Category: Mac

It’s been a big week for Apple fans. We’ve got betas of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, new iWork web apps and the promise of a new iWork and iLife this fall, the long-rumored iTunes Radio service, MacBook Airs with insanely long battery life … and best of all, a brand-new Mac Pro at long last. Cook, Ive, and the rest of the team have been hard at work cooking up the greatest-and-latest software and devices, and it seems they’ve done quite the good job.

iOS 7 is getting most of the headlines, but I was actually the most excited to see what’s new for the Mac with the next version of OS X. The name was quite the surprise, with Apple switching to location names in California rather than cat names. The feature lineup isn’t too bad, either, with a strong focus on decreasing power consumption, keeping ram free, and making networking simpler (both through AirDrop and with Windows networking). Finder got a long-needed overhaul, finally gaining tabs and tags, while Safari takes the lead again as the fastest and most integrated Mac browser.

But that’s not all. There’s brand new apps – Maps and iBooks – and Notifications have been simplified and improved. Best of all, there’s supposed to be unified notifications with iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, so you won’t have all your devices ringing with notifications at the same time.

So, from all that, what are you the most excited about? Looking forward to discussing everyone’s favorite parts of the next version of OS X in the comments below!

Having all your tasks written down is enough for many. However, that still doesn’t mean they’ll be accomplished. We’re so accustomed to red badges overlaying our apps that we ignore them as if they were ads banners. Some people even develop an OCD to iron out these commitments, but when the goals becomes to clean up your icons instead of cross out your duties, something is not well and we often intervene in a unproductive way against our to-dos.

This nuisance is even more discernible to those who are always engulfed by long-term projects. They land in our task managers and constantly discourage us when we ponder on their duration. Several techniques have been developed to improve our focus, such as the Pomodoro technique; however, some people just can’t be productive through a premeditated method. They demand something else.

And that’s what the new version of our old pal Vitamin-R 2 provides to its users.

What makes you tick?

The new version of Vitamin-R 2 is no revolution. The application wasn’t turned inside out, and it is unlikely that you, if a previous user, has much to adapt to. The new design is very welcome, although still keeping some friction in its usability, appears to have preferred to retain the muscle memory of its previous users.

Welcome to actually getting things done. And a menubar sneak peek.

The philosophy behind Vitamin-R 2 hasn’t changed either, only its focus was enhanced and boosted. As we wrote almost 2 years ago, our brains are more efficient when working on a short-period single task without interruptions. Since we’re always drowned in exhausting projects, we usually carry out random tasks without a pattern or order. By suggesting time slices, Vitamin-R 2 helps us to disassemble our tasks so they become feasible within our time limits and more productive.

Please your brain and get things done

Vitamin-R 2 sits in your menubar, waiting for you to add a goal. After the first one is drafted, it clears the path which could lead you to procrastination. Still, the objectives aren’t like tasks in Vitamin-R 2, in the first you fit the steps, while in the latter you hang the big picture. The span for each of your steps is up to you and as with every achieved objective you move a step forward. There’s always the savor of conquest rather than squeezing ourselves and forcing a poor outcome.

At first, it is an intimidating application, probably with more to set up than you really need (most of the notification just annoyed me). Meanwhile, this is part of Vitamin-R 2′s mission in not providing an alternative, but yet to offer the tools for you to seek your solution.

Keeping your time sliced

Coming up with your goals is the sole part of Vitamin-R 2 that requires slightly more attention. The principle is to jot down what you’re about to do now and stipulate a time period to complete the task. For example, using Vitamin-R to write this article, I add an estimate for each paragraph instead of the “Write the Review” smothered in cobwebs on Things.

Talking about it, you can drag tasks from Things, Omnifocus or The Hit List straight to Vitamin-R 2′s window to create an objective. It even marks the task as done in the referenced application.

Set a specific and reachable objective for your time slice.

In the next step, you’ll be inquired to eliminate your current distractions, your open application can be either hidden or closed. Next, you define the size of your slice. A slider gives you control of the length and allows you to visualize the hour it elapses. You can also use the motivation and resistance meters to find out how the time fits with your current state of mind, and settle if you want a timed or open break before moving towards your next objective.

A quick look at two important panels. Where you set the duration of your slice and where you deal with your distractions.

As you work your goal through, a flood of notifications may draw away your attention and, as most functions, you can remove them in the Preferences. It’s by the moment your time slice ends that Vitamin-R 2 gets interesting. First you can rate your performance, which will be converted into statistics so you can check your results later. If you didn’t complete the action, you may leave breadcrumbs to remember where you to start over or jot down the problem that held you back from fulfilling your objective.

Adding more complexity

Vitamin-R 2 also offers a place where you can toss whatever comes to mind. These are the Pads and are allocated as Now, Later and Scratchpad. You can also change the objective in a fourth panel. All of them are very flexible and the FastType syntax helps to format your thoughts quickly. Still, this is the kind of feature I can’t see myself using due to already having well-established applications to scrawl notes, yet it may be essential if you prefer to keep everything in a single spot.

Another quick look at statistics and the Now & Later Pad.

Don’t be shy to poke around Vitamin-R 2 a bit further, since it also wraps a file with all your latest achievements in a Log Book, which can be exported in CSV, or Statistics, which comprehends plenty of ways to survey your productivity. But the trophy for extra features goes to the sound library Vitamin-R 2 offers, including such noises as white noise or ticking clocks in order to create a pleasant environment for you when external factors sidetrack you.

Customizing your way through

Vitamin-R 2 exceeds in the amount of roles, so much that it could end up choking you. Its assorted windows and sorting options may consume a precious amount of time in terms of productivity. However, try everything out until you find what works for you. It’s exactly the malleability of Vitamin-R 2 that put it above a simple Pomodoro Timer.

Yep, there are even more settings out of frame.

The Preferences allow you to adjust or eliminate any of the tools, for example, I removed all the sound effects and nearly all notifications, also automatized most of the time sliced. Through this same menu, you may reset keyboard shortcuts, customize pads, set the aforementioned integration, sync with Dropbox and configure distractions.

The last time slice

We’re all somewhat unproductive, we just can’t bare to leave that Twitter notification unreplied to. Omnifocus won’t turn you into a productivity guru; that comes down that rather than the creation of new habits to overwhelm your former ones. Being productive is, come what may, a sacrifice, while procrastination forms a vicious cycle. Still discipline itself is not enough without the knowledge of our paths and goals. It’s about learning how to reach our goals.

On that account, despite bringing some discomfort, applications like Vitamin-R 2 are effective in matching up with their sayings. It is not a panacea as well as productivity is not the promised land, regardless of the propaganda. Working altogether with our brains for the sake of our tasks instead of being whipped by deadlines will always be the most effective way to achieve a goal.

Notwithstanding all the meddling you may carry over your shoulder, Vitamin-R 2 is a useful tool if your biggest obstacle is yourself.

As any business owner will tell you, keeping track of your sales leads is one of the most important ways to sustain revenue. Yet this really is no easy task and requires an awful lot of maintenance and reporting, especially when the company is quite large. One company I worked for in Germany kept track of everything through a giant Excel spreadsheet, and keeping this up-to-date was an absolute nightmare, especially as only one person could view and edit it at any one moment in time (and yes, I did get shouted at quite a lot for not maintaining it!).

However Close.io, from developers Elastic Inc, believes it can change this. In short, it has a simple vision:

Never again should a great company fail because of a lack of sales.

Close.io may not be the cheapest offering on the market (plans start from $59 per user monthly) but if it helps a company keep track of all its sales targets, then I think this is a small price to pay for such a useful service. Let’s dive straight in and see what it has to offer.

Introduction

Close.io comes in both a web version and a desktop version for Mac and Windows. Although the web-based version offers pretty much all the features of the desktop version (apart from calling, which we’ll come onto in a bit), I’d go for the native app (which is completely free) as personally I prefer working from an app rather than my web browser.

The main interface of Close.io.

The main screen of Close.io shows you your sales opportunities for the team and any tasks that need completing. In my example, as you can see in the screenshot above, I’ve got 2 sales opportunities worth potentially $3,500, both of which require a date estimate (as you can see in the blue bar). From the main screen, I can also filter opportunities by assigned user and their status (either In Progress, which splits down into Active and On Hold, Won or Lost).

Filtering your opportunities by status.

Close.io features an in-built notification system which alerts you to new events within the system, such as incoming calls, e-mails, tasks due and missed calls. Adding new sales leads is fairly simple — just click on the New Lead button in the bottom-right hand corner and give it a name.

Adding a new sales lead.

You can enter all the information about the sales lead, such as a contact telephone number, an e-mail address and a postal address. Close.io will also let you assign tasks and possible opportunities to that lead as well — opportunities can be customised by status, confidence (on a sliding scale from 0 – 100%), value, estimated closing date and the sales rep responsible for it.

Calls and Emails

One of the nicest features within Close.io is the ability to call your sales opportunities from directly within the app. With the Professional plan, which costs $99 per user monthly, you get a U.S. based number (mine is in the 650 area code, but you can also set up international numbers if you get in contact with the developers) and unlimited calling minutes, which if you make a lot of international calls can save you a considerable amount on your phone bill.

Calling a contact using the built-in phone function.

With the Enterprise plan (which costs $149 per user monthly) you can also record calls (which are saved within the Close.io system) and forward calls to a different number and route them through a PBX system.

Close.io allows you to choose your own number, along with a few other options (such as call recording and voicemail).

Another fantastic feature within Close.io is the integration of e-mail right into your sales leads. This helps avoid endless folders and flags in your inbox or (in my case) endless Post-It notes stuck around your monitor. The app supports both SMTP and IMAP e-mail systems (I noticed, however, that as of yet there is no native Exchange support, which may be a disappointment to businesses looking to implement this software) and Close.io will automatically import all of your e-mails and associate them with any sales leads already created within the app.

Sending an e-mail to a sales lead within Close.io.

As long as a contact’s email address is set up within Close.io, you can e-mail them directly from the app and all e-mails related to that sales lead will be kept in one place. I found this feature incredibly useful as I (like probably all of us) have wasted plenty of time hunting through my sent messages trying to find that one e-mail (note to self: be more organised). It’s probably worth pointing out here that e-mail is standard on all of the Close.io plans and you can integrate the service with your existing e-mail client — meaning you don’t necessarily have to import all of your e-mails into the app.

Searching Within Close.io

One of Close.io’s most touted features is its smart search function. There are very few apps out there nowadays that allow you to ask what I call “natural questions”, or questions that you would ask another person, but Close.io is one of these. So, instead of putting in weird search requests with loads of operators, booleans and all that malarkey, just ask it what you want to know — the answer will be displayed straight away.

Search results within Close.io.

So, I could ask it questions like:

• Who have I sent e-mails to in the last week who haven’t responded yet?
• Show me leads in California with a 70% or more chance of closing who I haven’t called or e-mailed in the last week.

Close.io will display the results instantly — it’s that smart. For sales teams who don’t want to mess around with complicated search functions, I can see this feature being a real plus to anyone using the service.

Activity Reports

To help keep track of every employee’s activity and individual sales goals, Close.io features a useful activity report which tracks the number of leads (both created and contacted), opportunities (by the number created, won or lost), calls made and e-mails sent and received. The reporting section is very easy to use and if your company works off commission, then the detailed reports can make it extremely easy to calculate.

Activity reports are filtered by user.

Reports can be backdated but one thing I didn’t spot was an export feature — the easiest way I found was to take a screenshot of it for further use. There is also a useful “pipeline” report, showing any upcoming projects and the total number of leads and opportunities, which is extremely useful for project planning.

Conclusion

Close.io may not seem the cheapest piece of software out there on the market but it is certainly one that does its job properly. Although aimed at businesses, I found the interface extremely well designed and a breeze to use, something which I really appreciate as a reviewer. It seems to be that because software is business-orientated, the developers feel the need to slack on the design front, but the developers have kept this in mind and designed a very pretty and functional app.

Yet the one thing I most appreciated about Close.io is that it can find its way into almost every single business activity. Sure, it’s meant for sales departments but it doesn’t matter what you are selling — from aardvarks to zucchinis, the app will help you keep track of all those leads without the need for extra software.

The app gains a solid 9 out of 10 rating for this very reason, and because Close.io is developed by salespeople, the creators really know their stuff and want to mirror their experience in this great little app. Sure, you could probably find a better deal elsewhere, but you’d probably be compensating on a lot of useful features. And if a little piece of software helps you drive up sales targets and gets your product out there more, whilst still helping you keep track of everything from the (dis)comfort of your own office, then I’d say that’s worth paying for.

At the opening keynote of their World Wide Developer Conference, Apple wasted no time in introducing dozens of improvements to OS X as part of their 10.9 Mavericks release. And no, a Maverick isn’t a big cat you’ve never heard of, it’s the first in their series of releases named for places in Apple’s home, California. But the changes in OS X extend far beyond a new naming convention reaching to all corners of the OS with everything from a more refined (leather-free) interface to new power management under the hood allowing all day battery life on some MacBooks.

Read on to find out more.

File Tags

Tabs are now present in Finder – finally.

In a major update to the way files are managed, OS X now includes the ability to tag files. This a core part of the file system and as such, these tags are given their own section of the Finder sidebar and can be searched for within the Finder. As you might expect, multiple tags can be applied to a single file making it a robust alternative to folder based sorting. Tags can be added when saving a new document via the system standard “Save” dialog box. Files in iCloud can also be organized using tags. In addition to adding them when a document is created, tags can be added by dragging a file to a tag in the Finder’s sidebar or by a new option included in finder’s toolbar.

iBooks

iBooks finally has a home on the Mac.

iBooks users no longer need to watch jealously as their Kindle-using counterparts enjoy reading on the Mac with the introduction of the long awaited iBooks for Mac. This is an obvious and natural continuation of Apple’s work to unify their content offerings across devices. Similar to the rest of Apple’s newly updated apps, iBooks does away with its skeuomorphic design in favor of an interface which looks right at home on the Mac, utilizing the Mac’s standard controls. As one might expect, books and reading positions are synced via iCloud. Finally, the Mac now joins the iPad in being able to read books created with iBooks Author which will no doubt be appreciated in classrooms around the world which have deployed Macs instead of iPads.

iCloud Keychain

Imagine an Apple created 1Password clone – that’s iCloud Keychain in a nutshell. Passwords and Credit Card information are securely stored using industry standard AES 256-bit encryption. In addition to storing your passwords, iCloud Keychain will also help you create new ones with a password generator built right in. Of course, as it’s made by Apple, iCloud Keychain has the notable advantage over competitors like 1Password of being integrated in Safari across all their devices.

Maps

Craig Federighi demos Maps for OS X at WWDC 2013.

Despite the debacle created over Apple’s switch away from Google Maps on iOS last year, they appear to be forging forward taking the next logical step in bringing Maps to the Mac. Much like iBooks, this is not unexpected and as such, it works in much the same way as its mobile companion with standard features like real-time traffic, bookmarks, Flyover, and local search. Points of Interest are also complete with addresses, phone numbers, website links, photos — and even Yelp reviews. Maps brings with it a new “Send to iPhone” feature which allows you to plan a trip on your Mac and sent it to your iPhone where you can receive turn-by-turn voice instructions. Developers will also be able to integrate these new maps into their OS X apps with an SDK which will be detailed further during WWDC.

Notifications

When it comes to notifications, Macs have always been second-class citizens compared to iOS. That’s no longer the case with the improvements made to Notifications in OS X Mavericks. Users will now be able to interact with notifications without entering into the corresponding app, this means you’ll be able to respond to messages and emails, as well as FaceTime calls within the notification itself. You’ll also receive a summary of any notifications received while not at your Mac.

Calendar

Calendar features a much-improved UI.

Goodbye leather. Goodbye stitching. The new calendar on the Mac is really much closer to what iCal used to be, which is exactly what most people wanted. Its interface has done away with all of the hated skeuomorphic elements, replacing them with OS X’s built in controls. Notable feature improvements include travel time which automatically calculates the time to get from different appointments, weather forecasts, location auto-complete, and maps which are all housed inside of the app’s improved Inspector. Apple also went more than skin deep in removing Calendar’s limitations inspired by the physical object, implementing continuous scrolling between months and weeks, allow the user to stop anywhere in-between.

Safari

Compared to the other apps which are receiving updates as part of OS X Mavericks, Safari’s improvements are minor – on the surface at least. “Top Sites” has been redesigned with a nod to Apple’s new flat design trend and the ability to add sites from your bookmarks. There’s also a sidebar which lets you see your bookmarks, Reading List, or Shared Links from your Twitter or LinkedIn friends alongside the page you’re currently on. Thanks to the new Nitro Tiered JIT and Fast Start technologies, browsing in Safari will also be noticeably faster. There’s also plenty of new power saving secret sauce which Apple promises will help deliver long battery life on new and older machines alike.

Multiple Displays

In a nod to their power-users, Apple improved OS X’s handling of Multiple Displays exponentially with Menu Bars and the Dock displayed across all your displays and Full-Screen Apps which don’t impact the content of other displays. In addition to wired displays, Apple now supports using AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly turn your HDTV into a fully functional additional display. Much like iCloud Keychain obsoletes 1Password for most users, so does multiple display to AirParrot.

OS X Server

In another nod to OS X’s power users, OS X Sever has gained a few notable improvements. OS X Sever users can expect new, and as of yet, unspecified features in Xcode Server which will allow greater collaboration within development teams. This is another area which Apple will likely elaborate on as WWDC continues. Caching Server 2 has also been updated including speed improvements for the download and delivery of software through the App Store, Mac App Store, and iTunes Store. It can also now cache on your server for faster downloading to iOS 7 devices.

Other Improvements

The default Desktop on OS X Mavericks

Finder Tabs – Finder can now take its rightful place as the best file manager of 2005 with the inclusion of tabs. Seriously, this has been a long time coming. They work just like tabs in your web browser; nothing special here, but appreciated nonetheless.

Energy Saving – During the keynote Apple executives made a big fuss over the energy saving technologies built into OS X Mavericks. The behind the scenes technology here is pretty complicated, but the increase in battery life should be noticeable.

Performance Enhancements – OS X Mavericks has also received many behind-the-scenes performance enhancements which should speed up just about any Mac. These include Compressed Memory and Safari Power saver which increase performance system wide.

Desktop Backgrounds – Like any new operating system release, OS X Mavericks includes a pretty cool new default Desktop Background, supposedly taken at Mavericks in California.

Conclusion

OS X Mavericks will be released sometime this Fall.

Small additions like iBooks and Maps coupled with game-changing ones like the inclusion of tags in the Finder, make OS X Mavericks the biggest update to OS X since Lion. Whether it’s due to new features or simply performance enhancements, most users will find something to get excited about in OS X Mavericks. And although we haven’t yet had a chance to get our hands on a preview copy of the OS, OS X Mavericks should pan out to be a must-have upgrade when it’s released this fall. Or, if you’re a Mac developer and can’t wait to get your hands on it, you can download the beta today.

One of my favourite things about App.net, apart from its fantastic user core, is its wide open API. The folks at ADN are genuinely interested in ensuring that third-party developers can make great products using the site’s features, and sometimes, there are apps that come along that are so genuinely interesting they make me question how I ever doubted the social network in the first place.

One of the other great features of ADN lies in its storage capabilities. Each free account gets 500MB of storage with a 10MB file-size limit, while each paid account gets 10GB of storage with a 100MB file-size limit. I think that even the free account’s offering is really generous. Combine ADN’s open API with its storage capabilities, and you end up with ingenious little Mac gems like Swing.

What Is Swing?

Swing is an app that lives in your Mac’s menubar. Click and drag a file onto it and Swing will upload it to ADN and copy the file’s URL for sharing directly to your clipboard. Because it sits in your ADN storage, you get access to all 10GB (or 500MB) of storage in your account. It’s important to note that this is more like Droplr than it is Dropbox; you can’t gain access to all of the files stored in your ADN account, but you can upload to it.

This is how Swing looks. Clean and simple.

Furthermore, you can share your uploaded file anywhere. The link isn’t married to App.net. If you want to share a file with a colleague, but don’t want to worry about attaching it in an email, you can just click and drag the file onto Swing and then paste the resulting URL straight into the email. (Again, people who use Droplr or CloudApp will already be familiar with this mechanism.)

You might be wondering why you would want to use Swing, then, over Droplr or CloudApp if you already use either of those services. To put it bluntly, ADN’s Terms of Service protect your documents. They don’t own them and they aren’t going to do anything with them. Droplr and CloudApp don’t function in quite the same manner. The bottom line is simple: When it comes to protecting your data, Swing and App.net offer you more peace of mind.

Some Details About That URL

Swing’s URLs are public, but because of their complete and utter complexity, it’s highly unlikely that anybody could find it unless you shared it with them. Let me give you an example. I’ve uploaded a résumé of mine (a .doc file) and Swing returned the following URL to me: https://files.app.net/1/99636/a49coEC8pqbln0EldoiwwYTH2bzL37uaHYaQJuvPDCoPgyOzuNishRDhZBxyTHgq_CUZKx9dlFu61iGZIBKKzsR2bKNPvFo3n1BGdKkUuGwXMYZz1jAGP3MUbphDfdBmOxjR-tV1IrkkekOZFhuJ6_fkfoq4RqcjcOUQGVWfzW_A3X_hyvfh4l-dK-mq2fqZC

Try guessing that one.

Yes.

Swing does offer a handy URL shortener though. Their variation on it is swng.it, which is actually kind of catchy. When you enable it, it will quickly check to see if you’ve uploaded any documents with Swing already and ask if you’d like their URLs shortened. I said I would, and now my résumé is accessible via this URL instead: http://swng.it/HHyFx

What Design Details Make Swing Better Than the Competition?

Swing also presents a list of all the files you’ve copied to the clipboard, which is labelled All Swings. From there, you can choose to copy the URL for an older file, or you can delete files you’ve uploaded with Swing. Swing doesn’t provide access to every file you’ve ever uploaded to ADN (if you’re looking for that, give FileBase a try), but it does give access to every file you’ve ever uploaded to it.

As this list grows, it becomes more useful as a reference tool.

In a smart move, if you have two Macs, Swing keeps track of all your uploaded files on both Macs. It’s not Mac-dependent, so if you use a Mac at work and a Mac at home you’re good to go. And because it’s sold on the Mac App Store, purchasing Swing and keeping it updated on both Macs is always easy.

There are a couple other nifty features. You can set up a keyboard shortcut to upload anything on your clipboard to Swing. If I was to copy the text in this document and then hit a defined keyboard combination of my own choosing, I’d upload all of the text onto Swing for easy sharing. This would also apply to anything like copying a picture from Google Image Search.

The preferences aren’t loaded with a million features, but what they do offer is really useful.

Finally, uploading a folder with Swing is great because Swing automatically compresses the folder to a .zip. Your folder is still easily opened on any computer, but it takes up a lot less space in your ADN storage.

Room for Improvement

There are some other really handy features in the app, but not all of these features are implemented perfectly right off the bat. For example, Swing allows you to automatically upload any screenshots you take with your Mac for sharing. There’s a lot of potential for this, and it generally works. That being said, there is a huge flaw. If you’re a power user and you have an app that automatically renames or reorganizes screenshots as you take them, Swing won’t recognize them and they’ll fail to automatically upload. The developer is working on a fix, and I don’t think this is going to be a permanent issue (nor should it deter you from picking up the app).

Multiple accounts are supported and easy to set up, but it’s not as easy to switch accounts.

There is one other change I’d like to see in the app. Swing supports multiple ADN accounts, which I think is fantastic. But if you want to switch accounts, you have to open Swing’s Preferences menu and double-click on the account you’d like to use. Ideally, I’d like to be able to click on an account’s avatar in Swing’s menu bar or set a user-defined keyboard shortcut to cycle through accounts. I know this won’t apply to anybody (how many people have more than one account for ADN?), but for those of us that do, it’s a big feature.

Become a Swingster

The guys behind Swing affectionately call the people who use their app “Swingsters.” I have no problem heartily recommending you join our ranks. I’ve been using Swing for the past week and think it’s another fantastic example of the possibilities with App.net. If you’re on ADN, you need to Swing.

Even if you’re a genius, it’s impossible to remember everything possible about all the programming languages and libraries you need to know to build a successful app. Instead, you likely end up Googling answers as you go along, or have to dig though several different documentation sets in different apps at the same time. There’s no reason to waste time like that.

Just in time for WWDC, we’ve got a must-have tool for all developers sponsoring us this week: Dash. It’ll make your life easier by keeping all of the documentation you need right at your fingertips. Dash supports 80+ API documentation sets, ranging from Cocoa and Android to HTML and CSS, so regardless of what language or framework you’re using, Dash has you covered.

Alongside the beautifully crafted documentation sets, you’re also able to store your own snippets of code, with snippet expansion and variable placeholders that bring unparalleled flexibility to your code snippets. This combination of documentation and snippets makes Dash the go-to app for all your programming resources needs.

Dash integrates with your favorite IDEs and apps, from Sublime Text and Xcode to Alfred and Vim, so that you can convenientely search for what you need from wherever you want. Regardless of what your current workflow is, it should be easy to integrate Dash into it.

You can also easily generate your own documentation sets for your own projects. Pre-made generation tools are available for Objective-C, Python, Ruby or Java, as well as instructions on how to generate documentation sets for anything you need. Documentation sets generated by popular tools like Doxygen or Appledoc are also supported, as well as all the documentation sets available at CocoaDocs.

Get Your Copy of Dash Today!

Dash usually costs $19.99, but just for WWDC it’s on sale for just $7.99 this week. You can download Dash for free from the App Store to try it out, then purchase the full version for $7.99 this week only as an in-app purchase. That’s a small price to pay for the time it’ll save you in developing your next hit app!

This year’s WWDC is probably the one of the most anticipated Apple events of all time, with the promise of new and (hopefully) completely revamped versions of both iOS and OS X. Mac.AppStorm and iPad.AppStorm are here to help you keep track of it, with 3 liveblogs for you to watch and participate in! Unfortunately, we won’t be covering it from San Francisco, but we will be providing quality news coverage and analysis both during the presentation and afterwards.

There are three ways you can follow the event:

1. Our ScribbleLive blog, manned by Mark Myerson, which will automatically update, and you can provide your own thoughts and comments in the live stream.
2. Our Twitter accounts, @macappstorm and @ipadappstorm (both manned by James Cull). All our tweets will be marked with the hashtag #appstormwwdc — please feel free to use this for thoughts and comments so we can see them.
3. Our App.net accounts, @macappstorm and @ipadappstorm (both manned by Jordan Merrick). Again, please use the hashtag #appstormwwdc for any thoughts and comments.

We’ll start at 5:30 PM (GMT) so see you there!

It’s been an amazing past few years for writers. With full-screen distraction free writing environment pioneered by WriteRoom, Markdown formatting from Gruber, focused writing from iA Writer, the exporting wonders of Marked, the brand-new hidden Markdown formatting of Ulysses III, and more, it’s amazing how far we’ve come from the cluttered days of drafting our work in Word.

Reading apps, unfortunately, haven’t gotten much attention at all. Yes, there’s a number of apps for reading articles later on your Mac, some of which are even very nice (I’m particularly fond of the new ReadKit). But, sadly, none of them are totally new. They’re not changing the way we read on the Mac, the way iA Writer and Folding Text and others have changed the way we write on the Mac.

This weekend, that’s just changed with the brand-new beta app Slicereader. Designed by Mutahhir Ali Hayat, a programmer at Hog Bay Software that works on FoldingText and Oak Outliner, Slicereader is the most innovative reading app on the Mac yet. It’ll change how you read longform text. Here’s why.

Chopping up Your Text Into Tiny, Readable Bytes

No matter what reading app you’re using, it’s easy to lose where you’re at in your text. Inevetibly something else will grab your attention, and when you come back to what you’re reading you’ll have to re-read for a bit to find where you left off. There’s also the problem of a wall of text making it difficult to get started reading in the first place.

Writing apps have already worked on solving this, and Slicereader does the same for reading — albeit with tweaks that make the most sense for a reading app. At first glance, Slicereader looks much like any focused writing app, with a light background, dark grey large typography, and nothing else. It shares more simularity with iA Writer than any other app, since it has zero settings, a built-in font (the suprisingly elegant Linux Libertine), and hard-set font size, color, and line width.

Poke around a bit, and you’ll notice that it only shows one paragraph at a time, and lets you move between paragraphs with your arrow keys, a two-finger swipe, or your spacebar. Top that off with a circle graph of how much you’ve read in the bottom right corner, and you’ve got the simplest reading app for the Mac yet.

Slicereader makes it easy to read, no matter how much text you’re reading. You’ll be able to focus on each paragraph, one at a time, and can move between them in any way you want. The first character of each sentence after the first is darker, as a small aid to help you find the sentence you’re reading. And rather than a daunting page or word count, the small graph gives you a quick way to see where you are in your article without the data overload other metrics can give. Best of all, it looks sharp.

It’s slightly reminscent of the iPhone app Fish, a short book that led you through its inspirational and thought provoking sentences one at a time. Applying a similar idea to anything you want to read, though, is a nice leap forward.

Adding Your Reading Material

It’ll take a tiny bit of work to get your articles into Slicereader. You’ll need to first copy the text you want to read, perhaps from an article in your browser, then press CMD+N in Slicereader and paste in your text. You can add the title in the top field, or Slicereader can just show the first line in your text as the tile — an option that’ll work great if you copied a full article from your browser. Alternately, you can drag-and-drop any plain text file into Slicereader to import it to your reading list. This is a great way to import, say, books from Project Gutenberg, or to proofread your own writings before publishing them.

Or, there’s one other way you can add your articles: through your OS X Services menu. You’ll first need to open your Keyboard Preferences and enable the Slicereader service under Services -> Text. Then, just select the text in any app that you’d like to add to Slicereader, right-click or click the app menu and select Services, then Read in Slicereader. Or, just press Shift+CMD+R to send the text to Slicereader from any app, once you’ve endabled the service

Switching between your articles is simple — and you won’t ever lose your reading position. Just press CMD+L and select the article you want to read, or search for the article by its title. You’ll see the now-familar graph of your reading progress on each article, and can even edit the article’s title or text from the list. When you open the article, it’ll open right at the same paragraph you were at when you stopped reading last time so you can pick up where you left off.

Going forward, Mutahhir told me he plans to first add a bookmarklet to let you add articles directly to Slicereader, as well as potentially adding integration with Safari’s Reading List and/or other reading services. For now, though, a quick copy/paste into Slicereader isn’t way too difficult.

A Beta You Should Try

Slicereader, as mentioned already, was just released as an early beta over this weekend, so it’s not finished yet. There’s a few tiny bugs, but none that impact the way the app works overall. It’s fast, feels smooth, and definitely gives you the nicest reading experience I’ve ever had on the Mac.

It’s opinionated software — something designed specifically for one use case — and that’s where the best results typically come from. It doesn’t try to do everything, but instead tries specifically to make reading longform text better, and that’s awesome. As mentioned already, it’s great for proofreading your own writing — something I’m already using it for — and it’s equally great as your own native Mac replacement for Instapaper.

Go try it out, and you just might fall in love with it too.

Apple’s rumored to be releasing a new streaming music or perhaps internet radio service at WWDC next week. It could happen, of course, but then again, similar things have been rumored for years now, especially after Apple acquired Lala in late 2009.

There’s no need to wait, though, if you’re wanting a top-quality streaming music experience on your Mac today. There’s tons out there — even Google’s jumped into the fray now — but one of the best, Rdio, just got a major update to its apps this past week. It’s got a nicer design, has great new social integration that actually makes sense by letting you keep up with what’s popular among your friends. And it’s got a great music selection.

Our writer Nathan Snelgrove takes the redesigned Rdio for a spin over on Web.AppStorm, so jump over to the article there to see what’s great in the newest version of one of the best streaming music services online today.

Continue Reading at Web.AppStorm…

It was a fateful Thursday late last July when Sparrow announced they’d been bought out by Google. The indie email app that’d taken the Mac by storm, Sparrow was a fast favorite of anyone who wanted a more modern email experience — one that was fast, minimalist, and integrated with cloud services. It hit all the right spots, soared in popularity, then nearly as quickly was taken from us. Sparrow still works, but it’s a zombie without much, if any, of a future.

The Sparrow-shaped gap on the App Store has yet to be filled. There’s tons of promises of new email apps, but few have made it onto the scene yet — at least on the Mac. There’s the old standby alternates like Outlook and Postbox, but they don’t replace the minimalist approach to email that Sparrow embraced. The iPhone can claim Mailbox, Triage, and numerous other new email apps, but on the Mac, most Sparrow fans have stuck with the aging app, while others have taken a look back at Apple’s admittedly nice Mail.app.

That’s changed this week, though, as Airmail was released to the App Store. We’d taken a look at it months back when it was still in beta, but now that it’s fully released, can it replace Sparrow for diehard fans?

A Slick, Custom-Designed Email App

Airmail, at first glance, seems incredibly similar to Sparrow. Depending on how you have it setup, it’ll look almost exactly like Sparrow. You’ve got large icons on the left for your inbox, starred messages, and to switch between accounts, a middle column with your messages, and your email on the right. Each column can be turned on or off as needed. There’s scroll-down-to-refresh, Tweetie-like, search, conversation view with the older emails stacked in a thin row under the main message. It’s slick and modern, and would definitely seem to be the closest Sparrow copy we’ve seen yet.

It doesn’t stop there, though. Airmail offers far more customization than Sparrow. You can see all of your folders/tags on the expanded sidebar, and in a very nice touch, you can even see all of the folders on all of your accounts when you’re in the Unified Inbox view. You can browse through emails either with your arrow keys or with Gmail keyboard shortcuts, and can choose if you want to delete or archive with the delete key. Right-click, and you’ll get options to add tags to a message or file it away in a folder — slightly confusing since it shows both tags and folders on Gmail accounts, despite the fact that Gmail doesn’t support folders and other email services don’t support tags.

Sparrow fans will be glad to see that there is a Quick Reply option, albeit one that works as a pop-over and is opened by pressing CMD-E. It works fine for sending quick replies, but frustratingly there’s no way to expand the quick reply box into the full reply view to add more info.

Speaking of the compose view, there’s everything you’d expect there, from formatting options to drag-and-drop attachment support. Airmail supports sending attachments via Dropbox and soon Droplr in an upcoming update, so you can that from the settings if you prefer to not send attachments directly through email.

And speaking of settings, Airmail has plenty of them. You’ll find settings to change the app’s theme, set how often it checks for mail, add signatures (and remove the default Sent from Airmail signature), and more. One of its nicest touches is in the mail account settings, where you can set it to only download emails from the past year, 2 years, 3 years, or forever — something that might make switching a tad easier if you don’t need everything downloaded from your full Gmail account.

It Still Feels Pre-Release

Airmail’s combination of style and features would actually be nearly perfect if you’re willing to tweak things a bit and deal with a plethora of settings. The only problem is, everything doesn’t work quite right. Airmail works great when it works, but it failed far too often in our tests to make the cut. It’ll often take 10+ seconds to show emails when you first open the app, even those that are already downloaded and were visible the last time the app was opened. Sending an email was hit or miss, some taking minutes after hitting send to get actually sent, when Sparrow and Mail.app were sending messages nearly instantly on the same internet connection. Incoming messages, as well, would at times show up instantly, while other times show up long after Mail.app and Sparrow had received the messages. Push notifications alerting us of said messages came in even later.

Then, there’s a number of smaller oddities in the app. Buttons often don’t register a tap at first, and folders take several seconds to show their contents. Worst of all is the animation when you open a new message. It’s jarring and frustrating, though thankfully the developer has mentioned on Twitter that this should be changed in the future.

Conclusion

Airmail has many nice things. It follow’s Sparrow and other modern Mac app’s style, and includes enough unique features like the option to only download messages sent within the last year that set it apart. It’s customizable to a degree that few apps are, has Gmail keyboard shortcuts and a Quick Reply option. Go down the list of what makes Sparrow great, and you’d almost think it could be the perfect replacement for it, if it could just get its bugs and performance problems squashed.

That’s not the only problem, though. The main problem with Airmail is that it tries too hard to be too many things. It’s so close to Sparrow’s style, it was quite obviously built to fill the gap Sparrow left in the market. But Sparrow thrived on being simple and making it easy to get a first-class Gmail experience on the Mac. Airmail, with its myriad preferences and unwieldily menus, falls far short of that. It offers no clear advantage over the current version of Sparrow — one that still works faster than Airmail today — and would give you little reason to choose it over Apple’s own Mail.app if you want to tweak an email app to your preferences.

Airmail could be great, but it needs to find its identity. Sparrow’s great, but we need someone to push email forward and take it beyond what we’d expect today. On the Mac, there’s still no app doing that. Airmail could do that, but it needs far more than it has today. It looks nice, but it need more than that.

Mobile Computing is becoming more and more common these days, with Apple leading from the forefront. With the MacBook Air and Retina Display MacBook Pros being the headline Macs these days, it’s extremely comfortable to own a portable computing device rather than a desktop. Security becomes a paramount concern with such devices as they are prone to loss or theft when carrying around.

Even when using an iMac, data security is vital to keep sensitive information private. Using Filevault for encryption is one way to go, but it encrypts the entire drive. If you plan to secure only certain folders, you’ll have to look at third party alternatives. And there are quite a few free and premium apps that help solve this problem.

I’m a vocal advocate of TrueCrypt, yet, I found Espionage’s offering very interesting. Is it as good at securing my Mac and simple to use as they promise? Time to check it out!

Why Espionage?

Since our last review in 2009, Espionage has gone through many changes including a complete rewrite. I started using TrueCrypt to secure my portable drives and I’m a big fan of the app. It’s open source and is cross platform. I juggle between a Mac and PC, so a cross platform encryption app made a lot of sense.

There are a few downsides to using an app like TrueCrypt though. It’s definitely not the prettiest app around and the workflow can be a bit cumbersome. Beginners and casual users might find the steps involved to be confusing at times. That’s when apps like Espionage comes in to make our lives easy.

Espionage combines the ease of use and elegance Mac apps are known for. If a Mac is your primary computer and if you are looking for an app to simplify the process of securing files and folders, Espionage is what you need. It hardly needs any ground work or heavy lifting from your end. A quick drag and drop is all that you need to do to secure your content.

The Process

As you might know, the journey to encryption universe begins with the creation of a master password. Make sure it’s strong with a combination alphanumerics and special characters for obvious reasons. If you are in doubt, the app has a password strength indicator and warns you when the password you have chosen isn’t secure enough.

Getting Started

Not having to deal with the creation of secure containers and stuff is a big relief for me. Nothing beats a simple drag and drop. The app sits on the menu bar and the encryption process starts as soon as you drop a folder. As you might be aware, the duration of an encryption depends on the volume of data and the processing power of the system. During my trials, I found it to be pretty decent.

Announcing the various stages of the encryption process as and when they happen is a nice touch. At the end of the encryption, the folder and the files located in the drive are moved to the trash. You’re alerted to this fact with a detailed growl style notification.

Accessing Files

An Encrypted Folder with the Toggle Button

Predictably, the files and folders secured by Espionage won’t be visible in the finder. You can quickly access encrypted files by way of a quick toggle action. To manage the settings of individual files and folders, click on the info icon right next to them. Again, a fabulous GUI works wonders when it comes to tackling otherwise complex actions.

In a single click, spotlight accessibility to files and folders can be managed. Enabling spotlight access will result in secured files showing up in search results. So, you might want to think twice before opting for it.

Actions Menu

Are you a forgetful person? Then use the timer feature to auto lock folders after a preset duration. The fine grained nature of the auto lock settings is an example of the extent to which Espionage has simplified securing data.

For the paranoid amongst us, the ability to set and use multiple master passwords should help rest easy if and when the unlikely event of forced disclosure at gunpoint occurs!

Final Thoughts

I simply love Espionage. It’s simple, affordable and does a fabulous job of taking the pain out of securing private data. The elegantly designed user interface plays a great deal in making Espionage such a pleasure to use.

The use of the fairly standard info icon for accessing the advanced features section is an interesting design decision though. For me atleast, it appeared to be another useless shortcut for help section or a tip. Replacing it with a new icon that actually evokes curiosity would be great.

I am in the process of moving data from a couple of my computers around and as soon as that’s done, I’m gonna entrust the task of protecting my files to Espionage!

It’s the eve of WWDC 2013, and Apple’s cloud sync platform, iCloud, is one of the highest priorities in every developer’s mind. It’s been 603 days since iCloud‘s launch and exactly 1 year 5 months after the App Store burst onto the Mac scene, and yet both feel like they’ve hardly moved forward at all.

Sure, they’re both widely successful, and the App Store especially has change the way we approach buying apps. But the App Store has also made it tough for developers to make upgraded versions of apps economically feasible, leading them to add in-app purchases for new features, or add their own subscription-based services to make money. Of the two, though, iCloud has been the most problematic, leading developers like The Soulmen to have to rewrite major parts of iCloud sync code to get it to work in their apps (Ulysses III, in this case).

We’re all hoping Apple significantly improves iCloud this year, and perhaps there’ll be major announcements about both it and the App Store next week. But there’s also alternates now. Aside from just relying on Dropbox for sync, the Omni Group has built their own iCloud competitor, OmniPresence, and Paddle is making it simpler for indie devs to sell their own apps with in-app purchases, outside of the App Store.

In-App Syncing on Your Own Cloud

Dropbox made syncing folders simple, and we all got used to that. But its model breaks down on iOS, because there’s not a user-accessible file system. You have to go back and forth between, say, the Dropbox app and the app with the file you’re editing, leaving duplicate files in between. iCloud “solved” this issue by syncing files directly between apps, leaving traditional folder systems behind.

But that’s old news for most of us. iCloud is great — magical, even — when it works, but more and more developers have come out saying how trying it’s been to make iCloud work for them. But who wants to leave behind something so promising that every customer assumes will “just work”?

The Omni team has been working on their own solution: OmniPresence. When it’s running in an iOS app and on OS X, changes will be pushed between apps just like iCloud promised. Your files will stay in syn thanks to Omni’s own sync server, or you can run the sync service on your own server — goodbye cloud lock-in. You can even add any folder on your computer to OmniPresence, something that’s not possible with either Dropbox or iCloud.

Here’s OmniPressence in action:

It’s designed to work great with multi-file documents — the exact type that The Soulmen found troublesome in iCloud. It’ll sync the changes, not the whole file each time, so your data will sync faster and changes will appear on all of your devices far faster than with other services. It’s what iCloud promised, on your own cloud.

Your own personal non-Dropbox

You can start using it today on your Mac to keep your own documents in sync sans iCloud or Dropbox, and it’s already integrated with the Omni Group’s iOS apps. Going forward, developers can add OmniPresence support to their own apps using Omni’s opensouce framework. It might not be so useful for you just yet, unless you use any of the Omni apps in your workflow, but it’s promising as another option for app syncing going forward.

Selling Apps Doesn’t Have to be so Hard, Either

Aside from iCloud, the App Store made it simple to sale your apps for OS X. Everyone from big companies like Adobe, AutoCAD, and Apple itself all the way down to the one-developer startups have equal footing (or nearly so) on the biggest software marketplace on the globe. It’s made it easier for new Mac users to discover great apps, and even long-time Mac users have come to love the unified updates and simple purchase and installation the App Store brings.

But it’s not perfect. Apple can be slow at reviewing apps, fussy about what you include, and it takes 30% of your sale price off the top. All of those add up to make it a rather frustrating place for developers. That’s where Paddle for Developers comes in, with an alternate to the App Store — one that might be even more appealing if you’re not using iCloud to sync your app’s documents anyhow. Paddle gives devs an API to easily add in-app purchases to their apps with just 2 lines of code. With that done, users can download your app’s trial, then buy a copy inside the app in a few clicks. That’ll only cost you 5% of your sale price plus $0.55 per transaction — pricing that works out cheaper than the App Store’s 30% cut if your app costs anything over $2.

For the rest of us, there’s already a ton of apps in Paddle’s burgeoning store. You’ll find popular apps that we love, such as Boom, Hype, Voila, Ondesoft’s tools,  and more. If you’re looking for a place to find deals on apps — or just a central place to apps that aren’t in the App Store — it’s a great place to check. Plus, everything’s a trial by default. Unlike the App Store, you won’t have to buy right off the bat.

Don’t Count Apple Out

Of course, neither of these solutions replace the App Store and iCloud. Together, they’re a powerful duo — one we only wish was a bit more developer friendly. Apple will almost assuredly continue improving both of them going forward, and we’ll be watching closely to see what’s announced at WWDC. It’s still good, though, that there’s competition that’s taking these two platforms on directly. That’s never a bad thing.

So, if you’re a developer, here’s two services you should consider if you’re tired of working around Apple’s solutions. And for the rest of us, expect to see both of these pop up in apps you’re trying out soon.

Adobe shocked the creative world by announcing last month that it’s abandoning its Creative Suite in lieu of Creative Cloud subscriptions. Rather than paying thousands of dollars for a complete set of Adobe creative apps, you’ll only pay $50/month for everything they sell. That little change has many Adobe users up in arms, ready to desert Adobe for alternate apps.

But Adobe’s not the only one making a subscription play this year. Microsoft’s now doing the same thing with Office 365, and Autocad, Mathematica, and other major developers have done the same for years. The difference is, Adobe’s making a subscription-only play: individual purchases are no more, and subscription is the only option.

That doesn’t have to be such a bad option, though. Here’s why.

Economics at Play

It’s a brave new world for software

Think back to the days before the App Store, before we all expected to get full-featured software for less than $10. Go back a bit further, when we purchased software on DVDs, or CDs, or (even further back) on floppies. That’s when Adobe — and Microsoft — got their start in the software business. They made software, burned it onto disks, sold it in boxes in computer stores, then in a year or two made a new version and sold it as an upgrade. Rinse. Repeat.

Now, we expect to be able to download all of our apps on all of our devices, get updates frequently, and want all of it as cheaply as possible. Somehow, a $2,599 suite of software sold in a box set or as a monolithic download doesn’t quite fit that model.

Apple adapted by slashing the prices of its pro apps and putting them in the App Store. Microsoft, even after building their own App Store in Windows, decided to do the same thing Adobe did last year: selling Office in a boxed suite as before, right alongside a new subscription offering. And Adobe, now, a year after rolling out the subscription Creative Cloud, dropped their boxed offerings and went subscription only. They’re still selling CS6, but that’s the old version now, and anything new is going in the subscription versions only.

Subscriptions are nothing new. Microsoft’s corporate customers have bought Software Assurance subscriptions for all of their software for years. Many corporate software licenses have worked off subscriptions for quite some time. But for consumers, we’re used to paying upfront for our software — and increasingly, we’re used to having dirt-cheap upfront prices.

The new model: free apps, plus paid monthly services

That’s not bad, per se, but it can be hard to build a sustainable business on $9.99 apps (ask Sparrow). Many service-based apps like Evernote and Dropbox already cost $5-$10/month, as do web apps like, say, Dribbble Pro, App.net, 500px, and more. Others like Byword 2 are selling cheap on the App Store, but adding new features as in-app purchases. Everyone’s having to find some way to make the App Store economics work for them so they can still build a sustainable business.

Adobe and Microsoft are following suite, making their pro tools equally cheap … per month. And hey, if we’ll pay it for web apps and storage, why not for productivity tools?

Apps and More

What’s made the change more confusing is that Adobe and Microsoft have both made their switch to subscriptions sound like they’re switching to web apps. That’s not the case at all. Microsoft does have a nice basic version of Office online, and Adobe has a basic Photoshop photo editor online, but both of those are free. That’s not what Office 365 or Creative Cloud, respectively, are at all. There’s really no reason either of them are using “the cloud” in their branding, except that people are already more willing, apparently, to pay for web apps, and then each subscription gives you included “cloud” storage.

Instead, with both of them, you get the latest versions of the traditional apps you install on your computer, just like you would have before with Office and Creative Suite. Nothing changes there. The only difference is, you’re paying per month rather than all upfront, and you’ll get some extras bundled in for free. Your computer will have to be online at least once every 1-3 months so the apps can verify that your subscription is valid — but then, you’ll likely be online anyhow.

And here’s what you’ll get with each subscription:

Office 365 brings you every Office app available — Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook on the Mac, with the addition of Access and Publisher on the PC — and lets you install it on up to 5 PCs or Macs. You’ll also get 20Gb of storage in Skydrive (which could possibly keep you from needing to pay for Dropbox Pro), and 60 minutes of Skype calls each month. That’ll cost you $9.99/month.

Creative Cloud brings you every single Adobe app (so essentially the same as Master Collection) for up to 2 Macs or PCs. You’ll also get a Typekit Portfolio plan (worth $49/yr), which will also let you download extra fonts to your desktop soon (which I’m terribly excited about). Creative Cloud gives you a Behance Prosite (worth $99/yr), 20Gb of cloud storage for your creative files, and more. All of that, for $49.99/month.

Is it a Bad Deal?

You get everything. Literally.

Now, the prices will feel different to everyone. Office 365 is perhaps the simplest, since it’s rather cheap to begin with, and if you need to use Office on 5 computers anyhow it works out very cheap. Compared to the boxed Office options — which now only allow you to install a purchased copy of Office on one Mac or PC per purchase — it definitely makes more sense if you need Office. You could question whether you absolutely need Office today, but for it’s one of those suites that most people are rather required to use.

Creative Cloud is a bit different. First, $50/month is expensive, but several thousand dollars upfront for Creative Suite was even more expensive — at least at first. If you’re just getting started with Adobe’s apps, you’ll find the new pricing much more manageable. It’s existing users who’re complaining, since upgrades did often work out cheaper. Plus, many of us got started with cheaper initial purchases of Creative Suite with education discounts, then cheaply upgraded from there.

Price of Creative Suite and Photoshop CC over time, versus Master Collection or Photoshop + upgrade price over time

If you run the math from starting from scratch with Master Collection and Creative Cloud, Creative Cloud will continue to work out cheaper for over 25 years if you’d have purchased upgrades anyhow. If you’d have purchased one of the cheaper suites such as Design Standard, though, Creative Cloud will start costing more per year after 4-5 years. Throw in the extras like Typekit, though, and you might find it makes more sense.

Right now, there’s a number of discounts available, and if you own CS6, you can upgrade to Creative Cloud for just $19.99/month, or $29.99/month if you owned an older Creative Suite. That pricing is just for the first year, but it definitely makes switching cheaper. And, it’s tough to say if they’ll have discounts going forward, but it’s at least possible. And don’t forget: you’ve got every Adobe app, not just the ones in the suite you used to buy.

There’s also one other option: single app subscriptions, which run from $9.99-$19.99/month. If you only need Photoshop, that’s the way to go.

Why Switch?

Now everyone has a cloud.

At the end of the day, the pricing for Microsoft and Adobe’s subscriptions either works out better, or only slightly worse over time. They’ve both thrown in extras to sweeten the deal, and made subscriptions at least a bit more generous in licensing.

If you would have upgraded to the latest Creative Suite anyhow, there’s no reason to avoid Creative Cloud. You’re just paying each month instead of upfront. Adobe’s already added new features to their Creative Cloud apps over the past year (such as CSS export in Photoshop), and they’ve got a slew of upgrades coming in a couple weeks with the new CC launch. There’s no reason to think Adobe will stop innovating on their apps now; if anything, they’re doing more with this release than they did in CS6. It just takes a change of mindset for us as consumers, one that’d perhaps be a bit easier if the pricing was more in our favor.

But again: the new pricing is far, far better for people just getting started. It’s those of us who already put our bet with Adobe that are finding the new pricing tough to swallow, since we were used to upgrade pricing. If you were waiting on buying Photoshop since it was so expensive upfront, now it’s much easier to justify getting it.

The End of Pirates?

Among the oddest and greatest complaints about Creative Cloud is that people won’t be able to pirate Photoshop anymore. Numerous professionals have written posts about how they got started using pirated Photoshop as a kid, and how that got them their current jobs using licensed Adobe apps (one of many examples here). They theorize that Creative Cloud will make it harder to pirate Photoshop and other Adobe tools, and thus will lead to less people learning how to use it professionally, leading to the end of Photoshop’s ubiquity.

Right. First off, odds are Photoshop and other Adobe apps will still be cracked and pirated. That’s not endorsing it, it’s simply a fact. Even with Creative Cloud, you’ll still have to download and install the apps, as already mentioned. That’s the same way Photoshop works today, and chances are that if the current version (which already phones home to make sure its valid every so often) can be cracked, then the Creative Cloud version will be crackable.

Then, if anything, Creative Cloud makes Photoshop and other Adobe apps more affordable to students and others on tight incomes. Anyone now can use Photoshop itself, now, for $19.99/month (and students can get full Creative Cloud for $19.99/month). That’s a far cry more affordable than paying $700 upfront. There’s also Adobe’s own Photoshop Elements for $79 — and yes, a one-time payment for a perpetual license — which is one of the best alternates to full Photoshop since it works so much like its full-featured sibling.

So don’t worry. I’d tend to say that Photoshop has the same odds of staying the industry leader — and choice of pirates, for better or worse — despite the move to Creative Cloud. And the very same goes for Microsoft Office — though if anything, Office is more threatened by alternate apps these days than Adobe’s apps have ever been.

The Subscription Decision

Should you subscribe to Creative Cloud, or Office 365? Really, the decision is the same one you’ve made every time you’ve purchased a Creative Cloud or Microsoft Office upgrade. You’ll have to weigh the new features, see if they’re worth it for you, then decide to either stick with what you have or upgrade.

If you would have upgraded to the latest Creative Suite anyhow, there’s no reason to avoid Creative Cloud.

Office 365, of course, isn’t quite the compelling option for Mac users yet since it’s still stuck on Office 2011. If you need to buy Office today, then it’s a great deal since you’ll get the next version of Office when it’s released. Otherwise, you’d be best to hold off until the next version of Office for Mac is released, and then subscribe if you want to upgrade.

Creative Cloud, on the other hand, has already added new features to CS6, and is a worthy upgrade even before the new CC suite apps are released on June 17th. If you would have upgraded to CS7 anyhow, you might as well take advantage of the upgrade offers right now and give Creative Cloud a shot.

Either way, the switch to subscriptions shouldn’t be the biggest news about both of these suites. In Creative Cloud’s case, at least, it’s a better deal for most users, and it makes using Adobe’s pro apps much more approachable for those getting started.

And in an odd twist, Office 365 and Creative Cloud both make it easier for PC users to switch to the Mac. It used to be that Office and Creative Suite were the most expensive PC apps people would need to re-buy if they switched to the Mac. Now, both Office 365 and CC give you PC and Mac versions of the apps in your subscription, so it’ll cost PC users nothing to switch — or to add a Mac to their PC workflow. That’s a pretty nice extra in itself.

But should you be scared of subscriptions? Only if you’re scared of paying for software. It really, in the end, won’t work out much different than buying software and then paying for upgrades. And you might just get some nice extras with it, too.

Leviathan: Warships, the recently released strategy game, is about as much fun as you can have without actually living off of hardtack and getting seasick yourself. You command a fleet of ships and face off against a computer, your friends, or other Leviathan: Warships players in online mode, creating a new gaming experience each time.

Let’s see if Leviathan: Warships indeed lives up to its hype.

All Aboard!

There are two ways to play Leviathan: Warships, online and offline. Online and offline play are really similar, and you won’t need an account for offline play, but you will be missing out if you don’t venture into the deep waters of the online battles. If you’re shy your first time out, there’s a great tutorial that will run you through how to manage a ship.

You’ll get a mission brief and objective, but you’ll do alright as long as you remember to blow up the other guys.

Leviathan: Warships is a turn-based strategy game, but you know, with ships. You’ll control your ship’s forward and reverse movement, its orientation, and how and when it fires. Your ship will also have some shields that, while not impervious, will provide significant protection in the short term. The onboard guns will fire at will if you like, but you can also aim them at enemies within range. Your ship will take damage–that’s almost inevitable–and individual systems can become damaged, such as propulsion. Give it enough time, though, and you’ll be on the move again after your crew has made repairs.

Just as your fleet can be damaged, so can the enemy, and you’ll want to target and disable their guns and important systems. With each new mission, you’ll have a goal to complete, and the quicker you can get the enemy out of your hair, the better time your fleet is going to have. The mission objectives will vary of course, and they range from simple recovery missions to protection details, where you’ll be putting your ships between the enemy and an important asset. Do a good job, and you’ll get neat Leviathan badges. Do a bad job, and you’ll end up in Davy Jones’s locker.

Shoot up the other ships before they get you.

Online and offline play will look really similar, at least in the beginning. I got all of the same maps and missions when I played on my own and then against some friends. That’s not exactly a con, since I was able to familiarize myself with the missions and didn’t look a dunce when it came time to show my stuff. When you’re setting up an online game, you also have the option of setting limits, such as how long you can take to make a move, preventing your friends from spending an hour moving their ships around, or the stranger you’ve been matched up with from taking days to get back to you.

Ship vs. Ship

I’ve been rather circumspect about online play, but that’s really where it’s at. Not only can you go up against your friends, but you can also get DLC with bonus online play maps. If you just need more missions and more ship fighting excitement, online play can’t be beat.

Take some time to aim your weapons, and get ready for a fight.

I loved that not only could I play against my friends, but I could team up with them, too. I created a sort of federation, and we played against the CPU. There’s a great global chat that allows you to keep in touch with your mates (if they’re not in the same room as you) and coordinate attacks and ship movements, important because smashing into an ally causes as much damage as a blow from an enemy. If that doesn’t work for you, challenge your friends and fight it out against each other.

I know what you’re going to say. Your friends aren’t cool enough to play a totally awesome game like Leviathan: Warships. Yeah, I hear ya. Cool turn-based strategy games with ships, energy shields, and minefields aren’t for everybody. You’re not getting left out, though. Leviathan: Warships can match you up with open games, or you can start a new game on one of the servers and wait for some people (who are obviously cooler than your friends) to join in.

Outfit your ships and create a dangerous fleet to take down your foes.

Final Thoughts

Lovers of turn-based strategy aren’t going to be disappointed with the complex maneuvers of Leviathan: Warships. I’ll be honest and admit that I’m not a fan of war or ship simulators, and usually look elsewhere for strategy fun, but the trailer was so amazing (definitely check it out at the download link!) I had to give it a shot. I wasn’t disappointed at all.

There’s so much here to engage the mind, while still remaining a lot of fun. I’m usually shy of online play, but it’s really what makes Leviathan: Warships a standout. Whether I play the computer, my friends, or strangers on the Leviathan servers, each battle and map are a new experience each time I play.

If you were a pixel on the wall of our team’s Basecamp, listening to our conversations, you’d know that we’ve been looking for the perfect Markdown-powered Mac blogging app. There’s blogging apps for the Mac, but if you like writing in Markdown in apps like Byword and iA Writer (and we do), there’s none that fit your workflow perfectly.

So instead, we each have our favorite writing apps, export our text as HTML, and paste it into WordPress. It works, but it’s far from seamless.

That all changes today, with the hot-off-the-press Byword 2. It has built-in publishing to WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Scriptogram, and Evernote, and a handful of other improvements. If you need a focused Markdown writing app and a blogging app, it’s the one app you need.

Byword’s Legacy

Byword’s already one of the most popular Markdown writing apps on the Mac, right along with iA Writer. If you already write in Markdown regularly, chances are you already own one of them if not both. We called Byword a “beautifully minimal writing environment” in our original review of the app, and as you may have noticed in our roundups of Apps we Use, many of our team uses Byword as their default writing app. Of the two, Byword’s always been the more configurable, with a light and dark color scheme, font and font size options, and — most notably — a rather nice Rich Text editing mode that’s often forgotten by those of us who prefer writing in plain text.

Once you’re done writing, Byword let you export your document in Microsoft Word format, PDF, RTF, HTML, or LaTeX, or just copy your text as HTML to your clipboard to paste into another app. With formatting preview, a rather amazing assortment of powerful keyboard shortcuts for text editing, and equally powerful iOS apps synced via iCloud, Byword was everything you needed to write, save in almost any format, or take your text to another app.

Publish is the new Print

However, it wasn’t everything you need to publish. You could, of course, copy the HTML from your Markdown in one click, then open your blog’s online admin, make a new post, and paste the content in, but that’s quite a few steps. That’s where the new Byword Premium comes in. It’s a new $4.99 in-app purchase addition to Byword. Byword 2 is a free upgrade for existing users, but to get the new publishing features, you’ll need to purchase that extra.

For that one purchase, you’ll get the option to publish to as many WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, and Scriptogram blogs as you want. You’ll get an option to purchase it when you first run Byword 2, or you can buy it anytime later from the menu. Once that’s done, you’ll just need to login to your blog(s), and you’ll be ready to publish.

Next time you want to write a blog post in Byword, just type it up as normal, then press CTRL+Option+CMD+P, select your blog, then enter your post title. You can (thankfully) set the post as published or draft, add tags, and depending on your CMS, set the post’s category and permalink. Then, hit Publish, and seconds later it’ll be safe on your site in HTML format. Publishing worked great in my tests, and took literally 5 seconds or so to publish a normal length post.

It’s nearly perfect, but is missing one major thing: image support. You can’t upload images from Byword right now, and even if you drag-and-drop images into Byword or enter them in Markdown formatting, they won’t be uploaded. The Byword team says they’re working to “better support other media in your posts” going forward, but for now, if you want to include pictures or other media in your posts, you’ll need to publish as draft, and then add your pictures from your browser.

Byword as Your New Notebook

If you don’t write blog posts regularly, there’s still a reason you might want to buy the Publishing upgrade: Evernote. Among the blog options, Evernote is the odd-man-out, since Evernote is primarily the place to store your own private notes (unless you’re using a tool like Postach.io to publish a blog from Evernote). It even feels a tad odd with the way it’s integrated in Byword, since it’s in the Publishing options.

Regardless, it’s a great option to have around if you like to write in Markdown, use Byword by default, and don’t care to keep Evernote open all the time. You can now write anything down in Byword, then publish it as formatted rich text to Evernote (complete with a title of your choice — though it’ll use the file name by default — and any tags you want to include).

The integration isn’t perfect. You only get to pick the notebook you want to use when you add Evernote to Byword, and you can’t pick which notebook you want to save to individually each time. You’ll have to go to the options and change that if you want to. There’s also no way to save your raw Markdown text to Evernote, as it converts it to rich text by default. But, it does give you a great way to quickly save notes to Evernote without having Evernote open, in a way that works better if you’re used to writing in Markdown anyhow. And that’s very nice to have.

There’s More, Too

The new publishing options in Byword are great, but they’re not all that is new in Byword 2. You’ll also find a new option to copy your text in Rich Text format, which is great if you want to write, say, an email in Byword. Just write it with normal Markdown formatting, copy as Rich Text, then paste it in your email app.

The preview view has been updated as well. It’ll now keep your current scroll position in your document when you view it in the preview. You’ll also notice a new Publish button in the bottom of the preview, which gives you a nice way to first write, then make sure everything looks perfect, and finally publish, all without clicking back and forth.

Finally, all the changes in the Mac app are in the iOS apps too, so you can now use Byword for iOS to publish to your blogs and Evernote as well.

The New State of App Upgrades on the App Store

If you use Byword to pen blog posts, or would love a new way to save notes to Evernote straight from your default writing app, then purchasing the new Byword Premium upgrade shouldn’t be a tough decision at all. It’s a $4.99 in-app purchase, which is quite a reasonable price for the new features.

The new version of Byword is free if you’ve already purchased Byword in the past; otherwise, you’ll first need to buy Byword for $9.99, and then buy the Premium upgrade for $4.99, making the total package $14.98. Without the Premium upgrade, you’ll still get a best-in-class Markdown writing experience, and if you wanted a blogging app, the extra cost shouldn’t be that frustrating.

It’s interesting to see Byword, one of the early Mac App Store successes, coming to its second version which it’s giving away for free to those who already bought the app, while adding the actual new features in an in-app purchase. We can debate all day if in-app purchases are the best way to add new features to apps, but at least it gives our favorite app developers a way to add major new features while still giving the free-forever upgrades that App Store users have come to expect. It’s a new way of life in the App Store economy, and if this is an example of things to come in other productivity apps we love, it’s not a bad start.