1. ➶ Black Pixel acquire Versions and Kaleidoscope

    Two of my favourite apps, left in the lurch since Facebook acquired Sofa in June, have a new home.

    Wednesday October 19th, 2011

  2. ➶ EGOTextMateFullScreen

    If you’re an avid TextMate user, and you’re either running or soon to be running Mac OS X Lion, you’ll probably want to install this TextMate bundle to enable native full-screen support.

    If you’re not wanting to compile it yourself, just use the “Downloads” button on the GitHub page, and grab the TextMate bundle directly.

    Monday July 11th, 2011

  3. ➶ The Hit List Hits 1.0

    It’s been a long-time coming, but The Hit List finally hit 1.0 today. I’ve been using a pre-release of the 1.0 (along with a beta of the iPhone client) for months now, and absolutely love it.

    It’s $50 (and available on the App Store), with the sync service $20 per year. The iOS client is awaiting Apple’s approval.

    It’s been literally years since The Hit List first entered public beta, and whilst it’s easy to criticise developer Andy Kim for taking his time, he’s written the iPhone, Mac and server-side component himself. It’s really well done, and I’d highly recommend you give the Mac App a go.

    Tuesday May 31st, 2011

  4. ➶ Screenstagram — An Instagram Screensaver

    Nice little freebie from the Barbarian Group that can show friends’ photos or popular photos from the whole service.

    Via Jeff Rock who notes the app makes a nice complement to his recently-launched Carousel.

    Tuesday May 17th, 2011

  5. ➶ Fantastical - Some Quick Notes

    Fantastical is a new lightweight calendar app that just launched. There’s a tonne of things I’m already loving:

    • The natural language detection is the best I’ve seen.
    • The UI is slick, and incredibly well thought out.
    • The first-run particularly stood out, as the guide also prompts the user regarding what to do with the Keychain prompts - an arrow helpfully points you to ‘Always Allow’. I know what I’m supposed to click on to allow access to my iCal accounts, but the average user may not.

    I’m a big fan of Second Gear Software’s Today, and whilst Today has a much smaller window footprint than Fantastical, the extra style and smartness in Fantastical has set the bar higher for future releases of Today.

    Interestingly developer Flexibits has made the app available via the Mac App Store, however there’s no mention of its App Store presence on their website. You can, of course, buy it via Flexibits directly1.

    If you’re not convinced, there’s a demo available, which I’m running right now giving you 15 days to give the app a spin.

    Fantastical is $14.99 until 1st June, and is available both from the developer and the Mac App Store. I’ll almost certainly be picking up a copy soon, and I’d recommend you do too.

    1. I’m aware of the reasoning for this, I merely post it as an observation. ↩

    Tuesday May 17th, 2011

  6. ➶ Mobelux: Will Carousel Be on the Mac App Store? Yes! We’ve heard our customers...

    In yesterday’s review of Carousel I umm-ed and ahh-ed about knocking the fact that Carousel isn’t currently available on the Mac App Store. As I suspected the Mobelux are indeed planning to bring the app to the Mac App Store after version 1.0.1 ships.

    Wednesday May 11th, 2011

  7. Carousel for Mac: A Quick Review

    I’m a keen user of iPhone social photography service Instagram, and recently reviewed iPad app Instagallery as part of the Weekly App Review series. Whilst iPhone and iPad are very much covered between Instagram’s own iPhone app and Instagallery, one thing that Instagram continues to lack is a way to keep up with the service on the desktop and via the web. I’ve spent a little time this evening playing with Mobelux’s brand-new little app Carousel which aims to fill the void, bringing Instagram’s activity streams to your Mac.

    Once you’re signed in with your Instragram username, you’re able to view your Friends’ Timeline, the Instagram Popular feed or your own photostream with popovers to view Likes and Comments on an image. There’s also QuickLook to view the image at full size. The app is well designed (and there’s four rather slick themes to choose from for the feel of the app), and each image effortlessly fades in as you scroll the timeline. There’s also some handy menu options and keyboard shortcuts for copying and opening the image’s URL on the Instagram website (something you can only do with your own photos in Instagram’s iOS).

    I’m mighty impressed with Carousel - it’s a joy to use, and offers a great way to peruse Instagram on your Mac1. It’s $4.99 from Mobelux with the price heading to $9.99 after the unspecified introductory pricing runs out.

    1. For those say “No Upload?!”, there’s no public API to do that with Instagram. ↩

    Tuesday May 10th, 2011

  8. ➶ Notificant for Mac and iPhone

    Notificant is a nifty little app that makes sure you always remember what you want to.

    With scheduled notifications that sync via the cloud and can be fired on any Mac of your choosing, Notificant is the notification assistant you never knew you wanted.

    I’ve been fortunate enough to test Notificant for the last few months: it’s terrific. It’s on the iOS and Mac App Stores now.

    Tuesday May 3rd, 2011

  9. ➶ Things Cloud Sync Beta Goes Live

    Big news for Things users - though it’s Mac-to-Mac only for the time being.

    Monday May 2nd, 2011

  10. ➶ Acorn 3

    If you’re looking for an image editor and don’t need the clout of Photoshop, then Acorn 3 (which just launched today) looks like it might be giving Pixelmator a run for its money. It’s available for $29.99, both via the Flying Meat site and the Mac App Store

    Tuesday April 12th, 2011