Articles tagged App.

Demo or trial software is a great way for users to try out the software before buying it. It may not be a big deal for software that costs less than $5, but it is for software that costs more. Shareware software has been doing this for more than a decade. Trial software would also greatly clean up Apple’s Mac and iOS App Store that has multiple versions of the same software.

Apple could clean up the Mac and iOS App Stores by offering users a trial version of each software application. It could be built into the App Store and could have a 5 or 15 day trial period, much like renting movies on iTunes. Users would also benefit from such a feature by letting them try out the software before they buy it. Developers would not have to build multiple versions to convince users to purchase their software. Will Apple add trial software to the App Stores?

The Macintosh operating system comes with it's own screen capture tool called Grab. It's flaws will be very visible if used for any length of time. One of those flaws is the fact is it only saves images in a TIFF file format. Since TIFFs are big and rarely used, every screen grab requires at least a two step process. One step is to capture your screen and the second is to convert the file in another format like JPEG. There is a better way.

LittleSnapper by Realmac software is a must for any screen grabbing user with many advanced features. It makes Apple's Grab look like a high school project. Lets take look at some of the key features of Little Snapper now:

 While Google should be happy with Android's success so far, they are showing signs to the contrary. Since Google gives Android away for free, they can only make money on selling ads on the Android platform. They don't talk about how much they make from these ads either.

Even though Android is increasing in market share, that does not mean Google is making money on all that market share. Since Android is open source and device makers can remove Google from the devices, this could be a danger for Android's future development if Google can't make enough money.

The Mac App Store is leveling the playing field for developers. It does not matter if you are big or small, anyone can get on the front page of the Mac Store. No longer do developers need to pay big money for distribution partners and sales agents. While the Mac App Store continues to grow, so will those who have their applications in its store.

Applications now will compete on price, quality and feature set instead of back room deals and marketing agreements. Developers will still need to get the word out about their applications, but this will vary depending on how big the developer is.

Mobile Pond has updated their Photogene for the iPad again. They fixed several bugs that caused a crash when viewing photos with IPTC data. They also added Dropbox to their list of export options. This is a big advantage for Photogene as Dropbox allows for seamless file transfer between the iPad and the Mac. For photographers looking for a way to leave their MacBooks at home, Mobile Pond just brought that dream a step closer.

Photogene still does not display all of the IPTC meta-data from Aperture, but the developers are looking into it and hopefully will have an update in the coming weeks. So far, this new update has been bug free. The developers have built a very nice app, yet there are some areas that could be improved.

Apple's app store is pulling away from the rest of the app stores as the place to introduce new applications to the world. Only if the application is successful, will it be ported to another platforms. The App Store not only makes it easy for users to find the best apps, it also gives developers a unified platform to build and sell their apps.

While Android begins to dominate the smart-phone market-share, it has no clear app store. Google Android Market is the official app store for Android, but there are as many app stores for Android as there are phones running it. Most device manufacturers have opened up stores for their own devices to increase their revenue. Amazon has created their own App Store for Android to compete with Google. With all these app stores, which one do you choose?

Ever struggle with having to visit many websites to keep up on the news you like to read? Well, there is a great solution to this problem that helps you review all the news you want quickly and efficiently. It is RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a way to get feeds of news items from lots of websites. An RSS reader pulls RSS feeds from multiple sources that you would like to follow into one place so that you can see what is new on a number of sites in one location. You can view this new content either individually like emails or as a list. Each item contains a title, full or partial text, and meta data about the new content or item. RSS documents or feeds usually come from sites with posts or articles like blogs or news websites. RSS feeds are the main way I view new content from the internet.

For the Desktop, I use the Google Reader web service as my news reader on the Mac. Google Reader is free with a google account. The best part about Google Reader is the expanded list version. Most RSS readers show each item in a feed separately, like an inbox. This makes it difficult, because you have to click on each new item to see or read the new content. You also have to click on each item to tell the application that you have read the new item, which takes a lot of time if there are a lot of updates you have no interest in reading. With Reader, each item is displayed with both title and content in a scrollable list or feed. The newest items are on top and the oldest items are at the bottom. As I scroll through the content, Reader marks those items as "read". When I come back later, Reader will show me any new content that has been added to the feeds plus whatever I didn't read from my last visit. Reader will not show me the content I have previously read. So I always get new content without the fuss of clicking on anything. It takes very little time to scroll through new content and skim to find anything that I am interested in reading.