David Appleyard is an experienced and award winning freelance designer based in Manchester, UK. Along with managing Design Shack and 13 Styles, he writes for The Apple Blog and occasionally discusses running a successful web business in his Scrapbook.
The OS X boot image epitomizes the simplicity and elegance of the operating system itself, showing a basic Apple logo set against a light grey background. I’m a huge fan of this simple layout, but was very interested to hear about BootXChanger, a tiny application that […] Read more »
Earlier this month, Dare to be Creative announced MainMenu 2.0, an update to its system maintenance utility for OS X. This lightweight application allows you to clean up your Mac, improve system performance and free up hard disk space — all directly from the system menu. […] Read more »
Since last year, Apple has allowed all iPhone developers to request 50 promotional codes for their application when first added to the App Store, a policy that makes it easy to offer free applications for trial, review or a competition. It allows easier initial promotion of […] Read more »
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Aperture is a great photo management application, but may not be suitable for everyone. I recently made a decision to move back to iPhoto in order to use some of the features in the latest release. Several of these, such as face recognition, are not present […] Read more »
Although Safari improves with every version released, it remains difficult for one browser to cater for everyone’s needs. Firefox has successfully approached this problem through the use of Add-Ons, but Safari continues to lack any widely promoted form of plugin or extension functionality. Despite this, I […] Read more »
For both iPhone users and developers, a new service from Amazing Mail pushes the envelope — quite literally — of what a mobile device is capable of. The on-demand printing company is offering an integration service for iPhone developers, allowing for the creation of applications that […] Read more »
Laptop stands are widely heralded as a great solution for a more ergonomic workstation and better positioning of your computer. They come in all manner of shapes and sizes, from the downright awful to very slick and stylish. I recently took the plunge and purchased the […] Read more »
As a fan of the Terminator trilogy, I’m fascinated to see how the new movie will fare. I was equally intrigued to take a look at the iPhone game released to accompany the fourth installment in the movie series. Gameloft announced the release last week, and […] Read more »
“Top Gun” is widely regarded as a classic film, one which seems to retain a sense of timeless prestige as the years pass. Fans of the film — or iPhone games in general — will be pleased to know that a “Top Gun” game is now […] Read more »
Today, FileMaker announced the release of Bento for the iPhone and iPod touch, a companion to their popular personal database software. Priced at $4.99, the mobile application can synchronize directly with Bento 2 running on your Mac to keep information up-to-date. If you’re unfamiliar with Bento, […] Read more »
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If you’ve ever been interested in what goes on behind the scenes of a shiny new MacBook, you may be familiar with iStat Pro and iStat Menus. These two widgets for OS X allow you to monitor system performance and resources — either through Dashboard, or […] Read more »
OS X is a remarkably versatile platform, with a huge range of software on offer. Whether you’re a designer, musician, journalist, scientist or running a business — there’s a tool to meet your needs. To help you wade through the mass of software and pick out […] Read more »
If you’ve ever suffered from fraud on the Internet, you’ll know how important it is to use decent passwords, keep them safe, and watch out for phishing activities. Unfortunately, a simple password isn’t always the best way to protect yourself online. Many banks are now starting […] Read more »
Ever since I owned a Sony Ericsson phone which connected to my Mac via Salling Clicker, I’ve been fascinated with controlling OS X remotely. The iPhone created a fantastic device for taking remote control to a new level, and a search for “remote” in the App […] Read more »
For anyone who’s ever designed a web site on a Mac, you’ll know that one of the biggest headaches is testing your design on Windows browsers. Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer have a nasty habit of displaying the same web site in very different ways, and […] Read more »
There has been a reasonable amount of speculation surrounding JavaScript speed improvements in iPhone 3.0. Testing carried out on the iPhone Simulator bundled with the SDK didn’t lead to a conclusive outcome, but benchmarking done by Wayne Pan would seem to suggest that iPhone 3.0 handles […] Read more »
Today, MacHeist announced the contents of their latest application bundle, providing the opportunity to purchase software to the value of $558 for the bargain price of $39. A huge range of applications are included, ranging from eBay companions to professional 3-D animation tools. Over the past […] Read more »
Elgato is a company synonymous with television and video hardware products for the Mac. Today they announced the availability of Turbo.264 HD, a hardware conversion tool that offers a fast way to encode video between formats or move video off your HD camcorder. Many different software […] Read more »
As someone who manages a few different web sites and Twitter accounts, I do find that it’s easy to waste a decent chunk of time checking all their various statistics. I often browse to the different websites from my iPhone, logging into each account sequentially to […] Read more »
Much has been said about the new iPod shuffle. Its size has been praised, lack of buttons grumbled about, and — as with most new Apple products — has caused a little controversy. I wanted to try the product out for myself as I’ve been needing […] Read more »
As someone who enjoys a decent roller coaster from time to time, I’m always intrigued by theme park and coaster applications. When I heard about SkyCoaster for the iPhone, I had to give it a try. It’s a simple roller coaster simulator, offering a variety of […] Read more »
Apple has announced a number of updates today, including a considerable refresh to their professional desktop line, the Mac Pro. Utilizing the Intel “Nehalem” Xeon processors and a next-generation system architecture, the new machines deliver up to twice the performance of the previous generation system. Philip […] Read more »
After a short period of downtime in the early hours of the morning, MobileMe has emerged with a slight refresh to the interface, numerous speed improvements, and changes to the interface for the Mail, Calendar and Contact apps. The login page has also undergone a minor […] Read more »
The annual Apple shareholders meeting had a different tone than usual on Wednesday, lacking the presence of company CEO Steve Jobs. The Apple board hasn’t had a straightforward year, leading the company through a global financial crisis and aiming to stem the ongoing investor uncertainty surrounding […] Read more »
Many Mac users are fortunate enough to have more than one machine. Whether it’s a home desktop and laptop, or a home and office machine, it can be very useful to keep some form of continuity between the two systems. This is easy enough to do […] Read more »
Safari has come an awfully long way since its conception, and today marks the beta release of the fourth major incarnation of the acclaimed web browser. Version 4 introduces a range of new features and interface improvements, among them speed enhancements, visual history searching and Cover […] Read more »
A recently released application for the iPhone exploits an interesting new market — tracking conversations and following up calls. FollowUp aims to provide a location for noting down the action you need to take after receiving or making a call, along with a due date. Functionality […] Read more »
There’s no shortage of invoicing applications for OS X, with a notable few including Billable, iBiz, Billings, and On The Job. They all offer different functionality, and may fit your requirements perfectly. However, another contender has recently emerged on the scene in the form of Involer. […] Read more »
A wide range of different applications and protocols exist for communicating via voice and instant messaging, with some being far more popular than others. OS X comes bundled with iChat, a client offering a number of great features. While not perfect for everyone, it does a […] Read more »
Backing up your computer is an essential task that many of us neglect until something goes horribly wrong. With OS X Leopard, Apple has made it much easier to ensure that your data is always backed up and protected through a feature called Time Machine. Time […] Read more »
Calendars have come a long way from the days of a pocket diary, with software able to manage your schedule and information much more reliable and accessible. iCal for OS X is the bundled calendar application, and works surprisingly well. It appears simple on the surface, […] Read more »
I’ve been a fan of GarageSale for a few years and, while I don’t use eBay regularly, I tend to use OS X software when placing a listing. It always results in something which looks stunning and makes the item you’re selling a great deal more […] Read more »
Acqualia has released a notable update to their 2007 Apple Design Award winning image editing application, Picturesque. Picturesque is a “simple app with a simple goal: to make images more beautiful.” The latest features include interface enhancements, new saving options, faster loading, and a number of […] Read more »
Bohemian Coding have announced the public release of their font management application Fontcase, providing an elegant and powerful workflow to help you organize the fonts you have installed on your system. Aiming to act as iPhoto for your typography, Fontcase has been designed with applications like […] Read more »
AppTheater is a new site with an interesting concept — provide videos of iPhone/iPod touch applications allowing you to thoroughly preview before you buy. Hundreds of videos are already available, and the site has a respectably wide coverage of most popular App Store games. The creators […] Read more »
Interestingly, Apple has made the decision to no longer require a serial number for the retail copy of iWork. It doesn’t require any online activation, and — in the same fashion as iLife — would seem to have no piracy prevention as such. Apple notes that: […] Read more »
If you’re in the market for a DVD/CD burning solution for your Mac, you may be interested to hear that Freeridecoding has released an update to BurnAgain FS. The app is a CD/DVD multisession burning utility for Mac OS X, making it possible to repeatedly change […] Read more »
Apple has posted information about their battery replacement service for the new 17″ MacBook Pro. Their latest notebook released offers a new industry standard in performance (up to 8 hours use on a single charge), but comes at the expense of a user-replaceable battery. Apple notes that […] Read more »
Having prevented the listing of any web browser apps in the App Store since it’s launch, the past 24 hours has seen Apple begin to authorize this type of application on a widespread basis. The company has been reluctant to sell any applications competing with those […] Read more »
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 […] Read more »
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