Category: Mac

Mac apps have gotten away from being highly customizable, sticking instead to a curated set of defaults that often lean towards clutter-free interfaces like most writing apps, or the skeuomorphic designs Apple prefers today. But the highly customizable apps aren’t gone completely.

Today, we’ve had the chance to interview the team behind Calendar Plus, a highly customizable calendar app for the Mac that’s been surprisingly popular on the App Store. Read on to hear their thoughts about developing for the Mac and designing customizable apps.

Thanks for taking the time to do an interview with us! Could you tell us a bit about your company, and how your team works together?

Sure. Qbix is quite a unique company, and in some ways this is because of what has become possible thanks to the internet. Our developers are all spread out geographically, and we do all our work remotely. We are able to distribute our software in app stores and online. This definitely helps us manage our costs as a startup, especially since many of the developers live in Russia and Ukraine we all speak Russian to each other. Many of us have been working together for almost two years.

Your team’s developed a number of apps now. How do you get inspiration for new apps?

We started a year and a half ago, with a mission to build a social platform for people to make plans with each other and do things as a group. We felt like all the social networks at the time (Facebook, Twitter) were about socializing and sharing online, but we wanted to build something that would help people get out into the real world again. Growing up we, spent much less time in front of a computer, and more with people. Qbix’s philosophy is strongly based around the power of tools to shape and enable the way we do things, and the recent explosion in mobile smartphones lets us build tools that help people move on from their dependence on the computer. So we build things that

Why did you decide to create Calendar Plus, when there’s already so many calendar apps?

Our first app was Groups, because it filled a need on the iPhone there was no way to manage groups of contacts in your phone, something you could do on Blackberries, Androids, etc. A common refrain from our users is that Apple should have had this natively. But they haven’t added it yet.

When the Mac App Store came out, we wanted to push something out quickly. There was a similar problem with just seeing your calendar and events at a glance from the menubar. So we built it. We put out something really small and basic in the beginning, but people loved it. We actually have most of our daily usage come from the Calendar. Although Calendar Plus looks like it’s catching up.

All Calendar did was show you your local events. But we were always going to take the next step. It took us 9 months but we added support for Facebook events, google calendar, weather forecasts, and so forth. Things that we would like to know ourselves what’s happening this week, what the weather will look like, etc. There wasn’t anything out there showing you everything in one place. And it helped that our users kept asking for these upgrades. So we figured there’s a market for it.

Calendar Plus isn’t the most unique name, though it is more unique than say Calendar. Has it been challenging promoting an app that’s hard to search for?

Funny enough, it actually made it easier to search for. Try searching for “Calendar” in the Mac app store, and you will see Calendar as #1 and Calendar Plus (currently) as #3. We did the same with Groups. Why not name an app something close to what the people will actually be typing in the search box when they want to solve a problem? That was, I think, one of the biggest factors that contributed to our success. We literally have had nearly a million downloads from Calendar and Groups combined. The other factor was, of course, that our apps are useful enough that people keep them around and use them all the time, rather than throwing them away. You can see the daily statistics on the website.

What did you find uniquely challenging in creating a calendar app?

One thing that was hard, funny enough, was displaying the graphics. Most calendars you see on the wall have a picture on the top, and the calendar cells have a nice solid background. Of course, for a calendar hanging off the menubar, a giant picture on top would be wasteful – you’d have to move your glance and your mouse all the way below it to access the calendar. So we spent a long time trying to design the interface. And it turned out that backgrounds on the actual calendar cells can work pretty well, and put you in a nice mood, as long as you can see the text and icons over it.

However, since we were going to have backgrounds, we obviously needed to let people customize them put a picture of their kids up there, or whatever they like. So we added a Flickr search for creative commons images. We came up with this system where people choose a background and one of several themes to frame it.

Many apps today are very streamlined, with few features users can tweak, while Calendar Plus is tricked out with features and ways users can customize it. Why did you opt to make it so customizable?

Well, once we realized that the backgrounds were going to be customizable, we figured we needed to have more than one theme. Some pictures work better with a dark theme, some with a lighter theme, etc. Also, our main developer on the project has a habit of thinking like a developer almost every time one person said “let’s do X” and another, “let’s do Y”, he would say “let’s give users the option to do X or Y”. So what you get is an app that errs on the side of customizability. You can make the calendar hang from the menubar using ropes, or using glass!

Also, we had gotten enough feedback from our users of the free Calendar to know that some people need to customize the first day of the week, others wanted to display the time in different ways. So we added customizability for that, as well. If you’re going to have a calendar, why not set it up the way you like it. Every month can have a different theme and a put you in a different mood. In our upcoming versions, we are actually planning to test whether you’re in the southern hemisphere and shift the default pictures by 6 months.

Why did you choose to make Calendar Plus a menubar app rather than a more standard stand-alone app?

We wanted to access our schedule at a glance and by the way, you can also use the keyboard to get to it even faster. And as a result, it turns out that we are reaching a lot of people all the time, which gives us a lot of “valuable real estate” to develop our ideas on and put in front of a lot of people. It’s actually a similar situation with mobile apps on your home screen, if you think about it. Definitely an attractive reality for anyone investing in what we’re doing.

What apps does your team rely on to get your work done each day?

We’ve set up this whole federated development environment, similar to open source projects which have lots of contributors. We use Redmine for project management, Google Apps for email and docs, Skype for real-time communication, and Mercurial for version control. Oh yeah, and Odesk for time-tracking. That’s where I met all of my developers.

Do you have any new, upcoming features for Calendar Plus you’d like to share with our readers?

In a month or so, we are releasing a native Facebook application, for people who don’t have Macs. And soon after that, we are going to develop an iPhone and Android application, so you can check your calendar on the go. iOS 6 has some integration with Facebook, but we go way beyond that.

What inspires you to keep working on your apps each day?

These apps are just the stepping stone to a larger vision. Stay tuned we are going to combine Groups and Calendar Plus into our social calendar platform I started out telling you about. Today you can see what your Facebook friends are planning to do. In the not-so-distant future you will literally be able to:

• Find people with similar interests to you, whether friends or just people in the area
• Grab a deal from Groupon, Opentable, or other sites, e.g. for Mexican food
• Pick a bunch of times and see who is free at that time AND interested in Mexican food
• Send only those people an invitation
• Start a chat to discuss the activity and nail down the details
• Everyone gets directions and reminders on their phone. They can confirm or cancel.
• Everyone shows up and takes advantage of the group discount.
• And then maybe if they want they can post the pictures on Facebook.

We want to liberate people from their computers and help them get together in the real world. And save money while doing it.

You can see more about our plans here:

http://qbix.com/milestones.pdf

Thanks Gregory!

We’d like to extend a special thanks to Gregory and the whole Qbix team for taking the time to talk to us about Cal Plus and their workflow. It’s always exciting to see the work that goes into Mac apps, and the dedication of the teams behind them!

Ever get nostalgic for 8-bit gaming, but don’t want to play an old game in Dosbox? Shaun Imman‘s critically acclaimed The Last Rocket was a hit on the iPhone when it launched last year, earning 10 stars in our own review.

The Last Rocket has just recently been released for the Mac, and I was eager to try it out as soon as I saw it in the App Store. Spoiler: it was every bit as good as I expected.

Macs: The New Indie Game Platform

Long derided as the worst choice for anyone who wants to play games on their computer, Macs historically have had far fewer gaming options than PCs. But that’s hardly the case anymore. As we’ve seen this past month, there’s a wide variety of games of all genres for Macs, enough to more than satisfy most people.

Best of all, a growing number of indie games are coming out now only for Macs, giving the platform an edge for casual gamers. If there’s two major things that have turned Macs into an active gaming platform, it’s the App Store and iOS. iOS games are much easier to port to OS X, by all accounts, and the App Store gives you a dead-simple way to sell your games. There’s almost no reason not to bring successful iOS games to the Mac. We’ve already seen it with games such as Angry Birds and Real Racing, but they both felt decidedly different on the Mac. Now, though, we have games that feel like direct ports from iOS, and yet still make great Mac games.

Mac Gamers, Meet The Last Rocket

That’s exactly what The Last Rocket is. It’s a successful iOS game that’s been brought almost directly to the Mac. So much so, it still feels like a phone game, or perhaps an emulated older game. It runs in an iPhone sized window, one that might remind you of the Xcode iPhone emulator if you’ve ever developed iPhone apps. You can even choose to run it in a tiny mode that looks more like a Dashboard widget, or a 400% mode that looks more like the iPad.

And yet, at the same time, it’s got most of the fit and finish you’d expect from a modern Mac app. You can take it full-screen from the top-left corner, which is decidedly the best way to play it in a larger mode. You can also control it with your mouse or keyboard, and playing with the keyboard is often easier than using the iPhone version’s touch controls. And while the options consist simply of a sound test and reset option for now, the next update will see Game Center support added to the game.

Gameplay

If you’ve already played The Last Rocket on your iPhone or iPad, you’ll already know what to expect, as the game is almost exactly the very same aside from using your keyboard instead of touch swipes. If you haven’t played the game before, you’re in for a treat. The Last Rocket is a beautifully designed 8-bit game following the last rocket in a spaceship that’s trying to gather the gears to finish assembling himself.

Through the game, you’ll have to glide with fans, jump, huddle to avoid spikes, deactivate sensors, and more. Finish the level by stoping at the exit door, which sometimes needs activated by pushing a button, and you’ll be transported to the next level. It’s got just enough challenges to keep you on your toes, and does a great job at getting a bit harder with each level. And when you kill your rocket, the game’s image will shake, just like it does in iOS, though the window itself doesn’t shake (as you’d expect … but I secretly hoped the window would actually shake).

The game opens with a storyline, showing in an 8-bit terminal-style window a quick intro to your rocket’s mission. You can tap your arrow keys to continue, or click the screen, as you’d expect. Then, if you ever need help figuring out how to proceed, just navigate your rocket to the computer screen that’s in each level, and you’ll see the 8-bit terminal pop back up with pointers to keep you going. It’s a nice level of integrated help that feels perfect on iOS and on the Mac.

Confusing Keys

The Last Rocket is obviously a casual game, one that might not provide you with hours of continuous gameplay but instead one that can provide a quick diversion as you conquer a few levels. You can leave the game and come back where you started easily, though it might take some time to get your coordination up to speed to keep up with the harder levels. Obviously, it should be easy enough, but it can get confusing at times. You use your arrow keys to jump, duck, and navigate, changing depending on which direction your rocket is facing. You’ll have to make sure to stay focused to remember what key jumps and what key ducks, and you’ll have to experiment a bit to get the hang of it. It’s not a problem, per se, but definitely can be confusing.

That said, it’s still a very fun game, one I’ve enjoyed playing on my iPod Touch and now on my Mac. If only the Mac version could have shot me straight to my last-completed level from the iOS version, it would have been perfect!

Conclusion

With custom 8-bit graphics and soundtrack, and a cute storyline, The Last Rocket is a compelling game that you should be sure to check out. There’s not much to surprise you if you’ve already played it on your iPhone, but even still, it’s a nice fun 5 minute diversion on the Mac, and if anything works better with arrow keys.

It’s also a great example of how iOS games can be directly ported to the Mac, and still make a very great game. Sure, you won’t be playing Super Monkey Ball by tilting your MacBook anytime soon, but The Last Rocket is a great example of how many iOS games could be brought to the Mac and still work great. With iOS gaming such an active market, that’s an exceeding potential.

This week has been yet another busy one in the world of app news so without further ado, let’s get started!

Happy reading!

Tweetbot for Mac alpha gets pulled due to API changes, Beta released to existing users

Due to Twitter’s new API (application programming interface) rules, which were implemented on August 16th, Tapbots have had to pull the alpha version of Tweetbot for Mac owing to a cap implemented on the number of user tokens available for third-party Twitter clients. In a blog post, the developers explained how third-party Twitter clients, such as Tweetbot for Mac, now have a cap of 100,000 user “tokens” and once a user has downloaded the app and authorised themselves using Twitter, one of those tokens disappears. The cap has meant that Tapbots have stopped public alpha/beta testing thanks to the cap on tokens, however have stressed that the final version will still go on sale when it’s ready.

There is, however, a little light at the end of the tunnel. On Friday the first official Beta version of Tweetbot was released, which featured plenty of bug fixes along with the ability to copy tweets on the timeline and improved keyboard shortcuts and multi-column swiping (the full change log is available via their Beta blog post. The beta is, however, thanks to those pesky API rules only available to users who have already authorised their Twitter account to use Tweetbot (i.e. if you were already using the alpha then you can upgrade to the beta). You also cannot add any new or delete any existing Twitter accounts from the application (at least until the full version comes around, anyway).

You can download the beta version (0.8.0) directly from Tapbots’ website by clicking here (6.1 MB download size).

Mozilla releases Firefox 15 with a decidedly Chrome-like feature

It seems like the browser wars are now hotting up as Mozilla released Firefox 15 on Tuesday, and this time they’re playing dirty. The big feature of this new version is silent updating, just like Chrome, eliminating that annoying Firefox update window every time a new version is ready to be installed. The new version also included a fix to add on memory leaking (meaning that the app runs more efficiently) and a couple of other performance boosts, such as enhancements to WebGL.

It seems like Firefox has got a bit of work to keep up its reputation. As of August 2012, Firefox was in third place in worldwide browser usage after Chrome and Internet Explorer and whereas Chrome’s usage has increased steadily since its release, Firefox’s has remained pretty stable around the 28% mark. It does, however, remain more popular in certain countries (Germany, for example, where its usage is at 47% as of August 2012, compared to 26% for Internet Explorer and 16% for Chrome).

Parallels Desktop 8 unleashed with retina and dictation support

Ever since we told you last week about the new version of Fusion, version 5, VMWare have released the next big update to their emulation software for OS X, Parallels Desktop. The new version 8 makes it that bit easier to run Windows on your Mac (and, in my opinion, much more convenient than under Boot Camp) and lets you use Mountain Lion’s dictation feature under Windows, adding Windows apps to the Launchpad and opening any website in Internet Explorer on your Mac.

Parallels Desktop 8 also features full retina display support and a claimed 30 percent improvement in performance, though this has yet to be verified. Existing users of Parallels will, like VMWare Fusion 5, have to pay for the privilege of owing this version (upgrade pricing starts from $49.99, with the full version being priced at $80 and students paying a mere $40) however if you purchased your copy of Parallels after July 25th, then VMWare will upgrade it for free!

Head over to the official Parallels website for more information on this new version, which is due to be released on Tuesday (you can upgrade now, by the way!)

GIMP 2.8.2 released, and this time it’s native

GIMP has been updated to version 2.8.2 and this release is finally worth shouting about for OS X users. It marks the end of the app’s requirement to run under X11 in OS X and has finally transformed the open-source image editor into a native, self-contained Mac app, with no need to even have X11 installed. The download weighs in at around 74 MB and can be grabbed from GIMP’s official website (click on the link for a direct link).

GIMP is a popular open-source image editor and has been a staple feature of many Linux distributions for many years now. Until this version, the app was simply a port of its Linux counterpart and required X11 to emulate and run it. Users can now simply download the application from their official website, open it up as a disk image and drag it into their Applications folder – a much simpler process. Version 2.8.2, however, only brings along the usual bug fixes and has no new features compared to previous versions.

Heard Anything Else?

If you’ve heard anything else exciting that’s happened this week then go ahead and post a link to it in the Comments section below for the benefit of our other readers!

Cooking at home has become a lost art due to the omnipresence of diners, fast-food restaurants, and the surplus of other ways to eat out. I’m not bashing great food that others can prepare, but why don’t you fire up that oven sometime to make some cobbler? If that seems too complicated, there’s always the stovetop which can cook caramel for popcorn this evening — it’s a great accompaniment to the film you’re planning to watch with your significant other.

Okay, enough of my urging you to prepare the delectable. If you happen to cook things even on occasion, I’m sure you keep a folder with recipes in it, if not a tactile book in your cupboard. What if I told you that there’s an easier way to organize things using Michael Göbel’s Recipes app on your Mac? Yes yes, you want to know more. Well then let’s get started.

Adding Recipes Manually

Begin by adding a group using the New button in the bottom left corner.

Recipes is a short 5.2 MB download and once that’s finished, you can open up the app to find a welcome screen thanking you for your purchase. Then you’re off to build your digital world of food, starting with the creation of your first recipes group. I cannot resist a good set of brownies or lemon meringue pie, so I decided to start with desserts. I then proceeded to find the correct icon for this group, which took a while since it’s hard to distinguish one black-with-little-white figure from another.

Try creating a new recipe for your group using the second New button which is accompanied by a list icon.

Now, on to the food itself. I began with my favorite brownies recipe, which currently resides in Cookies, Brownies, Muffins, and More by Anne Egan. I decided to type out the recipe for safekeeping inside my Mac so that it’ll be with me wherever I go. Inputting the information — ingredients, directions, notes, and other details — went fairly well, but I did encounter a few little roadblocks. Bullets, for instance, are not automatic and there is also no numbering system for directions.

I found these particular areas lacking functionality to be irritating when I was manually inputting a recipe because the extra effort of typing out numbers and bullets isn’t something I should have to do. As a workaround for this, I used TextEdit to type out the directions with a real list format. I then copied and pasted the document I’d created and everything worked out well. However, I’d still like to see a better integrated editor in this app.

Further, I would suggest that the developer add a smart fractions feature instead of the menu selection for 1/2 cup and such. It’d be much faster for people who were copying and pasting text as well as typing it.

Importing and Exporting

If you feel like taking the easier approach to adding files to Recipes, there’s always the file types that it supports. Currently they’re limited to documents from the app (.recipe) and Paprika, MacGourmet, and YummySoup files. If you happen to use any of these formats for anything then importing should be a breeze compared to manually typing or copying and pasting everything.

Go to the File menu and click Import… to easily grab a recipe of the supported formats.

Exporting can also be something that’s useful. If you’ve built up a library of recipes using the app and have some friends who’d like to use it as well, just click the File menu and click Export… to output a .recipe file for use with any Mac that’s running the software. Göbel even provides a few of his favorite recipes in this format for you to download free. They’ll give you a good idea of what recipes should look like when fully complete.

Adding Details

If you’d like to take things further than the basics, Recipes offers a Details pane for everything from the cost of cooking something to a photo of it. You can also rate the recipe, detail its origin with a web address, and even add a difficulty rating for the chef.

Recipes automatically resizes photos that you add to recipes.

Fullscreen and “Cook View”

Just like nearly all productive software on the App Store, Recipes includes a fullscreen mode. It’s nothing too fancy and merely gives you a larger editing view than the small window, but then there’s the “Cook View”. This minimal layout will put the app in fullscreen appearance, but not actually enable the true mode you’re used to in anything past Lion. Instead, Cook View is its own standalone layout with no access to the menu bar or dock. There is also no gesture to return to the windowed mode.

I think Cook View can prove to be useful for some, but it only takes one thing away from the fullscreen mode: the sidebar. I honestly don’t think there’s much of a need for this extra layout and it kind of seems like a waste of screen space on a Mac, but an iPad could benefit from it greatly. Cook View seems like it wants to be the digital version of a real cookbook with no clutter or distractions so that you can effortlessly concentrate on what you’re preparing. For that, it works well; otherwise, it’s unnecessary.

iCloud for Backup and iOS Companion Apps

Let Recipes store your library in iCloud by going to Preferences and checking the appropriate box.

Sometimes bringing your computer into the kitchen isn’t quite preferred, which is why the developer of Recipes is working hard on iPhone and iPad companion apps. iCloud sync is already included in the app, as you may very well know from browsing the Preferences menu. There’s not really a better way of ensuring that your precious files are always in your reach, especially when the iOS version of Recipes releases.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to organizing things, I’ll go to a lot of trouble just to get things perfect. Recipes is a great way of digitally cataloguing all my favorite cooking files. I think that the Mac app is definitely valuable, but a bit overpriced at $8.99. A library of your recipes it is; available everywhere it is not. I still prefer the traditional cookbook to this app because of its extra portability. Until the iOS counterparts of Recipes release, I don’t recommend getting the app. And in addition, I highly suggest that you wait until the Mac version is on sale before spending so much for it.

We’d like to say a special Thank you! to our weekly sponsors from the past month, for sponsoring our site and for the great apps they make. If you would like to feature your app on our site with an advertisement, be sure to check out our available slots on BuySellAds or register for a weekly sponsorship for your app.

If you haven’t already checked out our the great apps that sponsored our site last month, be sure to check them out now!

And a special thanks to you, our Mac.AppStorm.net readers, for reading and sharing our articles. We couldn’t do it without you!

Kids love to use computers. That’s a fact. Even babies love to press buttons and see things happen. I completely believe that once a child is ready, they should be given access to a computer with quality “grown-up” software and the ability to really utilize the computer with less restrictions. Until they reach that age, however, you probably need some sort of solution to prevent your child from completely screwing up your computer.

Luckily, a number of apps exist that are great to include in the user account for your children. This roundup includes child-friendly browsers, games for learning and for fun and even apps to create digital content. Stick with me after the jump to learn more about some of the most popular apps out there for kids.

Browsing

Learning

Playing

Creating

Conclusion

Finding apps for kids can be quite a challenge. Not only do you have to do the work of finding the applications – you also have to decide when to let them progress onto more challenging applications and how much access to give them to the internet and the great world available from a computer screen. Hopefully these apps make things a bit easier, at least for any of you with younger children.

Parents, educators and interested parties – what would you add to the list? Any must-have applications for those setting up a computer account for someone under 10? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

This post is part of a series that revisits some of our readers’ favorite articles from the past that still contain awesome and relevant information that you might find useful. This post was originally published on August 2nd, 2011.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about text-to-speech in OSX, and one commenter suggested I check out Repeat After Me, a text-to-speech utility hidden in the Developer folder.

While checking it out, I discovered that the Developer folder holds a stash of useful applications and utilities I’d never heard of before. I’ve found some real gems while digging through Developer Tools, including some utilities that I now use on a regular basis. Let’s go hunting for burried treasure!

Where Are We Looking?

To get these developer tools, you have to install Xcode, either from your Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard install disk, or for free from the Mac App Store. I had developer tools installed on Snow Leopard, and they’re still there now that I’ve upgraded to Lion.

If you’ve never checked it out before, the Developer folder can be found right inside your hard drive’s main directory. As developers will know, the applications folder inside the Developer directory is home to key tools like Xcode and Quartz Composer, but the average user would have no reason to know the folder existed.

All the applications and utilities I’ll be discussing can be found at OSX HD/Developer/Applications/.

Warning: This could get geeky.

Repeat After Me

Developer/Applications/Utilities/Speech

This utility is a very powerful, complex text-to-speech tool, which can be used to alter text-to-speach output and export your spoken text to .aiff. Repeat After Me allows you compare recorded audio (like your own voice) to the automatically generated speach, and impose pitches and durations from the recorded voice onto the text-to-speach output. It’s a complicated—but powerful—process, though practical applications are hard to think of.

While I was searching for information about Repeat After Me, I did come accross one interesting application: creating digital “singers” to be used in GarageBand compositions. You could theoretically “train” the computer to sing a line of text, though in practice this might be pretty time consuming.

Core Image Fun House

Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools

Your Mac comes with powerful image processing technology called CoreImage, which powers many third-party image editing apps. If you don’t feel the need to download (or pay for) a pretty face for technology you already have, you can achieve some pretty cool effects using the Core Image Fun House.

Core Image effects are non-destructive, so you can add layers of effects to the “Effect Stack”, then modify or delete them. There are dozens of effects to play with, from common adjustments like hue and saturation, to powerful Photoshop-like effects including displacement distortion (similar to Photoshop’s displacement map feature).

Core Image Funhouse is meant to familiarize software developers with the tools available to them, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t have a little fun!

Pixie

Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools

Pixie is a really useful little utility that magnifies anything on your screen up to 1200%. This feature is really handy for taking a close look at UI elements in both desktop and web applications without having to open an image editor, which can be very useful for designers.

AU Lab

Developer/Applications/Audio

AU Lab is a fully-featured audio mixer, and though I don’t know much about the subject, I’ve read some really positive comments about it in forums. It’s been compared to RAX in terms of functionality, and is very lightweight and fast. I’ve read that it has a pretty steep learning curve, but it comes with extensive help documentation, and you can’t beat the price.

FileMerge

Developer/Applications/Utilities

FileMerge is probably my favorite of the Developer Tools, I’ve actually used it a couple times to compare documents. FileMerge works like a stripped down version of Kaleidoscope, it “spots the differences” between two text documents.

This kind of utility is useful for both coders and for people that work in writing or editing: it could spot the crucial difference that broke your web app, or show you what changes your editor made to an article. When I do editing work, I usually use Word’s “compare documents” feature, which is good for when you really need to see how something was changed, but something like FileMerge is ideal for getting a general idea of what’s different.

Conclusion

There are dozens of applications and utilities in the Developer folder, but most of them are only useful to software developers. However, even if you’re not a developer, it turns out there are still some very useful, freely available tools to be found. I don’t think any of these applications would find their way to my dock, but I call up Pixie and FileMerge from time to time, and I’d definitely play around with Core Image Funhouse if I wasn’t already such a Photoshop nerd.

I’d be curious to know how many Appstorm readers have Developer Tools installed, whether or not you actually develop software. Have you tried out any of these tools? Are there any other little-known apps I’ve missed?

The CD data disk came as a revolution when it arrived. Before the most common storage method was still the 3.5″ floppy disk that held only 1.4 MB. The size of programs was rapidly increasing and many popular programs already came on a dozen or more disks and a bad floppy disk was all too common. The arrival of the CD made larger programs and games not just easier, but possible in the days when dial up Internet was still the norm. The DVD soon followed and increased the amount of data on a single disk to 4.7 GB and also brought the digital movie to the computer user.

Installing software now most often comes from a download, whether from the Mac App Store or the vendor’s web site. The DVD adds space and weight that can seem unnecessary. Apple now shows no concerns about removing the drive to shrink the size of their computers. The MacBook Air doesn’t come with a DVD drive to save space and the new MacBook Retina also removed the DVD drive. The trend is clear that Apple considers these drives to be unimportant and best relegated to an external drive in the rare times it’s needed.

Still, computer users can’t quite completely ignore the CD and DVD yet. Most boxed software, which now is relegated to mainly large suites like Microsoft Office or Creative Suite, still comes on a DVD or CD. While digital downloads of both movies and music are the future, many of us also have DVD or Blu-ray movie collections and even (gasp) CD music collections that we’d like to bring with us to the digital world. Here we’ll look at a few programs either included with your Mac or freely available that will help you deal with those physical disks still lying around. An external DVD drive will allow you to get anything on those disks to you Mac with the programs below.

Why Use Images

Even if you have a drive in your computer, there are still good reasons to move to digital files. Watching a movie as a file on your laptop uses less battery power than viewing it off a DVD. It’s also rather inconvenient to carry around more than a disk or two at a given time. They also let you store the original disk safely and take the copy with you. I often take installation CDs and store the images on a server for easy access if I ever need to reinstall. Really there aren’t many good reasons to not convert your disks to an image.

Also most of these programs will require a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray drive. If your computer doesn’t come with one, then an external drive that connects to a USB port on your Mac will work great without sacrificing the portability when you aren’t using it. While these tools do let you move and manage disks make sure to respect the hard work of artists and programmers and only use software, movies, and music that you have legally purchased.

iTunes

While most people now buy their music digitally from the start, many of us have music collections from earlier days we’d like to take with us. Fortunately iTunes is a perfect tool to convert your music CD to a set of MP3 files. When you insert a music CD with iTunes running, you will be asked if you’d like import the CD into your iTunes library. If you click Yes, iTunes will then convert the audio CD to digital files that no longer require the disk. You will most often want to import to the almost universal MP3 format in various levels of quality. You can also use the less common, but smaller for the same sound quality, AAC format. For those demanding perfect replication, iTunes also supports several lossless formats that provide perfect replication of your music, but produces larger files than the MP3 or AAC formats.

iTunes will also automatically identify the album and fill out the metadata for each track you import. It also supports automatically downloading album art if you turn on the option. For most music this means you insert the CD and let iTunes do the work. Once your music is in iTunes, you can take it anywhere your computer goes and sync it to your iPhone or iPad to take on the go. If you desire to create your own music CD at some point, iTunes also supports building a custom playlist that you can then burn to a writable CD giving you a music CD for a long drive in a friend’s car with to music player port or a custom mix CD (younger readers look it up) for someone special.

Disk Utility

Disk Utility is another built in Mac OS program to let you manage your disks and disk images. Among its many features Disk Utility will create a disk image from most physical disks. The disk image is a single file that works like the disk in almost every way. It’s simply a file on your computer, but you can mount this disk image on your Mac and use it just like you would the original disk. Disk Utility can convert a physical disk into either a compressed image resulting in a Mac specific DMG file or the more portable cdr format which can be renamed ISO for use on other operating systems.

Mac OS knows how to handle any of the disk image formats it creates. Double clicking on the image mounts it just as if you’d inserted the original disk into a DVD drive. You can copy files from the mounted image or install software just as from the original disk. Disk Utility can also burn you image back to a physical DVD if you ever need the disk again or for a backup.

Handbrake

Handbrake describes itself as a multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder. It’s also my choice program to bring a DVD movie on the go to watch while on an airplane or waiting for an airplane. Or in fact any place I don’t have or want to use a DVD drive. Handbrake is not a disk ripper and by itself can only decode video on unprotected DVDs. There are several libraries that work with Handbrake to allow these disks to be read including the popular VLC media player to read these disks allowing you to create a video file from almost any disk.

Handbrake supports a number of video formats so you to choose whether you prefer a smaller file or higher quality video file. As even medium quality video files can be several hundred megabytes, these choices let you find the best spot for your needs. Handbrake comes with presets for computers along with most Apple devices including Apple TVs. Also note that Handbrake is compatible with Blu-ray disks, but as this requires a Blu-ray drive I’ve never tested it with them.

Conclusion

It’s easier than ever to use a computer without a built in DVD drive. Over time the DVD and Blu-ray likely will go the way of the floppy disk. We’re not there yet. But with these three programs you can manage quite well without bringing along your DVD drive or the disks. You’ll save battery

If you frequent the AppStorm sites, you know that we love apps. We love writing with them, designing with them, coding with them, and so much more. Our prime directive is to share our love of apps with you. In this occasion, however, we will support our love for apps and design by giving you a sweet roundup of some of the most amazing templates for your video projects.

If you are currently working on a summer-themed wedding video, or a simple intro for a business, this list should help you if you need a refreshing touch of summer on your projects. You can use these files with Final Cut, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, or whatever you use to edit your videos.

Let’s not keep you waiting and let’s check out these fantastic files from VideoHive, AudioJungle, and GraphicRiver, marketplaces run by our parent company, Envato.

Graphics

Audio

Video

Conclusion

As you can see, this round up is summer themed, so if you are working on a cool summer project or an end-of-trip film, you can use these files to create something unique. Let us know in the comments what you think about the files, and if you ever want to see different themes of this kind of article.

In case you need help with these files, always be sure to comment or check for the author’s contact info for support, or check out one of the Tuts+ networks for some awesome tutorials.

Sports games have always been rare on the Mac, owing largely to the economics of development — such games are expensive to make, so you need a big audience to justify it, and the Mac install base has never reached the critical mass for sports titles. Golf games are something of an exception, however, with several Tiger Woods, Links, and Jack Nicklaus releases for the Mac on the commercial end, coupled with a dozen or so shareware titles in the past 15 years.

Nova Golf fits more in the spirit of the low-budget shareware games of old, and it comes at a time when the only other real options for a golf simulation on a Mac are the latest Tiger Woods Cider port, World Challenge Golf 2011, or GL Golf — Nova Golf’s award-winning predecessor. It’s a solid game, but it’s also disappointing in its current state.

Tee Off

Nova Golf has all the essential features of a good golf game — several courses, Career Mode, loft/punch, draw/fade, and solid simulation of the mechanics of the sport. You can create your own golfer (and up to seven others) or stick with the default one, customizing gender, clothes, hair, shape, size, and skin color. There are five skills to level up: Power, Accuracy, Putting, Recovery, Spin. These affect the random element of shots — higher ratings mean a greater likelihood that the ball will go where you want it to, no matter what the lie — and the speed at which the shot-bar moves, along with the distance you can hit or the amount of spin you can apply. You start with 200 experience points, to distribute as you see fit, then earn more by scoring at or below par on a hole.

The shot mechanics roughly follow the same basic procedure that’s been more or less standard in golf games for over a decade. You first set up your shot with up to five levels of draw/fade and/or loft/push, a theoretical trajectory, and an appropriate club. Click the mouse or tap the spacebar to start the first slider, then again to stop it at the power level you want. A second slider comes up for timing/angle of swing. You need to position this one in the center for a clean hit; anything to the left of center will go to the left of your target mark, and vice versa on the right, with reduced power.

The Front Nine

Nova Golf looks great on a small screen, but the graphics don’t hold up to a lot of scrutiny. The courses and golfers scale up nicely enough at higher resolutions, but I’d argue that the visuals are only a little better than those found in 1997 golf game Jack Nicklaus 4. Granted, Jack Nicklaus was not rendered in full real-time 3D — it used a number of tricks to give an appearance as such — and it was a commercial release. But don’t go into Nova Golf expecting mind-blowing graphics, because you’re sure to be disappointed. They are adequate, pleasant, and run at a smooth frame-rate — no more.

While I found the swing animations generic, there’s plenty of charm in the reactions from your virtual golfers when you miss a putt or score under par on a hole. They’ll groan, drop their club, and throw their hands up in disbelief or triumph. Other sounds give a reasonably authentic feel of being on a golf course — balls bounce with a satisfying thud while ambient wildlife noises break the silence. You also get treated to a jaunty musical soundtrack, although I ended up turning it off in favor of listening to podcasts.

The Back Nine

Career Mode offers you a chance to start as a lowly amateur and work your way up to being the best golfer in the world. You earn credits as you progress, which can be used to buy better balls and clubs — you upgrade clubs by the family (driver, wedges, woods, irons, putters). Credits can also be purchased with real money, giving you a fast-track to awesomeness. It may seem insidious to have in-app purchases on a paid app, but I think this is a fair way to do it. Nova Golf is a game of skill; it rewards you for doing well and working hard.

Many other games — including EA Sports’ Tiger Woods series — similarly allow you to skip the hard work of developing your golfer by spending extra money, and this is no different. A cynic will tell you that it’s money-grubbing, but it ensures that there’s a clear incentive to play the game and improve — it keeps things challenging, in other words.

There aren’t many courses to play through, and Career Mode may appear short, but it could easily take you a few dozen hours to complete everything and max out your character stats. There are seven tournaments in the current version (1.03), of which the first three have special qualifying rounds, with more on the way as new courses get released.

You can also brag about your successes through earning achievements. These include the mythic Albatross/Double Eagle, Green Under Regulation, and saving par after missing a green in regulation. Mountain Lion users can have these achievements and their scores posted on the Game Center leaderboards; Lion and Snow Leopard users have to settle for bragging the old fashioned way.

Trailing the Lead

It’s inevitable that when you have a golf (simulation) game, it’ll be compared to current market leader Tiger Woods PGA Tour. On that front, Nova Golf is fighting a losing battle. Nuclear Nova don’t have anything like the resources of EA, so there are no licensed golfers or courses. You’re looking at just two game modes, rather than several, with a much simpler career mode and far less detailed graphics. If such things are important to you, look elsewhere — Nova Golf’s actual golfing simulation seems better sometimes, but it falls short on every other point in a comparison with the EA Sports juggernaut.

More interestingly, it’s in many ways a step backward from GL Golf — the previous Nuclear Nova golf sim. Nova Golf has no match play or multiplayer (although these are meant to be coming soon), nor are there weather options — GL Golf allowed up to four players to tee off, at night and during winter if they so desired. There are fewer courses. A dedicated backspin button has been removed, although that’s a move to greater realism — backspin in real golf comes down to skill, equipment, and clever use of loft/punch technique.

On other counts, it comes out ahead of its predecessor. In particular, the visuals are markedly better, Career Mode keeps you returning for more, and the new swing mechanics add realism and greater challenge.

Taps in for a Bogie

I spent a lot of time with Nova Golf, trying to find more to it; hoping to see enough that I could recommend it ahead of Tiger Woods or GL Golf. But in its current state Nova Golf misses the fairway, undershoots the green, and then two-putts for a bogie — all despite good shape and technique. Given the developer’s track record (GL Golf has been actively developed since 2003), I’m confident that it will be a great — albeit clearly low-budget — golf game. But it isn’t now, and you may need to pony up the cash for a number of in-app purchases to get those extra features when they’re ready.

We’re always looking for better ways to take notes. There’s so many things to think about, Post-it notes just don’t cut it, and even Mountain Lion’s built-in Notes app doesn’t fit what most of us need. We need a simple place to put notes and quickly find them again, no matter where we’re working.

Scrawl is a great app for that. It’s a note taking app that lives in your menubar, one we were excited about when we reviewed it earlier this year. Since then, it’s gotten even better, with iCloud integration, native keyboard shortcut and Share Sheet support, and more. It’s a great way to quickly jot down notes in your menubar and find them whenever you need them.

Scrawl normally costs $1.99, but we’ve got 3 copies to giveaway for free to our readers. If you’d like to win a copy, just leave a comment below telling us why you’d love to start using it. For an extra credit, share the giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, or App.net, and then include a link to your update in your comment, and you’ll get two entries in the giveaway.

Our contest will close on midnight Monday, September 3rd, so hurry and get your entry in!

Envato staff or people who have written more than two articles or tutorials for AppStorm, however, are ineligible to enter.

Here at AppStorm, we review many games throughout our various networks. From Mac games to iPhone and Android games, we can’t help but to give some love to the gaming culture. With the recent addition of Game Dev to the Tuts+ network and our own Gaming Month here at Mac.AppStorm, we decided to review an app that isn’t a game, rather, a game creator: GameSalad.

GameSalad is an application that allows you to create games for a variety of platforms. So in essence, this app can help you create your first game in no time. If you are an indie game developer or someone interested in creating a soon-to-be iOS smash-hit, GameSalad is probably the best and easiest way to get your hands dirty and let your creativity run wild.

What is GameSalad?

In a few words, GameSalad is a game creator tool that grants you the ability to develop games across many platforms without ever writing a single line of code. Cool, right?

That is just scratching the surface of GameSalad, though. The power behind the app allows you to easily create games for iOS, Android, HTML5, and Mac without ever having to worry about porting them over and over.

Although GameSalad strives to be easy and accessible to anyone out there, it is good to note that this application can get extremely complex. The games you can develop may not be Diablo III, or Call of Duty grade, but that doesn’t mean that you’re limited to just a few things here and there. On the contrary, GameSalad can help you create the next big thing on the Mac App Store probably giving us a chance to feature your game here!

How Does It Work?

It is kind of hard to tell you how GameSalad works without transforming this review into a full-blown tutorial, but here is a small rundown:

When you start, you’ll first be asked if you want to create a blank game, start with a template, or open a saved file. When you are ready to create your game, you’ll be taken to the Game Creator. There, you can choose the platform your game will play on, input a name, description, instructions, and tags for your game.

Once you are done with that, you’ll move on to the Scenes tab. There you can add Scenes which are basically the different screens and scenarios or levels your games will have. For example, one scene will act as your intro screen, the other will function as your main menu, while a third will be the game itself.

After that, you have the Actors tab. Actors are basically anything that exist within Scenes. (Yes, there is quite a few keywords used by GameSalad, so the manual will really help you out.) These Actors can range from buttons, controls, and backgrounds to enemies, player characters, and visible (or invisible) objects. They (as well as Scenes) can be edited separately. You can give them names, colors, actions, and more.

GameSalad’s Key Features

To shed more light on the things you can accomplish with this app, let’s take a look at some of GameSalad’s key features.

No Coding Necessary – This is perhaps the biggest promise GameSalad will give you. Aimed for designers without much or any coding knowledge, the ability to create games without having to worry about code is both satisfying and encouraging. The editor gives you an immense variety of options to bring your dream game to reality, so you won’t need to spend months writing code.

Testing – GameSalad comes with the GameSalad Viewer that allows you to play and test your games on all your devices in order to polish your game free of any bugs, that is. But that is not it. While you can test all your games across devices, you can also test them right from the GameSalad Creator. Additionally, you can test your game on Safari.

Publishing – Some of you will love GameSalad for this feature alone. And why shouldn’t you. It is not only intuitive, but it also saves time and effort. Basically, this feature let’s you publish your game to the GameSalad Arcade with the push of a button. You can also publish your game directly to the web, Mac, or any iOS device (and Android if you have the Pro version). There is more, though. If you need to update your game, you’ll be able to push that update with ease. Once your update is pushed, GameSalad will take care of the rest and automatically update your game no matter where it is embedded.

The GameSalad Community

Even though GameSalad let’s you develop a game without writing one line of code, there is one down side to it. GameSalad can be outrageously intimidating. With ton of options, menus, features, and complexities that power the app, getting into GameSalad is no joy ride. But that applies to any application, really. I mean, if you give Photoshop to someone who has never heard of it, they will most likely be intimidated by the sheer amount of features Photoshop processes. This is true with GameSalad as well.

This is where the GameSalad Community comes in. If you give the same person Photoshop and a link to PSD.TutsPlus, he or she will probably be able to conjure up something pretty sweet. With GameSalad, you have a great deal of documentation, help, boards and video tutorials at your disposal. There is absolutely no excuse to not try it out.

Oh, and if all fails, just play around with the app’s options. Hitting the wrong thing isn’t the end of the world.

The Verdict

Nope, GameSalad is not the end all be all game creation application, but, it does empower you with everything you need to create a sweet iOS game. While, yes, GameSalad can be a little complex as you get more into it, this app is still a sweet tool to have if you want to create mobile games without knowing how to code. That by itself is reason alone for aspiring game designers to take a look at this great application.

eBooks have become an important part the tech world these days. Many of us have dedicated eBook readers or tablets with eBook apps. I personally read more books than ever, but just a couple weeks ago purchased the first paper book I’ve purchased in years. Today, Amazon’s making more from Kindle books than hardcovers and Apple’s even had the DOJ inquiring into its eBook business practices. It’s an infant industry, but one that’s growing by leaps and bounds.

Today, you can buy almost any book you can think of and read it on your Mac or other devices in seconds. The Kindle app is ubiquitous thanks to Amazon’s extensive library of titles, but many indie publishers sell DRM free eBooks that you can read in Preview or apps like Calibre. Apple still hasn’t brought iBooks to the Mac, but many of us hope they’ll release a Mac version of it eventually.

I personally read PDF eBooks in Preview and Kindle books more than anything on my Mac, but I’m curious what you use to read books on your Mac. We’d love to hear your thoughts about your favorite book apps in the comments below!

I don’t know about you, but my music gets really old sometimes. When I’m looking for new music, I often struggle with what app to use. I tend to default to web apps, but I really wanted to find some various Mac apps that I can use to find new and exciting music. I tried a number of different applications and found a pretty decent variety.

Some apps on the list are simply a way to utilize a web app via the desktop. Others are completely unique applications which allow you to discover new music in unique and innovative ways. The list includes just a few of the many applications out there, as I tried to stay away from including too many applications which simply provide a way to play an online service via a desktop application. Follow me beyond the jump to learn more about some of the cool apps I found to discover new music.

Those are a few of my favorite Mac apps to discover new music. I love the variety – I can default to Pandora for automatic music playback and discovery with very little effort on my behalf. If I’m feeling more ambitious, I can explore a service like SoundCloud. Better yet, I can even utilize an app like Discovr Music, dedicated solely to discovering and enjoying new music.

These are just a few of my favorite Mac-based music discovery applications. I’d love to know what your favorites are! Do you use one of the apps I listed? Do you have a favorite application I missed? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

When it comes to choosing a personal finance app for your Mac, you’ve got quite a range to choose from. We even did a roundup of 15 of the best candidates a couple of months back and picking one can be quite difficult owing to all the different range of features in each one.

Well, we can’t look at all 15 individually (otherwise we’d be here until the end of the year!) but instead we’re going to look at three of the most popular in a bit more detail, Moneywiz, iBank and Money, comparing the features and, most importantly, which out of these three is the best personal finance app for you.

What am I going to be looking at?

In this roundup, I am going to be looking at and comparing the following key features I would look for in a good personal finance app:

• The app’s interface and its overall usability.
• Integration with financial insitutions, allowing you to download all your transactions automatically from your bank’s online banking service.
• How the app works with basic transactions (entering an expense, schedulding, investments and so on)
• How well the app reports on your finances.
• Whether you can sync with a mobile device.
• How customisable is the app?

For each app, I will give a score out of 10 then add up all the scores at the end and divide by the number of categories, thereby giving an average score.

Which programs am I going to look at?

I am going to focus on three different (and popular) personal finance apps for Mac. Bear in mind that these apps are for personal use only, e.g. tracking the balance in your checking and savings accounts and aren’t suitable for business use (e.g. accounting). These are:

1. Moneywiz from developers Silverwiz.
2. iBank from developers IGG Software.
3. Money from developers Jumsoft.

So, without further ado, let’s start looking at the apps!

Introduction

All three apps that we are going to look at today are available off the Mac App Store and apart from Moneywiz, free trials are available for both products off their website. To familiarise myself with the programs, I used the free trials (which are time limited by the way, not limited in features), apart from Moneywiz for which the developers very kindly provided me with a promotional code.

Interface and Usability

One of the most important features for me when it comes to any program is how the program looks. I’m looking for clean, non-complicated interfaces and apps which don’t take 3 hours to learn how to use. Let’s see how each one stacked up:

Moneywiz

Moneywiz’s interface is exactly what I want Mac apps to be like: clean, simple and completely free of clutter. Your accounts, budgets, scheduled transactions and reports are lined up on the lefthand side in different, easy-to-access sections and all you have to do is click on the individual sections to bring each one up.

You can also add a new account, budget or transaction easily from the plus icons on the bottom left and right hand sides of the screen and accessing any feature of the program takes no more than a couple of mouse clicks. On starting the app a wizard also pops up which helps you set up all your accounts in Moneywiz and add their respective balances, meaning you can be up and running within a few minutes.

Score: 9 out of 10

iBank

iBank’s interface is a little more “busy” than that of Moneywiz but still manages not to overwhelm the user with loads of unnecessary features. Along the top you’ve got icons for adding new accounts, reports and budgets and, if you use iBank to manage your investments, download buttons so you can update currencies, stocks and so on.

Along the left-hand side of the app you’ve got quick and easy access to your accounts, websites (if you use online banking, for example, or certain websites to manage your investments) and budgets. Like Moneywiz, iBank also features a wizard which helps you set up your accounts (and integrate with your financial institution – more on this later)

Score: 8 out of 10

Money

Money greets the user upon opening with an extremely simple interface reminiscent a bit of iTunes. Along the left-hand side you’ve got your “library” of accounts plus easy access to your scheduler, reports, budgets, categories and so on.

There’s no wizard when you first start up the app but setting up your accounts is really easy thanks to Money‘s easy-to-use interface. You’ve also got quick access to reconciling your account and viewing any recently added transactions running along the bottom of the screen.

Score: 8 out of 10

Integration with Financial Institutions

Moneywiz

Unfortunately Moneywiz offers no built-in integration with financial institutions, so you’re going to have to enter all your transactions data manually. You can, however, import your bank statement file in CSV, OFX, QFX or QIF format by simply going to File then Import… and although it is better than having to enter all your transactions manually, it is certainly not as convenient as simply setting up the application to sync with your existing online banking service.

Score: 6 out of 10

iBank

iBank integrates with a whole range of financial institutions to offer either direct downloading (whereby the app connects directly to your financial insitution and securely downloads all your transactions automatically) or web download (where you log into your internet banking service through the integrated browser in iBank).

Having said that, most of the financial insitutions that are supported by iBank are either based in the United States or Canada and, as I have only got British bank accounts, I couldn’t test out this feature (I also felt a little left out of the game!).

You can also import your accounts from Quicken (either for PC or for Mac), Microsoft Money and many other financial management programs, as long as they support either QIF, OFX and QFX.

Score: 9 out of 10

Money

Like iBank, Money also supports direct download from a number of different financial institutions, although the list isn’t as great as that in iBank and the feature is hidden somewhat (you have to go into Accounts then Edit Account… to choose your financial institution). And again, like iBank, all the supported financial institutions are based either in the United States or Canada.

Money can also import transactions data in OFX, QFX, CSV and QIF format directly into the program.

Score: 8 out of 10

Working with Transactions

Moneywiz

Moneywiz prides itself on its overall simplicity and working with transactions is extremely easy. To add a transaction, simply click on the Plus icon in the bottom right hand side of the screen and with this you can add an expense, income, transfer between your accounts in Moneywiz and you can also adjust a particular account’s balance as well.

Transactions can be sorted, filtered by period, type and status and searched through. You can also set up scheduled transactions such as expenses (for example a regular bill payment), incomes (your salary, for example) or regular transfers between accounts (for example if you transfer a portion of your salary each month to a seperate account). Any transactions that are scheduled appear on a calendar within Moneywiz giving you a clear overview. Note that the app does not automatically “pay” your scheduled transactions – you have to confirm them yourself.

Moneywiz unfortunately does not offer any kind of support for investments; only current (checking), savings and cash accounts and credit cards are supported (as of the most recent version). There is, however, support for all world currencies and the app also features automatic conversion and built-in exchange rates, which are updated regularly.

Score: 7 out of 10

iBank

iBank supports a much wider range of transactions than either Moneywiz or Money. Besides the standard checking and savings accounts, you can also add loans, assets, liabilities, investments and 401k plans into iBank to keep track of them. There are also more transaction categories as well which allow you to keep better track of your spending, such as ATM withdrawals, online transactions, POS (Point of Sale – e.g. spending in shops) and cheques.

Transactions can be searched through and viewed either as a list or in an iTunes “Cover Flow” style, with iBank using an icon related to the transaction’s category to display it properly. You can also mark transactions as either cleared or uncleared (useful for POS transactions or cheques as they often do not clear straight away) and, for the purposes of categories, split transactions. Example: if you spend $100 at the grocery store, with $70 on groceries (one category) and $30 on something for your car (another category) then iBank will let you split this transaction into two (or more if needed) categories.

iBank supports scheduled transactions and features full integration with iCal (Calendar from Mountain Lion) so you can set it up to alert you on all your devices when a bill is due, ensuring you don’t forget to pay it! To save you entering simulataneous transactions, the app will also let you set up transaction templates as well.

Besides personal everyday finance, iBank also supports investment management. You can use it to track stocks and bonds, mutual fund, commodities and so on and quotes are automatically downloaded from Yahoo! Finance ensuring you have the most up-to-date information.

Score: 10 out of 10

Money

Money supports most basic accounts plus investments, assets and loans. There is also a “smart account” feature which gathers and updates information from all other acounts based on the information that you specift. Besides the basic transaction functions, Money can split transactions into two categories (like iBank) and you can add tags and attachments to individual transactions as well (for example, a scanned copy of the receipt).

Money also supports scheduled transactions and unlike Moneywiz can pay them automatically if desired (in the case of direct debits, for example).

Score: 8 out of 10

Reporting

Moneywiz

Moneywiz can report on most things including net worth, forecast your cash flow (if you have scheduled transactions, for example), pick out particular spending trends and so on.

Any reports created can be viewed full screen and either saved locally to Moneywiz for later viewing or exported as either a PDF or CSV file.

Score: 7 out of 10

iBank

iBank features dynamic reports that update automatically as you make changes to your data and the app can analyse your spending habits either by category/payee over time and report on your account balances, taxable spending and debt management. You can view extended details about anything you see on screen and any scheduled transactions are used to forecast account balances or spending projections for the future. Reports can also be limited to certain categories as well.

When it comes to choosing categories for your expenses or income, you can define each category as either taxable or non-taxable and (if necessary) assign it a tax code, which ensures complete accuracy when it comes to filling out your tax return. iBank also supports investment reporting which helps generate reports relating to capital gains tax, security income, portfolio diversity and returns on investment.

Score: 9 out of 10

Money

Money has a wide range of different reports available (13, according to the developer’s website) and each report can be tailored to suit either a particular time period or a particular category or range of categories.

Some reports can be presented either in pie or bar chart format and can easily be saved and shared directly from the app. Like iBank, Money also allows you to edit categories and define them as either taxable or non-taxable, which again comes in useful when it’s time to fill out your annual tax return.

Score: 8 out of 10

Mobile Sync

Moneywiz

With the built-in Sync Everything! service, you can keep all your financial information in sync across all devices that have Moneywiz installed. There is an iPhone and iPad app available on the App Store and signing up to the cloud service is free – simply enter your e-mail address and a password of your choice from within the app.

The iPad version is virtually identical to the Mac version in terms of look and both versions for iOS have nearly all the features present in the Mac version – adding transactions, transferring between accounts, reporting and so on. Although the app takes no data relating to your account (e.g. your account number or routing transit number), any data synchronised to Sync Everything! is secure and encrypted using industry-standard AES encryption techniques.

Score: 9 out of 10

iBank

iBank has a sister app, iBank Mobile which is available on the iPhone and iPad and allows you to perform basic commands, such as adding transactions, reviewing account balances and so on. There is no cloud service and the apps sync via Wi-Fi over your local network or any WebDAV server.

Although a little more feature-rich, the iPad version is quite expensive at $14.99 and does not update itself automatically in the background (this is available via a yearly subscription of $39.99!). Although I have not tested the app personally, judging by the comments left on the App Store it seems to deliver more of a punch on the price, rather than on the features front.

Score: 6 out of 10

Money

Like the other two apps we’ve looked at today, there is also a version of Money for both the iPhone and iPad (and, unlike iBank, are much more sensibly priced!). Both apps allow you to perform a variety of basic “tasks” such as checking your balance, adding new expenses and scheduling transactions and both apps sync to your Mac via local Wi-Fi and a PIN code, which is defined when you first set the apps up.

Score: 8 out of 10

Conclusion

Well, there you have it – a quick look at some of the key features of these three great personal finance programs. Now all that remains is to add up the scores!

Moneywiz

Moneywiz received a total of 38 points out of a possible 50, giving it an average score of 7.6 out of 10. I loved the app’s interface (it is easily the smartest out of the three) and ease-of-use but I felt that the app really was limited somewhat in comparison to the other two. It is great as an app for simply managing your accounts and the cloud synchronisation service is by far the easiest to use but when compared to the likes of iBank and Money (especially when it comes to investment management), it does fall short on a couple of points.

Having said that, though, if you just want a nice, simple app to keep track of your finances then Moneywiz is a great option. It is available exclusively on the App Store and is very favourably priced at only $24.99.

Money

Money received a total of 40 points in my roundup, giving it an average score of 8 out of 10. The app does pack more of a punch features-wise in comparison to Moneywiz and features more advanced reporting and customisation possibilities (being able to define categories as taxable or non-taxable, for example). Don’t be fooled by the decidedly simple interface – Money is packing a lot of hidden features and is a good strong contender for a personal finance app.

Money is available exclusively off the App Store and is priced at $38.99.

iBank

Today’s winner, however, is iBank which scored a total of 42 points out of a possible, giving it an average score of 8.4 out of 10. Although both Moneywiz and Money feature better interfaces in my opinion, iBank’s features cannot be matched and the range of different financial products supported by the app plus the advanced reporting features make this a very useful app to keep track of all your finances, no matter what form they are in.

The only thing that slightly lets iBank down is the mobile apps (especially the iPad app, which in my opinion is extremely overpriced). If you can live with these, then go for iBank, as although it is the most expensive, you won’t find a more powerful range of features out there.

iBank is available either on the App Store or via the developer’s website and is priced at $59.99.