Apple pays tribute to Nelson Mandela on its homepage

Whether you’re planning on getting a new Mac for the holidays, or you’re just looking for some new apps to increase productivity on your current one, you’ll want to check out this big Mac software bundle from Stack Social.

The deal site is currently offering a suite of 10 Apple computer applications, which includes AfterShot Pro, Vitamin-R, skEdit and Compartments, at a steep discount. More details and a full rundown of the apps after the fold…

The following apps are included in the bundle:

• AfterShot Pro ($100) – A fast, flexible photo workflow solution that combines robust photo management, advanced non-destructive adjustments and complete RAWprocessing.
• ColorSchemer Studio 2 ($50) – A professional color-matching application for your Mac that will help you build beautiful color schemes quickly and easily.
• Vitamin-R ($30) – Creates the optimal conditions for your brain by structuring your work into short bursts of distraction-free, highly focused activity alternating with opportunities for renewal, reflection and intuition.
• xTeam 4 ($134) – An elegant & easy resource management application for teams.
• Scrutiny ($55) – Improve your website’s quality, SEO and user experience.
• skEdit ($30) – An HTML Editor that makes creating and maintaining your website easy, or just editing files like Ruby, SQL, Cold Fusion, PHP, HTML and CSS.
• Compartments ($15) – A brand new, gorgeous, fast, easy-to-use home inventory application for Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard.
• Smaller ($20) – A powerful HTML, PHP, CSS and JavaScript compressor on Mac OS X which also has the ability to combine several files into one. CSS and JavaScript compression is powered by YUI Compressor while for HTML and PHP compression it uses htmlcompressor.
• Periscope Pro ($20) -­ Periscope Pro turns your Mac into a surveillance system that records video clips with sound.
• CollageFactory Pro ($30) – A powerful combination of photo collage maker and greeting card creator. With CollageFactory, you can make photo collages and holiday e-greeting cards effortlessly.

If purchased separately, these apps would run you nearly $500 ($484). In fact, there are 5 software titles in the bundle that would cost you more than the purchase price. Stack Socialis offering you all 10 of these apps for just $39.

All of the apps are downloadable, and come with the same support and upgrade options as full retail versions. It looks like (as of 12/7/2013) there are only 3 days left in this promotion, so act fast! For more information, click here.

How to manage stock menu bar items on OS XHow to manage stock menu bar items on OS X

When you initially install OS X, there are a few items that are placed in your menu bar by default. There are a couple of ways to go about adding or removing stock OS items from your menu bar in an effort to keep it tidy and organized.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover some of the basic menu bar management tips for stock menu bar items. This includes basic tips on rearranging, removing, and adding items back to the menu bar. We’ve also got a handy video showcasing some of the basic concepts of stock menu bar item management. Have a look inside for more details.

Removing items from the menu bar

Items can be removed from the menu bar by unchecking the menu bar option in the item’s preferences, or by a simple ⌘+drag away from menu bar and release.

To do so by means of the item’s preferences, open the Preferences app and navigate to the section containing your particular menu bar item. Once there, uncheck the “show in menu bar” option and you should see the associated menu bar item immediately disappear. You can add items back by checking the menu bar option; they should reappear immediately.

Rearranging items in the menu bar

Stock menu bar items can be easily rearranged using the same ⌘+drag mentioned in the removal section above; the only difference is, instead of dragging them out of the menu bar and releasing, you position your cursor on the menu bar at the place you’d like the item to reside and release.

Just like the previous section mentioned, rearranging menu bar items can only be done with stock items. You cannot do this with third party apps that place items in the menu bar. There is another utility that we will cover in a future post that allows you to better manage all menu bar items, and that includes third party items as well.

A few exceptions

While most of the stock menu bar icons such as Time Machine, time, user, Bluetooth, AirPlay, Wi-Fi, sound and various others can be moved and removed with no issue, there are a few exceptions to the rules. Spotlight search can neither be removed or moved to a different area of the screen. It will always occupy the second to right-most portion of your menu bar. The other exception is Notification Center, which is the right-most app icon available in the menu bar. It should be mentioned that you can’t even hide these icons by unchecking their menu bar options in the Preferences app; these two particular menu bar items are here to stay.

That’s about as far as you can take menu bar management without the help of additional utilities. As you can see, managing the menu bar is quite limited with stock OS X, but a whole new can of worms can be opened up with a handy third party utility. We’ll be back with more examples and tips on managing the menu bar in OS X. In the meantime, leave us a comment below discussing how you manage the menu bar items on your system.

Yoink is an awesome drag and drop utility for the Mac

Sometimes dragging and dropping items between multiple windows and full screen apps and folders can be challenging. But dragging and dropping doesn’t have to be a tedious or perplexing task. One of my favorite utilities for the Mac is called Yoink, and it allows you to simplify the process of dragging and dropping on OS X.

Its description in the Mac App Store states that Yoink simplifies drag and drop between windows, apps, spaces and fullscreen apps. As a long time user of the tool, I can vouch for developer Matthias Gansringler’s description. As you’ll see in the video walkthrough that follows, Yoink is one of those apps that you don’t realize you need until you see it in action. Have a look inside for the full walkthrough.

Using Yoink
Once you have Yoink installed and running, all you need to do is initiate a click and drag motion on any app in your Finder. After doing so, you’ll notice the Yoink pop-up folder appear on top of all other windows. This folder acts a temporary place holder for any files you drag there. You can then navigate to your desired designation, and drag the apps out of the temporary holding spot into their final resting place.

It’s one of those things that’s a bit hard to explain in writing, but the lightbulb goes off when you see it in action. For that reason, I urge you to watch the video walkthrough above to see Yoink in action.

Yoink’s Preferences
Yoink features a variety of setup options found in its preferences. There, you can choose the desired location of the temporary holding folder pop-up window. By default, the window resides on the left hand side of the screen, but you can position it elsewhere, or have it float near your dragging location. You can also choose a set of ignored apps, and create a keyboard shortcut to invoke the Yoink pop-up folder.

Yoink’s preferences allow you to reposition the pop-up folder

Yoink is a great utility for my workflow
Yoink is instrumental to me when working with full screen apps like Final Cut Pro. Because of my 11" MacBook Air’s small screen, I always find myself running Final Cut Pro in full screen mode. It’s difficult to drag and drop files into my project’s timeline without a tool like Yoink, so I’m extremely grateful for its existence.

If you always find yourself in an awkward situation while moving your files from one location to another, then give Yoink a try. It’s a great app, and its developer provides excellent support and keeps it constantly updated. Again, you can find Yoink on the Mac App Store for $3.99. Let me know what you think in the comment section below.

Apple adds new features to iWork for iOS and Mac

As you know, Apple earlier in the month has promised to bring back dozens of recently-removed iWork features over the course of six months. In keeping with that promise, a barrage of updates has gone live Wednesday on the App Store and Mac App Store, adding new capabilities to the iWork suite of applications on Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPods.

This is the first major refresh since last month’s downgrade stealthily removed arguably less popular though essential features in favor of cross-platform document compatibility between OS X, iOS and the web.

I’ve included full release notes and a couple of highlights right after the break…

The updates are now live on the App Store and the Mac App Store so check out the Updates tab in the App Store storefront on your iOS devices, or choose Software Update… from your Mac’s Apple menu.

Here are release notes for both Mac and iOS updates.

iWork for OS X

Pages version 5.0.1 ($19.99 290MB download) contains stability improvements and bug fixes, along with the ability to customize the toolbar with your most important tools. Also, the new Pages version now has center and edge guides enabled by default.

Numbers version 3.0.1 ($19.99 190MB download) lets you customize the toolbar with your most important tools, set default zoom in Preferences and it preserves your window size and placement on Save.

Keynote version 6.0.1 ($19.99 444MB download) includes new transitions including Blinds, Color Planes, Confetti, Fall, Perspective, Pivot and Swoosh; new builds including Blinds, Fly in, Fly out, Orbital, Pivot, Scale Big and Swoosh; and the ability to customize the toolbar with your most important tools.

iWork for iOS

Pages version 2.0.1 ($9.99 266MB download), just like new versions of Numbers and Keynote, brings iOS 6 support and the ability to open a document in another app. The updated versions is a 231MB download.

Numbers version 2.0.1 ($9.99 234MB download) includes various stability improvements and bug fixes.

Keynote version 2.0.1 ($9.99 463MB download) includes new transitions including Blinds, Color Planes, Confetti, Fall, Perspective, Pivot and Swoosh; new builds including Blinds, Fly in, Fly out, Orbital, Pivot, Scale Big and Swoosh; and stability improvements and bug fixes.

Keep in mind these are free upgrades from previous versions if you have upgraded to Mavericks.

Apple during the October 2013 iPad keynote announced making iPhoto, iMovie, Pages, Numbers and Keynote available as free downloads to customers who had purchased new iOS devices. In another surprising move, the iPhone maker has made OS X Mavericks and future updates free to Mac users.

Tweetbot for Mac updated with quick notification replies, smoother scrolling

Tapbots has updated Tweetbot for Mac this afternoon, bringing the app to version 1.4. The update brings about the ability for OS X Mavericks users to reply to tweets or direct messages, directly from notifications.

The new app also includes a number of other welcome improvements as well, such as smoother scrolling (10.9 only) and faster refreshing on lists and saved searches. And as usual, there are a flurry of bug fixes…

Here is the full 1.4 change log:

- Smoother Scrolling (10.9 only)
- You can now reply to tweets/DMs from the notification itself (10.9 only)
- Lists and saved searches now refresh every 2 minutes instead of 4
- Fixed the issue where you’d see ‘Please enable wifi’ when fetching your location while composing a tweet
- Fixed the issue where searching your timeline, then scrolling to top then dismissing search field could move your timeline to the top
- Fixed a potential issue where app could hang when using secondary windows
- Fixed a few issues on 10.7
- Various bug fixes and improvements for 10.9

For me, the new quick notification reply feature is huge. It works just like it does with iMessage or email: tapping on an appropriate Tweetbot notification allows you to ‘quick reply’ without having to open the app.

I also instantly noticed how much smoother the scrolling is. In fact the entire app feels better. Again, much of this is only for OS X Mavericks users. But for those that are, who use Tweetbot, this update is a no-brainer.

Apple promises to bring back missing iWork for Mac features in six months

In response to the outrage over the missing features in the latest round of iWork for Mac app refreshes, Apple has taken an unusual step of confirming that much of the removed functionality will be gradually added back over the course of six months.

Before the haters jump with joy, saying Apple always backpedals on everything, let me remind you that the company similarly faced criticism over the supposed dumbifying of the Final Cut Pro X video editing suite. A few updates later, most of the missing features pro video editors were crying for – and then some – were fully restored…

Apple made the surprising announcement in a support document issued this morning (thanks, Matthew!).

The company has updated iWork and iLife suite of apps on both Mac and iOS side on October 22. All apps have been re-written from the ground up for 64-bit computing, introducing a much reworked user interface and full file compatibility between the web, Mac and iOS platforms.

Casual users welcomed the refreshed suite, but people whose daily productivity depends on these apps slammed Apple for sacrificing functionality over cross-platform file compatibility. Blogger Pierre Igot, for example, called the new release of Pages an“unmitigated disaster”.

Features making a comeback in upcoming iWork releases in the next 6 months:

Pages

• Customize toolbar
• Vertical ruler
• Improved alignment guides
• Improved object placement
• Import of cells with images
• Improved word counts
• Keyboard shortcuts for styles
• Manage pages and sections from the thumbnail view 

Numbers

• Customize toolbar
• Improvements to zoom and window placement
• Multi-column and range sort
• Auto-complete text in cells
• Page headers and footers
• Improvements to AppleScript support

Keynote

• Customize toolbar
• Restoring old transitions and builds
• Improvements to presenter display
• Improvements to AppleScript support

If a massive thread on the Apple Support forums is an indication, there are still other missing features Apple’s support doc doesn’t mention at all.

Even if you’ve updated your iWork suite, the installer hasn’t wiped out the previous versions of apps from your system – you can still find old iWork apps in your Applications > iWork ’09 folder.

This speaks volume about Apple’s realization that the new iWork suite may not be suited to power users.

Apple argues it rewrote iWork apps for 64-bit and to support a unified file format between OS X and iOS 7 versions, as well as iWork for iCloud beta.

These apps feature an all-new design with an intelligent format panel and many new features such as easy ways to share documents, Apple-designed styles for objects, interactive charts, new templates, and new animations in Keynote.

In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork ’09 were not available for the initial release. We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand new features on an ongoing basis.

While existing users are required to fork out $20 for each of the iWork apps, Apple since October 22 has switched to offering iWork and iLife apps free of charge with every new Mac and iOS device purchase, confirming that future releases of these apps – as well as OS X updates – will continue to be free downloads.

Also, Apple’s Up-To-Date program offers to upgrade your iWork suite to the latest version free of charge for new Mac purchases made between October 1-22, 2013. Purchases made after October 22 will have 30 days to qualify and Apple warns customers have to apply to the program by November 21.

That initiative is only available to those living in Canada or in one of the 50 United States states, including the District of Columbia.

You can also get the latest iWork apps free of charge on your older Macs by first installing afree trial of iWork ’09 from Softpedia. After running each app at least once, go to the Mac App Store and hit the Purchased tab. There, you should find your free Pages 3.0, Keynote 6.0 and Numbers 3.0 downloads.

A company spokesperson told MacTrast that even though the company is aware that this enables piracy for unethical users, “Apple has never taken a strong stance or action against piracy in the past. We like to believe that our users are honest, even if that belief is in vain”.

Screenshot top of post: Pages for Mac.

Apple teases next-gen Mac Pro some more with this classy poster

Apple really means business with its next-generation Mac Pro desktop. The hype machine went into overdrive during last week’s keynote as Tim Cook & Co. resorted to all sorts of superlatives in pitching the computer’s advanced architecture.

We were already shown how the Mac Pro is made and drooled over Jony Ive’s one-off Product(RED) Mac Pro variant designed for charity.

And now, Apple’s attention turns to the people that keep feeding the beast: journalists. A few select writers have confirmed receiving Apple’s cool posters which promote the machine. In Apple’s own words, the ultimate desktop is “the computer we were insane to build”…

Writers at TechCrunch, CNET, Dallas Morning News, TidBITS and other publications all reported receiving Apple’s nice looking poster for its nice looking machine.

The copy reads:

It’s the computer we were insane to build. The one that turns conventional thinking on its head, then kicks the living $#&% out of it. We challenged all our assumptions. Abandoned our preconceptions.

And blew away limitation after limitation. This is the new Mac Pro. It’s like no Mac we’ve created before. And we can’t wait to see what you create with it.

To me, the most surprising bit is that Apple’s marketing actually resorted to the ‘kicks the living $#&% out of it’ kind of language. I think it was a little jarring to see, to put it mildly. I guess only the sky is the limit following Phil Schiller’s ‘can’t innovate anymore, my ass!’ public comment.

Check out a few additional shots below.

More are available on Flick, courtesy of TidBITS’ Jeff Carlson.

Apple is known for treating the media to these celebratory posters on rare circumstances, whenever a  major achievement needs highlighting. Back in July, for instance, the firm created a nice poster to celebrate Five Years of the App Store.

And last year, cherry-picked journos received a poster celebrating a decade of iTunes, along with a little treat:  an iTunes Gift Card redeemable for 100 songs hand-picked by Apple’s editors.

The next-generation Mac Pro is coming in December, as per Apple’s web page. In addition to the usual build-to-order options, Apple confirmed two basic Mac Pro configurations:

• the $2,999 model: comes with Intel’s 3.7GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, 12GB 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory, dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM each and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage.• the $3,999 model: includes a 3.5GHz six-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, 16GB 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM each and 256GB PCIe-based flash storage.

The system is being assembled in the United States.