Hello again!
It is time for another fresh update on the world of the Mac. This week we brought to up to date on everything from Apple hiring the former Adobe CTO, to the new version of PDFpen and Photoshop Elements hitting the Mac App Store, a bunch of great deals to save your pennies, and links to the most interesting articles that showed up this past week. It’s enough to keep you informed and entertained for the weekend.
Hope you enjoy the ride!
News from the World of Apps
Apple hires former Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch
Lynch’s hiring has caused some controversy around the Mac media because of his past push for the inclusion of Flash into the iPhone during his role at Adobe. It’s not too surprising that he’d rally behind his then-employer’s products, but still, he took it further than you’d have expected for someone that, a few years later, Apple decided to hire. We’ll have to wait and see what he brings to the table at Apple. If you really want to know more about the controversy, Apple Insider has a englightening article about it. Also, this video (including, yes, Kevin Lynch) is a must-see.
Smile Software releases PDFpen 6
PDFpen and PDFpen Pro, the popular PDF editors, gained a new version with Microsoft Word export, new design, support for auto-saves and versions, Retina optimization and many other features. If you need more than Preview offers, but don’t want to shell out for Adobe Acrobat, this is the app you should look at.
PDFPen 6 and PDFPen Pro 6 bring several great features to the PDF editor.
SimCity Update: Straight Answers from Lucy
This stroke me like a lightning bolt. SimCity is an online experience only, following the trend from Blizzard’s last releases. This may be old news, but the reasoning behind it, given by general manager Lucy Bradshaw, puts the bricks back in their places. There’s technically no reason SimCity couldn’t run offline, but the EA team decided they’d rather have it run only online to let the connected cities work.
Aspyr Media and 2K Games Announce BioShock® Infinite Coming to Mac
The third game from the franchise is about to come out, as BioShock Infinite will be released for PC and console next week. There’s no actual release date for the Mac version, however, there’s a Mac version coming, so let’s just cross our fingers and hope they don’t keep us hanging until Christmas.
The next game from the award-winning franchise BioShock is coming to the Mac soon.
NimbleBit’s Nimble Quest coming to iOS and Mac March 28
The developers behind the addictive Pocket Planes and Tiny Tower have scheduled the release of their next venture, Nimble Quest, an arcade-style RPG. It’ll be released on March 28th for both OSX and iOS, and we can’t wait to look at it.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 Editor is now in the App Store
Photoshop Element 11 hits the Mac App Store offering a large range of resources to edit your photos. It’s a solid counterpart to Photoshop if you don’t fancy spending over $600 for the full-featured suite, since it still contains most of Photoshop’s basic features. It is followed by Premiere Elements 11 Editor and it’s lighter companion, Premiere Elements 11 Quick Editor, for all sorts of video-editing. The Premiere Quick Editor is a new addition to the Adobe Elements lineup, giving you the basics of Premiere Elements for just $29.
Photoshop Elements 11 Editor comes to the Mac App Store.
Second version of Bubble Browser is announced
We recently reviewed Bubble Browser as an alternative way to visualize your Evernote’s notebooks. The first version blazed the path, but felt a bit unfinished and the upcoming version, to be released today, promises to change that.
Highland ships
Screenwriters just gained a new toy to play with, as the highly anticipated (at least within the film community) Fountain editor and PDF melter praised by John August. Don’t forget to read our just-published review of Highland if you haven’t already.
The Best App Deals for Your Mac
TuneUp – $39.99 > $30
xScan – $19.99 > $10
Highland (NEW) – $19.99 > $9.99
Concealer – $19.99 > $9.99
TunesCleaner – $29.99 > $5.99
Calendar Plus – $9.99 > 4.99
Calendar Plus brings complete functionality to your menubar.
MailPop PRO for Gmail – $2.99 > $0.99
Words App – $5.99 > $4.99
Rails – $4.99 > $1.99
Outline (NEW) – $19.99
Words App’s new release made it into a go-to option to read articles later.
2013 Macbundler Spring Bundle – $42 (contains Default Folder X, Cinch, Circus Ponies’ Notebook and 6 other apps)
$100 iTunes Gift Card for $80 at BestBuy – $100 > $80
Bastion – Pay what you want, starting at $1, with the new Humble Bundle Weekly Deals
Interesting Links
High Priest of App Design, at Home in Philly
VIDEO: Photoshop reaches 5 millions’ Facebook fans
In the wake of Google Reader, Feedly wants to surf the big waves
Apple is Losing The War – Of Words
The Macalope Weekly: Mythperceptions
Did We Miss Anything?
That’s all of the news, deals, and interesting links for this week, but if there’s anything you think we missed, be sure to let us know in the comments below. Otherwise, check back next Thursday for more Mac news, deals, and more!