Introducing ‘System Extension’

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I’m happy to announce System Extension, the new monthly magazine companion to 512 Pixels. System Extension includes bonus content, an inside look at what I do here on the site, tips, tricks and more.

You can download the first edition here

(Chrome on the Mac hates my PDF, so a right-click to download might be your best option there.)

RSS Sponsor: Ita ⇢

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

Ita is a brand new list-making app that’s designed to make it fast and simple to collect and organize information. You can drag items to rearrange them, tap to mark items completed, and add multiple items quickly, all from the main list view. If you make lists, you’ll love how fast Ita makes it to collect and complete your stuff.

Ita is beautiful, taking inspiration from high quality paper notebooks and classic typography. And as you use lists, they’ll show signs of wear, just like a piece of paper. Your lists will remember how they look, and that look syncs across iCloud with the rest of your data. Ita is a universal app for iPhone and iPad and is fully accessible using VoiceOver.

Ita is on sale this week for $1.99. Two bucks for the first list app that’s actually better than a piece of paper.

Sponsorship by The Syndicate

The Mac App Store: Best of Both Worlds? ⇢

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Gabe at Macdrifter:

This is the MAS as I see it: It is not for utility apps or power users. Apps like 1Password, TextExpander and Keyboard Maestro should all be purchased directly from the developers site.1 The MAS is for people afraid of using a computer. I applaud Apple for taking the fear out of technology. I also will not purchase my utilities from the MAS. Apple may be happy to have the nerds along for the ride, but they are not their target market. Normal people that just want to use a few apps and don’t care about tweaking their experience are Apple’s new target demographic.

As someone that is a power-user, you might think that I am upset with the Mac App Store. I am not. I have seen no indication that Apple plans to block traditional application installs. In fact, GateKeeper has been designed specifically to support user installed software. If it means I can still use my Mac the way I want and I need to provide less technical support to my friends and family, I’m thrilled with the changes.

While I am frustrated that apps like Moom and TextExpander have been bounced from the App Store, I agree with Gabe: these apps should have a long life outside of the Store.

@icloud.com ⇢

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Eric Slivka at MacRumors:

With today’s release of iOS 6 Beta 3 to developers, Apple has revealed in the update’s change log that it is beginning the first stages of transitioning users from the me.com email addresses and Apple IDs available under MobileMe to new addresses using icloud.com.

Sigh.

On Office 2013 ⇢

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Tom Warren at The Verge:

The touch experience isn’t great from my own testing on Windows 8 Release Preview, and it feels all too familiar to Windows 7 — a first stab at touch improvements on desktop software. Microsoft’s Office division has taken a similar approach, by increasing touch targets, but it seems that any truly touch-optimized versions of Office will come as Metro style apps, if anything at all. It’s clearly difficult to create a fully functional touch-based word processor or spreadsheet with legacy support, and Microsoft hasn’t cracked it yet.

To be clear, the major applications in Office 2013 are not done as Metro-style apps, even though Microsoft is preaching to developers that Metro is the future.