The Apple Blog

Apologies to all as I’m a bit late with what I was hoping to be a regular Sunday post. Again, here are my pics for the best program updates and new releases from the past week (and, remember, these are programs I either use regularly, tried due to interesting features or have been convinced to evaluate):

• TrailRunner - 1.6v228 - A recently released-as-freeware program to track runs/hikes. If you have a GPS and do any type of walking, running or hiking, TrailRunner is an awesome program to keep you motivated. (I really need to do a general review of Mac fitness programs) Version 1.6v228 is pretty much just bug fixes.
• Office 2008 SP1 + 2004 Security Patch - Office gets and update (and fills us with hope and promises for a better, VBA-filled future)
• Flash Player 10 Beta - Adobe kicks Flash up a notch (on all platforms)
• NewsFire - 1.5 (v73) - Prior to NNW, NewsFire was my news reader of choice (even when it was commercial). I still think it’s prettier and more Mac-like than NNW (in some ways) and keep up with the updates to see if it’s something I should go back to. This version is pretty much bug fixes.
• Skype - 2.7.0.330 - Having moved away a continent’s width away from most everyone we know, Skype is one of the best cross-platform tools for keeping in touch for us. This update improves NAT-PMP & uPnP support as well as support for authenticated proxies. There are also (as is the case with all Skype updates) a plethora of bug fixes.
• VisualHub - 1.33a - VisualHub (iSquint’s big brother) makes my bus commute far more tolerable and Techspansion has fixed a few bugs
• MacSword - 1.3.5 - A great, free, multi-translation Bible tool for OS X (and other operating systems). This version fixes a problem with CSS style loading that broke after the 3.1.1 Safari/WebKit update.
• Bee Docs Timeline - Standard Edition - 2.1 - One of the best timeline makers for OS X fixes some minor bugs. Watch for an upcoming Timeline 3D review.
• BurnAgain FS - 1.0 - Re-packaged and feature updates version of BurnAgain DVD that adds native OS filesystem burning support for mutli-sesion media.
• Evernote 1.1 - Your personal memory manager adds support for PDF files, including a “Save PDF to Evernote” print/PDF dialog option (it even indexes the PDFs!), full Spotlight integration, new view panes & modes + the ability to encrypt portions of notes (don’t forget to check out our review of the initial release). Sounds like a new review is order as well!
• Acorn 1.2 - I missed this in the last update and really felt the need to include it since there are a slew of impressive updates. New filters, layer options (and a nifty drag & drop way to create layers), JPEG 2000 support and more. Photoshop: watch out.

Tell us your picks for the best updates/releases (or keep me honest by pointing out something I’ve missed) this previous week by dropping a note in the comments.

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