This week has been pretty full up with all sorts going on in the Apple world, in particular the official announcement of WWDC 2012 (where we are probably going to see the proper launch of OS X Mountain Lion, a new and updated iMac range and maybe even a sneak preview of iOS 6) and the fact the tickets sold in a mere 2 hours!
In other Apple-related news this week…
Pixelmator updated to version 2.0.3
Pixelmator, the popular low-end alternative to Photoshop for Mac computers received a slight update on Tuesday, bringing it up to version 2.0.3. Notable features include a reduction in the program’s memory footprint (meaning that it will run faster on older systems), a fix for the exporting to web feature and general bug fixes.
Pixelmator 2.0.3 was released on Tuesday with general improvements and bug fixes all round.
The developers of Pixelmator have also listened to user requests to bring back the old Deselect shortcut – in this new version the shortcut is (as in previous versions) Command (?) + D. There is also a Terminal fix for Lion users who want to turn off the Autosave feature – simply open up a new Terminal window and enter the following command:
defaults -currentHost write com.pixelmatorteam.pixelmator "disableAutosave" -bool YES
To get the new version of Pixelmator, head over to the program where it should be waiting for you. If you haven’t got it yet, then you can download a 30-day free trial from their website.
Google Drive and SkyDrive for Mac released
It seems like this week has been the battle of cloud-based storage, with Google releasing its new service Google Drive and Microsoft releasing a Mac client for its service, SkyDrive.
Google Drive was released this week, with 5 GB of free online storage and a Mac client
Google Drive provides users with 5 GB of storage to start off with (beating Dropbox’s introductory 2 GB of space) and you’ll have to have an active Google account to be added to the waiting list (there’s currently quite a long waiting list, however Google will email you when your drive is ready). A Mac client has already been developed and Google promise clients for iPhone and iPad are coming soon. Gmail users also had a choice to rejoice today as due to the launch of Google Drive, their storage space was bumped up to 10 GB, one of the largest space offerings for a webmail client.
To find out more about Google Drive and SkyDrive (and to sign up to them), head over to their websites by clicking on the links above!
Mac App Store cracks the 10,000 app milestone
The Mac App Store, which was bundled in the OS X 10.6.6 release, has finally hit the 10,000 app milestone, with the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution celebrating the achievement. Although a sizeable sum, it is still a fraction of the number of apps available for iOS devices (around 585,000 in March 2012) however given the practicality of purchasing and downloading apps straight onto your computer, this number is sure to rise in the near future.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is available for immediate download (around 15.5 GB in total) from the App Store and is priced at $49.99.
Second update to Office 2011, 14.2.1, released
A mere two weeks after Microsoft released the second Service Pack for Office 2011, the company has pushed out a further update to rectify issues reported by several users. According to the official Office for Mac blog, the previous update was pulled because of:
issues that affected a small percentage of users.
Many of the issues were due to Outlook however some users reported problems with Word and Excel as well. The update is recommended for everybody and can be had by either going onto Microsoft AutoUpdate in any Office 2011 program or off Microsoft Support, where a full detailed change log is listed.
Send to Kindle for Mac released
Amazon has released the Send to Kindle application for OS X, meaning that Kindle owners can send documents straight to their Kindle directly from their Mac.
It is now even easier for Mac owners to send documents to their Kindle with Send to Kindle for Mac
The app, which is free, is an improvement over the old system, whereby users would have to e-mail any documents to their Kindle e-mail address, where they would be converted and downloaded automatically onto the user’s Kindle. Send to Kindle also features great OS X integration as well, such as the ability to select multiple documents in Finder, right click on them and click Send to Kindle or from any Mac application that can print as well.
You can download Send to Kindle for Mac directly from Amazon’s website by clicking here.
Apple still 10 years behind Microsoft on security
The CEO of one of the largest internet security software developers, Eugene Kaspersky, made some rather chilling comments this week regarding Macs and their internet security. According to an interview he gave to CBR, Kaspersky believes that, “Apple are still 10 years behind Microsoft in terms of security” and draws light on the recent Flashback trojan which, according to a new study, is still lurking on 650,000 Macs worldwide, despite Apple having officially addressed the problem.
Kaspersky goes onto to say that:
Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it’s not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft’s world, Mac. It’s full of malware.
The question of security is a big issue for Mac owners – traditionally they have been seen as pretty much invincible against all viruses (as Apple proudly claims on their website about why you should switch to Mac) – but the new wave of threats against OS X has shown that it certainly is not immune to all viruses, a stark wake-up call for many Mac owners.