Mac News: Software

Thunder in Cupertino Makes It Rain on Wall Street
March 10, 2010

Apple has announced the iPad will hit retail shelves April 3, sending the adrenalin surging through competitors' veins. HP and several Chinese manufacturers have announced tablets in what might be perceived as an attempt to capitalize on the not-quite-a-laptop, not-really-a-netbook category.

Valve Opens Pipeline for Mac Gaming
March 09, 2010

Valve one of the largest distributors of online games, has announced that it will make its Steam online gaming service and proprietary gaming engine, Source, available on the Mac. The service, Steamworks for the Mac, comes equipped with Steam Play, a feature that allows play on either a PC or Mac at no additional charge.

Urban Airship's Flight Plan: Push Out Info, Pull In Revenue
March 09, 2010

Given the growing popularity of mobile devices and the great many applications to go with them, you would think that this new niche had plenty of room for newcomers. Many of those newcomers, though, will find it difficult to capture a great deal of consumer attention. Places like the Android Market and the Apple App Store are popular and growing fast, but they're awash in apps that struggle to stand out from the crowd.

Aperture's Makeover Delights Photogs
March 08, 2010

The new features in Apple's makeover of its image editing and archiving program Aperture appear to be a hit among photographers, even though the initial release of the application was so flawed an upgrade had to be released within two weeks of its launch. Aperture 3.0 ($199) has more than two hundred new features.

iPhone Gets Down to Business With Open Source BI App
March 08, 2010

Users of apps from BIRT, the open source Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools project, will be able to access them on the iPhone starting Monday. Actuate, which founded the BIRT project and coleads it with the Eclipse Foundation, is putting its BIRT Mobile Viewer on the App Store.

Production Problems Could Cut Both Ways for iPad Devs
March 02, 2010

An analyst's research note has thrown the expected launch date of the iPad into doubt -- or at least raised questions about how easy it will be for consumers to get their hands on the device. Unspecified production problems may cause Apple to delay or limit the size of its launch, according to Canaccord Adams' Peter Misek.

Mac App Transcribes Speech to Text in a Snap
March 01, 2010

Talking to your Mac and watching your words appear on its screen can be an empowering experience, but what about those times you're away from your "iron?" If you have a gadget that records sound files, you can now turn those bytes into text with a new program from MacSpeech.

Intuit's Quicken for Mac App Sticks to Essentials
February 26, 2010

Intuit has rolled out its first Mac-native application for Quicken. Quicken Essentials for Mac, or QEM, offers several new features welcome to Mac users seeking a financial application -- including an expected increase in the number of financial institutions, banks and credit unions they can access.

Much Goofy Gardening Fun to Be Had in 'Plants vs. Zombies'
February 25, 2010

Anyone whose home has been under attack from zombies knows all too well how incredibly annoying the problem can get -- way worse than termites or even a wasp nest. Luckily, strategic landscaping in the front yard can be an effective defense, at least in the cartoony world "Plants vs. Zombies" inhabits. PopCap's game for PCs and Macs has been scaled down into an iPhone/iPod touch version.

Apple: Stock in the Clouds, One Toe Still in the Gutter
February 24, 2010

Apple stock closed at $197.05 Tuesday, down $3.37 after a five-day rally that saw it hit $203.08 Friday. However, that slide was part of an overall market phenomenon. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 100 points and the NASDAQ composite index lost about 29 points as consumer confidence took a tumble.

With Smut Ban, App Store Exposes a Jiggly Set of Rules
February 23, 2010

I'm both irritated and pleased that Apple is waging a war on anything sexy in its iPhone, iPod touch, and soon-to-be-released iPad App Store. The company in Cupertino has been systematically removing thousands of apps that could be construed as sexy, have adult-oriented images, or just simply show chicks in bikinis -- wait, now that's a great idea for an app.

College Newspaper Warms Up Its Digital iPad Press
February 22, 2010

Among the media redwoods that will be displaying their wares on Apple's iPad when the tablet arrives on the shelves next month will be a sapling from a small college in West Texas. Abilene Christian University will be among the first colleges to offer editions of its student newspaper, The Optimist, designed specifically for the new hardware platform.

Word 2011's Ribbon Will Tie Mac Users in Knots
February 19, 2010

Microsoft was under no obligation to build a ribbon component, similar to the one premiered in Office for Windows, for the Mac. That's especially true given the fact that the menu bar is such a prominent element of the Mac user experience. Ever since System 7, the menu bar -- which remains fixed to the top of the screen -- indicates which application is active.

Gorillacam Swings In With Bunches of Tasty Photo Features
February 18, 2010

Without Apple headlining, Macworld 2010 was proclaimed a snoozefest before it even started. Now it's over and we're all left to sift through the various blog posts and news articles coming from reporters on the scene -- which are decidedly fewer in number and weaker in excitement than in previous years. One item that did catch my eye was about Joby's new accessories.

Rivals Rendezvous in Europe to Plot Against Apple
February 17, 2010

Apple's rivals have launched a flurry of broadsides against the iTunes App Store at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. Twenty-four wireless carriers around the world, supported by major smartphone manufacturers, teamed up to build an open app platform through their new organization, the Wholesale Applications Community.

Google's New Social Scene-Stealer
February 12, 2010

A few weeks ago, I was hearing rumors about Facebook opening a new email service. Looks like Google beat them to the punch, though, because Gmail just opened up a new Facebook service. Maybe not technically -- Facebook plays absolutely no role in "Buzz," which is what Google named its creation. Buzz just seems to feature some of the same social networking capabilities as Facebook.