And we’re back to Thursday’s News and Deals roundup!
The selection of news, deals and reads for this week looks superb, seriously. We’ve got Ulysses III coming to the Mac App Store and Reeder going free, Rdio’s new video streaming and Amazon’s cloud sync service.
Don’t miss our interesting reads for this week, because they are great! Alfred extensions, iCloud, App Store pricing, DuckDuckGo and more should give you enough reading material for the weekend.
News from the World of Apps
New version of Ulysses hits the Mac App Store
The third version of the word processor has finally come after a long, long beta. It promises to keep the minimalism so common these days in writing apps, combined with all the strengths that you can expect from Ulysses. It’s essentially a full new app, one that’s a more robust place to write and organize your texts. And it’s has ePub export coming soon.
Ulysses is a minimal environment with robust tools for writers.
FunnyorDie releases the first teaser for the iSteve Movie
Hollywood is coming out with 2 bio-pics of Steve Jobs, one with Ashton Kutcher, which premiered in Sundance, and the other written by Aaron Sorkin (who also wrote The Social Network). However, FunnyorDie leads the way with its bio-parody, casting Justin Long as Jobs. You may recall him from Die Hard 4, yet the real reference is better, much, much better.
Google says missing iTunes Store links in search results due to technical issues
Earlier this week it was reported that Google searches were not displaying iTunes Store links among its first results. Of course, everybody thought it was a retaliation from the search giant, because, you know, intrigue brings more page views. However, a spokesperson from Google declared that they were having issues fetching pages from the iTunes web servers. Well, that keeps the room for conspiracy.
Reeder for Mac and iPad will be free until version 2.0 ships
After the wave of Google Reader’s buzz last week (got it?), Reeder’s developer decided to take their Mac and iPad apps free until the next version comes. I believe that the fate of Reader itself makes users suspicious of the price tag, however, I feel this is a maneuver from Reeder to keep the spotlight as Feedly reaches more than 3 million users. Reeder has promised to get support for Fever, Feedbin, and more, so hopefully it’ll live on as a 1st class RSS reader for the Mac.
The sentence is clear: the development of Reeder will continue. What’s your opinion?
Amazon brings Cloud Drive file sync for OS X
Yes, we got what we all needed: another Dropbox. Amazon’s Cloud Drive gives 5 GB for free and offers some great plans starting with $10/year for 20 GB, up to $500/year for 1000 GB. Just install the app, appoint a folder and drag files inside. It carries the Amazon brand, so you can’t deny the promising quality of this service — though the app itself is powered by Java.
Rdio launches Vdio, an on-demand streaming video site
You probably know Rdio, the streaming music service, and maybe you even subscribe to it. This week they released Vdio, which goes against the current stream by being a pay-per-view service. This way it doesn’t compete with Netflix or Amazon. It is only available in the US and UK for now, and subscribers with Rdio Unlimited plans already get $25 for free to check it out.
Webkit’s just for Safari again
With Chrome using Webkit, and Opera having recently switched to the Chrome version of Webkit, it seemed that Webkit would be the One True Browser Engine. And it basically is, today. Tomorrow, though, it likely won’t be. That’s because Google just announced that the Chrome team’s ditching Webkit to make their own new rendering engine: Blink. And yes, Opera will be following Google, and using Blink in the near future.
That’s not all. The Firefox team announced that they’re partnering with Samsung to build Servo, a new browser engine built in the programming language Rust. That’s rather curious, considering that Samsung is most famous for building devices powered by Android, Google’s mobile OS. We don’t have our hopes too high on this project, though, seeing as even the 20th version of Firefox doesn’t integrate very nicely with OS X Mountain Lion.
Apple, we’re looking forward to what you do with Safari this year. Webkit’s all your game again.
The Best App Deals for Your Mac
Reeder $4.99 > FREE
Nimble Quest (New) FREE
CloudClip $3.99 > $1.99
Should I Sleep $1.99 > FREE
Should I Sleep uses several sensors to prevent your Mac from sleeping.
OCRKit $59.99 > $47.99
Designer $14.99 > $9.99
Pilot’s Path $3.99 > $.99
Fotor – Photo Editor $14.99 > FREE
Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 $200 > $100
Dragon Dictate is the business tool for folks who hate typing.
CopyLess $6.99 > $2.99
Paragon Mini-Bundle! 10.0.1 $99.80 > $29.95
Ulysses III (New) $19.99 (50% off for launch)
Timebar (New) $2.99
Flow $99/year > $69/year
The Humble Mobile Bundle Pay what you want for 4 games and get 4 more by paying more than the average.
Interesting Reads for the Week
Web Excursions for April 01, 2013: Alfred 2 Edition
Understanding App Store Pricing – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5
Why Developers Shouldn’t Use iCloud Syncing, Even If It Worked
Apple fans: Microsoft is no longer the enemy
Meet Gabriel Weinberg, the man taking on Google and Bing
The untold story behind Apple’s $13,000 operating system
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!
 |
 |