Year: 2012

On the Mac App Store →

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Marco Arment:

But now, I’ve lost all confidence that the apps I buy in the App Store today will still be there next month or next year. The advantages of buying from the App Store are mostly gone now. My confidence in the App Store, as a customer, has evaporated.

Next time I buy an app that’s available both in and out of the Store, I’ll probably choose to buy it directly from the vendor.

I think the Mac App Store will continue to do well for regular consumers buying regular apps, but as a nerd who buys and uses nerdy programs, I’m only using the App Store when I have no other choice these days.

Carbon Copy Cloner Goes Commercial →

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Megan Lavey-Heaton at TUAW:

With the launch of OS X Mountain Lion, Carbon Copy Cloner has made the transition from donationware to commercial product. The cloning software that makes a bootable backup of your hard drive will be $29.96 until August 12, then the price rises to $39.95. A free 30-day trial is available.

To run CCC on Mountain Lion, you’ll need the new paid version. I use CCC all the time, and have no problem paying for it.

RSS Sponsor: Harvest →

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Thanks to Harvest for sponsoring the 512 Pixels RSS feed this week! — SH

We’re halfway through 2012. You can’t buy that time back, but you can start tracking it wisely. Use Harvest to log your billable hours, and see where your business spends its time. Start a timer effortlessly from your desktop, web browser, or iPhone. Get insight into your projects with powerful, visual time reports. Turn your hours into a professional invoice in seconds. Try Harvest absolutely free for 30 days, and get back on track towards a productive finish to the year.

Sponsorship by The Syndicate

Apple Releases iWork 9.2 Update →

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Apple:

iWork 9.2 is recommended for users of iWork 9.0 and later when using OS X Lion v10.7.4 and above. In this release, the iWork for Mac apps are updated for OS X Mountain Lion and take advantage of features such as iCloud and Dictation.

The iWork apps are also enhanced to take advantage of the Retina display on new Mac hardware, so presentations, documents, and spreadsheets appear sharper and more vibrant.

This is a free update, and the apps still wear the ’09 badge. So, there’s that.

Mountain Lion: The Next Big Cat From Apple

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Intro

The new version of OS X from Apple — dubbed Mountain Lion — is now ready for download from the Mac App Store for $19.99.

Lion, the OS it replaces, was in many ways a new chapter when it comes to OS X versions. Lion was the first version to be available as a digital download. Requiring 10.6 Snow Leopard to be installed, Lion was a $29 download from the Mac App Store.

(Apple did offer Lion on a USB key in-stores for $69, but I digress.)

Notably, Lion brought many iOS features “back to the Mac,” as Apple claimed. Features such as Launchpad, the App Store, full-screen mode, gestures and more made the Mac feel more like home to the legions of iOS users considering Apple’s desktop platform for the first time.

(For kicks, check out my Lion review from last year over on Macgasm.)

So, does 10.8 carry that theme forward? Or does Mountain Lion back away from the “iOS-ification” of OS X?

Continue Reading → “Mountain Lion: The Next Big Cat From Apple”