to say about an app.
Bodega lets customers buy directly from developers, giving them the
lowest price while making sure their money ends up in the pockets of
the people who built it.
Users will never again have to waste time hunting for old license
keys or receipts. When purchasing an app through Bodega, users can save
their receipts in the application, making reinstallation a hassle-free
process.
Bodega also takes the headache out of updating by checking for
application updates to make sure a user's software is up-to-date. When
Bodega finds outdated apps, downloading an update takes a single click.
Future versions will include a batch update feature, allowing a user to
stay current with a single click.
Link: Bodega
Sixth Public Beta of DEVONthink Brings PDF
Annotations and More
PR: DEVONtechnologies, LLC releases the sixth public beta of
version 2.0 of all editions of its information manager DEVONthink as
well as of the smart note-keeper DEVONnote. The sixth public beta of
DEVONthink 2.0 and DEVONnote 2.0 adds a first bunch of PDF annotation
functions (more to follow soon) to DEVONthink, a further enhanced
interactive web interface (DEVONthink Pro Office only) and many further
enhancements.
Text in editable PDF documents as well as in web archives can be
highlighted, underlined, and struck through, the next beta will also
add the still missing standard PDF annotations known from Preview,
graphical marks and sticky notes. New notes can be created via a
customizable hot key that opens the new 'Take Note' panel or via the
completely rewritten Dashboard widget. In DEVONthink Pro and up items
can be moved from one database to the other instead of being copied and
databases can be easily archived for secure backups with a single menu
command. Cover Flow and Quick Look support has been enhanced for higher
usability and a better user experience.
DEVONthink Pro Office's web interface now allows to upload files
from any workplace directly to the database, uses a resizable side bar
and shows additional information about the selected item. In addition
it allows to choose search options and the iPhone web application
supports 'See Also'.
All editions also come with more than hundred further internal
changes, performance and stability enhancements, and bug fixes.
"The continuing work on DEVONthink Pro Office's web interface and
the addition of the first PDF annotation functions proves our
commitment to make DEVONthink the number one productivity and document
management tool for the Mac", says Eric Bohnisch-Volkmann, President of
DEVONtechnologies.
The version 2.0 upgrade addresses a large number of feature requests
from the active user community and modernizes almost every aspect of
the applications. These public betas are still incomplete but the
already existing functionality is stable enough for sharing with the
public. Smart tags, PDF annotations, enhanced image editing as well as
the ability to upload files through the web interface are not
implemented yet but will be delivered one after the other with each
subsequent update. The user interface of all editions will be further
polished, too.
New features of version 2.0 include but are not limited to: the
ability to open multiple databases simultaneously (DEVONthink Pro), all
advanced Boolean and proximity operators (as known from DEVONagent),
wildcards and unlimited complex search terms, smart groups, unlimited
undo/redo, an inbox, a trash can, and the support for almost all common
file formats. The new Finder-like sidebar facilitates working with
multiple databases.
DEVONthink 2.0 imports and displays Microsoft Office (Word, Excel,
PowerPoint), OpenOffice and iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) files as
well as Skim PDF packages and all other files that support or are
supported by Mac OS X 10.5's QuickLook. Using Spotlight importers and
plugins for indexing DEVONthink can also search files that it cannot
display due to the lack of QuickLook support (Spotlight does not need
to be active). Metadata, e.g. from PDF files, email messages, or Office
documents is imported, indexed, displayed, and can be selectively
searched, e.g. using smart groups.
DEVONthink 2.0 allows to create documents from templates and
DEVONthink Pro Office 2.0 shares databases with other users on the
local network or over the Internet via an interactive web interface
based on the latest web technologies. RSS, RDF and Atom news feeds can
be added as self-updating groups to any DEVONthink Pro database and so
integrate live content with local documents. The independent 'Sorter'
panel lets the user add data to your databases even when DEVONthink Pro
is not open. Tabbed browsing and editing as well as Cover Flow
simplifies working with large numbers of documents. A PDF sidebar
allows rearranging and deleting pages.
The new database engine incorporated into DEVONthink 2.0 not only
speeds up working with large databases but also stores all files in
their original file format, e.g. Microsoft Word files and email
messages. Files are no longer converted when imported and can be edited
using external applications. In addition, all documents can be accessed
from outside DEVONthink using a standard URL. This highly improves
workflow integration with third-party solutions such as iCal, OmniFocus
Daylite, Bookends, or Endnote.
DEVONthink Personal 2.0 and DEVONnote 2.0 inherit the three pane
view formerly exclusive to the Pro editions as well as separate
document windows and the full screen mode. In addition DEVONthink
Personal is no longer limited to 10,000 images.
The public beta releases of DEVONthink Pro and Pro Office 2.0,
DEVONthink Personal 2.0, and DEVONnote 2.0 require Mac OS X 10.5 or
later and can be downloaded from www.devon-technologies.com. DEVONthink
and DEVONnote can be test-driven for free for 150 hours of
noncontinuous runtime until they need to be properly licensed. The
public beta releases run without registration until December 31, 2009,
before they need to be replaced by new betas or the final 2.0
releases.
DEVONthink Professional Office sells for $149.95, DEVONthink
Professional for $79.95, DEVONthink Personal for $49.95, and DEVONnote
for $24.95 in DEVONtechnologies' online shop. DEVONthink Pro Office and
DEVONthink Pro are also available with the Internet research agent
DEVONagent as bundles.
Users who purchased DEVONthink Personal, Pro, Pro Office or
DEVONnote 1.x on or after July 1, 2008, are eligible for free upgrades.
Users who have purchased before the grace period will be able to
upgrade for attractive upgrade prices available on the
DEVONtechnologies website.
Link:
DEVONthink 2
Desktop Mac
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