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Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

QuickBooks 2009 for Mac: A Real Step Forward or Just a Facelift?

Written on January 19, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 41 people have commented

QuickBooks for Mac is one of those products that feels like it is always teetering on the edge of disaster. The releases over the last five years have lagged far behind the Windows version, and Mac users have watched the gap widen over the last two years since QuickBooks Pro 2007 was released. New versions [...]

iWork.com: First Impressions

Written on January 19, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 15 people have commented

I’m obsessed with Cloud Computing. So at this week’s Macworld, the moment Phil Schiller announced the availability of iWork.com Beta, I was all over it, practically foaming at the mouth as I feverishly bashed the URL into Safari.

Appigo Notebook: What Notes Should Have Been on the iPhone

Written on January 16, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 16 people have commented

As a writer, I find having a notebook on hand very useful. Long ago, that used to mean carrying around a bulky paper volume and a pen, which was somewhat awkward and not the most space conservative solution. I moved on to a Palm Pilot, which was marginally better, but that usually still meant dragging [...]

HockeyGPS Aims to Locate Cool Spots Nearby

Written on January 16, 2009 by Nick Santilli and 6 people have commented

I’m a big hockey fan — cheering on the Colorado Avalanche and playing whenever I get the chance. So when HockeyGPS (free) came out for the iPhone and iPod touch, I had to give it a try.
The basic idea behind the app is that it will locate nearby hockey facilities of any kind, or in the [...]

Track Your Finances On the Go: Mint.com Comes to the iPhone

Written on January 15, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 12 people have commented

Mint.com turned out to be a near perfect solution for my financial needs. To understand why, I’m going to give a little background.
I used to obsessively enter every single receipt into my financial software of choice and track all my expenses. I knew exactly how much money I had in my account at any given [...]

Lightspeed 3.0 & Web Store 2.0

Written on January 15, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 3 people have commented

One of the announcements coming out of Macworld last week was the upcoming release of Lightspeed 3.0, an update to the Mac Point-of-Sale software.
Lightspeed is a complete POS solution that covers both front counter and back office retail needs, and one of the few that runs natively on the Mac platform. I took an interest [...]

First Look: Daylite Touch

Written on January 14, 2009 by Matthew Bookspan and 23 people have commented

At the Macworld Expo last week, Weldon Dodd and I spent about an hour with Alkyhan Jetha (AJ), the CEO & President of Marketcircle, makers of Daylite, Daylite Touch and Billings. It was a real treat to spend time with AJ as both Weldon and I learned quite a bit about Daylite Touch.
At the beginning [...]

Power Support Air Jacket for iPhone 3G

Written on January 13, 2009 by Clayton Lai and 17 people have commented

Unlike most hard protective cases that typically consist of separate front and back parts, the Power Support Air Jacket for iPhone 3G is a single plastic case for only the back of an iPhone 3G.

Available in either black or clear, the black version is notable for its rubberized finish. Two screen protection films — [...]

Weekly App Store Roundup: Jan. 10, 2009

Written on January 10, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 4 people have commented

After our first week proper in 2009, we’ve run smack-bang in to a hurricane of Apple news courtesy of this year’s Macworld event.
Over at Apple’s final MacWorld Keynote, standing in for Papa Jobs, Uncle Phil unveiled brand new iLife and iWork suites, alongside completing the Macbook Pro lineup with a 17″ model touting 8 hours [...]

Managing Email With Postbox

Written on January 09, 2009 by David Appleyard and 22 people have commented

A number of different email clients are available for the Mac, but a new piece of software announced at MacWorld takes a new and different approach. Postbox is a new way to manage online communication, aiming to let you spend less time managing messages and more time getting things done. Built with powerful search and [...]

Media Messaging in the UK With iPhoneMMS

Written on January 07, 2009 by David Appleyard and 3 people have commented

The iPhone’s lack of any MMS capabilities was said to be on account of the versatile and full featured email support. If it’s so simple to send photos via email, why pay extra to send them via MMS?
While that is a valid argument to a certain extent, the two services remain predominantly different; e-mail is [...]

First Look: Filemaker Pro 10

Written on January 05, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 6 people have commented

The venerable Mac database solution, Filemaker Pro, has received a whole new look for 2009. I have had a chance to kick the tires a little prior to release and this is certainly the biggest visible change to Filemaker in years.
Filemaker Gets a Facelift
The first thing that you’ll notice with the update is that the [...]

Weekly App Store Roundup: Jan. 3, 2009

Written on January 03, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 3 people have commented

Grab a party hat, don your celebratory garb and prepare to get your freak on because, praise be, it’s the first ever Weekly App Store Roundup of 2009.
Indeed, with Macworld drawing near, attendees should immediately check out our very own Conference Schedule – it’ll make sure you’re consistently in the right place at the right time.
In [...]

Rolando: Taking iPhone Gaming to the Next Level

Written on December 29, 2008 by Olly Farshi and 8 people have commented

Rolando has arrived, amid murmurs that it may be the best game out for iPhone and touch. And with compelling gameplay, awesome artwork and foot-tappingly funky music, it’s certainly my favorite game of the year.
Alongside being the season for frivolity and festivity, it’s that special time of year when the game industry ramps up the release [...]

Task Management With Things

Written on December 28, 2008 by David Appleyard and 16 people have commented

The latest application from Cultured Code is Things, a task organizer and to-do list manager for Mac and iPhone. It centers around the ideas encompassed in Getting Things Done (GTD) and makes it easy to break down and organize tasks.
Far from being a straight forward To Do list manager, Things provides separation between tasks due [...]

Weekly App Store Roundup: Dec. 27, 2008

Written on December 27, 2008 by Olly Farshi and 11 people have commented

This week I pick my 12 favorite apps of the year as we lead 2008 around the back and shoot it’s face off, while gently beckoning a fresh-faced 2009 through the front door.
Just because it’s the holiday season, doesn’t mean Apple news stops happening. Quite the contrary in fact because this week we got all [...]

Freestyle Vocabulary Learning With Keep Your Word

Written on December 24, 2008 by David Appleyard and 2 people have commented

Keep Your Word, produced by Bamboo Apps is a tool for those learning a new language. It allows you to build your own dictionary as new words are discovered, classifying and grouping the terms exactly how you want to, while helping you learn a large vocabulary through various exercise modes.
Features
As someone who seems to lack [...]

X-Plane Helicopter & Airliner for iPhone

Written on December 24, 2008 by David Appleyard and 2 people have commented

Laminar Research has recently released two new versions of its X-Plane flight simulator for the iPhone and iPod touch; X-Plane Airliner and X-Plane Helicopter. Each can be purchased for $4.99 from the App Store — around half the price of the standard X-Plane game for iPhone.
X-Plane Background
X-Plane is an innovative application when compared to other [...]

SimCity: Create a Bustling Metropolis on Your iPhone

Written on December 23, 2008 by Darrell Etherington and 7 people have commented

EA dropped SimCity ($9.99) for the iPhone recently, and I actually almost missed it. I was still buzzing over Hero of Sparta and I Love Katamari, both of which are also recent releases.
Of course, I had to put everything on hold and take a crack at SimCity, since the PC versions of the game had [...]

Scroll Different — Mouse Engineering Moves Up Top

Written on December 23, 2008 by Charles Moore and 2 people have commented

Mouse technology has advanced a lot over the past two decades. The Apple Lisa-derived mouse with its DE-9 connector and thumb screws that attached it securely to my first Mac, a 1988 Mac Plus, was a pretty crude piece of engineering, with an analog ball of course, and a noisy, long-travel, somewhat stiff single button. [...]