Twitter for Mac: Initial Thoughts

The day has come, January 6th 2011. Apple has released their Mac App Store, not yet full to the brim, launching with only 1,000 apps. Pretty impressive for a start though. However, there has been one application some Mac users have been boasting about. What is it? The top free app available, Twitter for Mac.

With a elegant user interface, Twitter for Mac is almost like a dream come true. A total redesign of Tweetie, which was owned by Atebits that Twitter bought out in April last year. Although it is free, Twitter for Mac looks so good with sleek transitions between the timeline, @replies, direct messages, lists, your profile and search. The black sidebar complements not only the Twitter for iPhone and iPad apps, but the texture used on the timeline itself. All in all, Twitter for Mac looks like a paid app, still in the wrapper.

Real time updates in the timeline is another new addition that Tweetie didn't have and competes with Echofon and TweetDeck, which both released the feature out in November. 

Although Twitter for Mac has its good side, there is just one negative that strikes me. By default, Twitter for Mac automatically shortens links via t.co, which cannot be turned off, making my personal url shortener useless. Hopefully, Twitter sees this as a problem to some users can changes it in a later update. 

What are your thoughts about the new Twitter for Mac? Are you going to be using it? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Follow me on Twitter: @JonnyRowntree

Steve Jobs Won’t Price Match Your $399 TJ Maxx iPad

It looks like you will not be able to get your iPad for the same $399 TJ Maxx price at any Apple Store anytime soon. This follows an e-mail conversation between the Apple CEO, Steve Jobs and a customer. Jake (the customer) wrote to Steve asking whether if he walked into a Apple Store and asked for an iPad would get it at the 

Mac App Menu

I’m thrilled to share with you the announcement of Mac App Menu, a website dedicated to the publishing of news and reviews regarding the newly announced Mac App Store. News and reviews are the main topics they cover, but noteworthy Mac app sale alerts, comparisons, roundups, and tips are written about, too. It's one of the first websites centered around the Mac App Store, so you should definitely check it out!

http://macappmenu.squarespace.com

iSaidWhat?! Review

Over the holidays, I stumbled across a very useful app for audiophiles, students and pranksters. iSaidWhat?! is an audio recorder, editor and mixer which can be used to record lectures or mix together recordings to create the illusion that someone said something they didn’t.

The first thing I noticed about the app was the icon. The icon was very clean and stood out from the rest of the pack. I immediately had high expectations of this app and I was not disappointed. I proceeded to open the app’s iTunes page and the next thing that struck me was the clean layout of the app. I knew exactly how to navigate around easily when I installed it. A nifty feature of this app is the input percentage meter, which allows you to choose how much the app can pick up. Although, this was not very intuitive. It should be there by default, rather than having to click the small grey microphone icon, which does not give a good indicator of its function. However, the feature is a bonus and not a necessity.

The next thing that caught my eye was the script feature, which puts a script for you to read from, which could be useful for song writers for example.

Now onto the main function of the app, which is the editor and mixer. I think it performs this function very well and it is very easy to use. It has two tabs, one for the recordings and one for arrangements of recording snippets. It’s very easy to cut bits out after a recording and easy to use it in arrangements.

Unlike some App Store reviewers, I disagree that the name is bad. I think it’s a unique name and will catch student’s eyes along with its icon that makes good use of the small square area. It could be improved to appeal to the songwriters though.

Complaints

The only complaints I have about this app are very minor. The first is that I should be able to delete a recording without deleting an arrangement that uses snippets from it.



The second is that the app should open to your list of recordings rather than the “New Recording” screen except on first launch. That’s it! Like, I said, these are not big deals and can be very easily fixed.

To sum up, I would recommend this app to pranksters, students and songwriters. For example, a student could use the arrangements feature to make one arrangement for a topic that was discussed in several lessons. This could be useful for many other purposes and I think at 99 cents, it’s a steal.

Update:
“The app opens in the recording screen on launch only if you didn’t close from within the snippets view, or arrangement view.”- my mistake
Also, as I suspected the developer says that “Arrangements aren’t seperate files, they actually read from the recording. Snippets are just shortcuts to a recording in order to conserve space and time.”

Review: Apple Remote

I recently purchased the updated Apple Remote. I was tired of having to walk across the room to lower or increase the volume of a song, so I thought this would be an inexpensive solution. I was correct! Let me give you guys a quick run down of all the new features this remote sports: 

Design:

It seems Apple is slowly transitioning to an all aluminum product line. The new remote has the same aluminum body like other Apple products. This gives it a nice sleek feel when it’s in your hand. But it isn’t slippery when it’s in your hand, which is nice if you’re carrying it around. 

Features:

When Apple revamped the remote, they added an iPod-esque click wheel, minus the scrolling in circles. Up and down buttons control volume and left and right control ‘Next Song and Previous Song’ and the center button acts as select button. It still has the ‘Menu’ button which, activates Front Row, and a new ‘Play/Pause’ button which seems to do the same duties and the center button. The back of the remote contains a turn-style battery cover, which is very convenient. The remote still works over IR, which is very convenient because it comes standard on most Macs.

Use:

I did some tests to see how far I could from my laptop and still have the remote work. I was able to get about 30ft until it stopped performing actions. Make sure to have nothing obscuring your view of the IR sensor. The remote won’t work if something is blocking it. Surprisingly, this remote will still work even if it is not in direct contact with the IR sensor. If you point it straight up, it will work but it won’t work if you try using it in the opposite direction of the sensor. Shouldn’t be a problem for most people.

Final Rating:

I’ve had this remote for about a week and after playing around with it and testing and experimenting, I have concluded on a rating of...4/5. This remote is great if you need to control you music from a distance and is especially great if you use your Mac as a media unit. So, if you do things like and you don’t want to walk across the room, it’s totally worth the cheap $19.99 USD from the Apple Store.

I hope you enjoy my review and consider buying the new Apple Remote. Thanks!

Follow Me On Twitter:

http://twitter.com/TroyAllen