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Apple releases Mac OS X Lion developer preview via the Mac App Store

Samuel Gibbs — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:15:00 EST

Apple's on a charge today and has just released the Mac OS X Lion developer preview via the Mac App Store. The good news is it's full of fancy new features, including Launchpad, an app launcher that displays all of your Mac apps in one easy to use screen; Mission Control, a unification of Expose, Dashboard, Spaces, and full screen apps; and some new multi-touch gestures. The bad news is that you're going to have to be a member of the Apple Mac Developer program to get in on the action. (Developers: check your email for a promo code that you can redeem on the Mac App Store to download Lion.)

Other highlights include: AirDrop, a new way to share files between Macs; a new iPad-inspired Mac Mail; Versions and Auto Save, which will auto-save your documents and let you view revisions, just in case; Resume, which gives you back your apps the way you left them when you restart; and an improved FileVault with local and external disk encryption.

It's a lot to chew on, but for now the general feel is that Apple's bringing the full screen experience people like from the iPad to the desktop. Hit the break for the full press release.

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Apple releases Mac OS X Lion developer preview via the Mac App Store originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FaceTime hits the Mac App Store for 99c

Samuel Gibbs — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:37:00 EST

Apple has just released FaceTime for OS X onto the Mac App Store. The app will take advantage of the 'built-in FaceTime HD camera' or any other iSight-equipped Intel Mac, to bring you Mac-to-Mac and Mac-to-iPhone 4 (or latest generation iPod touch) video calling over Wi-Fi. It supports up to 720p video for those soon to be released Macs sporting fancy new FaceTime HD cameras, or standard VGA for all others. FaceTime will even ring on your Mac when not running once installed, and will ring on any number of Macs all using the same Apple ID, making sure you're never going to miss a call.

FaceTime has been in beta for a while now, but this marks its first official release -- so if you're a fan of video calling, and have friends with Macs or iPhone 4s then head on over to the Mac App Store and pick up FaceTime for one cent shy of a buck.

FaceTime hits the Mac App Store for 99c originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 released

Samuel Gibbs — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:50:00 EST

We heard it was coming, and as foretold, Windows 7 SP1 was released yesterday for download via Windows Update or direct from Microsoft. Appearing in beta form last year, it's not the smallest of updates, weighing in at up to just under 2GB in size for the full dual disc image, but SP1 brings with it a slew of patches, fixes, and updates, all rolled into one neat and tidy package.

While Windows 7 SP1 doesn't bring any standout features for the consumer, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (what a name!) does include some important back-end improvements to both performance and security. Highlights include the addition of Dynamic Memory, which enables a higher density of virtual machines to be set up; plus RemoteFx, which adds greater graphical power for thin-clients giving them more of the full Windows experience.

Head on over to Microsoft for the full and sordid details, while you can either hit Windows Update for a smaller, more tailored download for your system, or download the full thing from the Microsoft Download Center.

Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 released originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Earth, Picasa, and Chrome downloads now available in Iran

Samuel Gibbs — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:10:00 EST

As an American company, Google is limited by U.S. export controls and sanctions for countries around the globe, which until yesterday included Iran. With some of the software export restrictions now lifted, Google will make Google Earth, Picasa, and Chrome available for download in Iran. Restrictions are still in place against the Iranian government however, and as part of the export licenses granted by the U.S. Treasury Department, Google will continue to block IP addresses associated with said government.

If you happen to be reading from Iran, you can now legitimately download some of the best Google has to offer. Head on over to Google Earth, Picasa, and Chrome to get the goods.

Google Earth, Picasa, and Chrome downloads now available in Iran originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter for Mac -- right-click tweet from anywhere in OS X

Samuel Gibbs — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:10:00 EST

Twitter for Mac, aka Tweetie 2, has seen quite a lot of praise since its birth unto the Mac App Store. It takes a slick, minimalist approach to the Twitter client paradigm, something other big players like Tweetdeck eschew for greater on-screen functionality. So it comes as no real surprise that it took a couple of weeks, for perhaps one of the most useful features of Twitter for Mac, to actually surface -- Tweet from anywhere.

Twitter for Mac uses the contextual menu services that are built into OS X. Simply highlight a section of text -- a word, phrase, or even a URL -- and right-click. Select 'Tweet' and the selection will appear in a new Tweet ready to fire off to your adoring followers. Unfortunately highlighting a hyperlink won't send the hyperlink URL to a new tweet, just the text. Nor does it work with image selections, but that's no real surprise.

Brilliantly simple, minimalist, and most importantly useful. Give it a try if you're running Twitter for Mac and if you're having problems, head on over to MacStories for some troubleshooting advice.

Twitter for Mac -- right-click tweet from anywhere in OS X originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FluffyApp hits 0.9.6, gains proper installer and SparkleDotNet auto-update

Samuel Gibbs — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:30:00 EST

FluffyApp, the Cloud app client for Windows, has finally gone and gotten itself a proper installer thanks to a 0.9.6 update. No longer will you have to manually extract the program to a directory of your choosing. But that's not all -- auto-update has been snuck in courtesy of SparkleDotNet integration, which will now take care of program updates for you. Developer Richard Wang has even managed to sneak in some animated icons into the update, fresh for the new year.

Adding to all the recent updates, FluffyApp has become an indispensible tool for many, making sharing small files and screenshots an absolute breeze. If you haven't tried FluffyApp yet, then what are you waiting for? Download FluffyApp 0.9.6 here.

FluffyApp hits 0.9.6, gains proper installer and SparkleDotNet auto-update originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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5 ways to recycle or revitalize your old computer

Sebastian Anthony — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:30:00 EST

Christmas is coming, and you're about to have a ton of time off. Some of that time will be spent energetically tearing apart beautifully-wrapped gifts, and eating food is certainly next on the list of priorities. Obviously you have to play with your new gifts (or put on your new socks), but after that... after the postprandial sofa-surfing grunts and burps and farts... well, there isn't a whole lot you can do.

The other big thing about Christmas is the amount of waste it produces. Wrapping paper, cards, ribbons, the plastic packaging of the presents themselves... there's an awful lot of trash on Christmas Day. Then, of course, you need to throw out all of the things that have been replaced by new gifts: old kitchen appliances, clothes, televisions, printers and, most importantly, computers. A new laptop or desktop is incredibly cheap nowadays, which makes them very popular gifts.

But shouldn't we do something with the old stuff, rather than just throwing it out? Of course, you could Freecycle or wade into the Craigslist cesspit, or give your clothes to charity -- but hold onto those old computers! You'd be surprised with how many cool things you can do with an old desktop or laptop computer. You could finally learn how to use Linux, or set up a media center PC so that you can watch downloaded movies on your TV. You could create a locked-down box for your kids to surf the Web on, or a network-attached storage server for your backups. There's almost no end to the list of neat things you can do with an old PC!

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5 ways to recycle or revitalize your old computer originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dropbox hits 1.0, gets lighter, faster, and adds selective syncing

Matthew Rogers — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:00:00 EST

Dropbox has been around for so long and become so indispensable for so many people, that it's tough to remember that the spry little utility has been in beta all along. Not any longer -- the Dropbox team has announced that their baby has officially left the nursery, and version 1.0.10 is available for download right now. You may actually have to go to the site to get it -- Dropbox has never been known for auto-updating.

The folks at Dropbox are particularly proud of this release, which they've for some reason dubbed "Rainbow Shell." Most changes will be completely transparent to the average user, but quite a bit of work's been done to the client over the last few months. For starters, the syncing engine's been overhauled to not only sync files faster, but to use up to 50% less memory doing it.

New users should now have an easier time setting up Dropbox, as the initial setup wizard's been redesigned with ease of use in mind. Mac users should be a bit happier with their client too, because it's been rebuilt to use Cocoa only, and looks much more native in OS X.

The one thing that's sure to be noticed by users however, is the addition of selective syncing, which allows you to choose which files or folders will get synced with each computer. That option can be found in the Dropbox preferences, in the advanced section, and it only applies to the system on which the client is installed. That way you can set your netbook to only sync music files, your work computer to grab all your documents, and your home computer to sync everything the other two have to offer.

But for the most part, this release is about heaping piles of bug-fixes, and the Dropbox team is extremely enthusiastic about the amount of problems they've worked out. It's certainly been a tough job to make a file-syncing system that works seamlessly between Windows, Mac and Linux, and that's without adding mobile devices to the mix.

Dropbox hits 1.0, gets lighter, faster, and adds selective syncing originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe X Suite available for Thanksgiving

Samuel Gibbs — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 04:18:00 EST

We've seen announcements of the Adobe's Acrobat X suite, then Adobe Reader X and Acrobat X landed to strip our wallets of yet more moolah. But now the full Adobe X Suite is available for download, including a trial version for those who'd like to test it before sinking the best part of $800. The Windows-only Acrobat X Suite is a little bit like a best-of album: you've got Acrobat X Pro, Photoshop CS5, Captivate 5, Presenter 7, Adobe Media Encoder CS5 and LiveCycle Designer ES2 all rolled into one package. Adobe thinks it's everything you're likely to need for PDF creation, minus perhaps the media's tool of choice InDesign.

If you're serious about your document creation, but don't have Adobe's Creative Suite already, and you've got $799 burning a hole in your wallet, then the X Suite might be right up your street. Head on over to the Adobe website to check out the details, or download the trial and test it out for yourself.

Adobe X Suite available for Thanksgiving originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 04:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe says Flash performance on Mac to rival Windows in Flash 10.1

Jason Clarke — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:27:00 EST

Filed under: News, Adobe, Apple, Analysis

I almost (not quite, but almost) feel bad for Adobe right now. Apple has been unceremoniously dumping on Flash in a big way since the iPad announcement, and all Adobe can do is claim they don't ship known-buggy Flash releases and announce how much better Flash will perform on Macs when Flash 10.1 is released. Flash still has critical mass adoption among traditional computing devices (desktops and laptops), and almost all mobile platforms other than Apple's have either stated they will use Flash or are working towards it.

And yet, the size of Apple's iPhone and iPod touch (and soon iPad) markets just can't be ignored, and neither can the swelling anti-Flash sentiment coming from the very influential tech elite.

Is better performance on the Mac going to fix what ails the Adobe / Apple relationship? Don't bet on it. But since Flash isn't going away for a long time, the improvement will be nice to have for Mac users.

Adobe says Flash performance on Mac to rival Windows in Flash 10.1 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft releases Desktops, new virtual desktop manager

Brad Linder — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware

Microsoft's Sysinternals team has released a new, free, light weight virtual desktop manager for Windows called Desktops. Yes, Microsoft already had a virtual desktop manager called, well, Virtual Desktop Manager. But Desktops offers a few advantages. First, it's a single, tiny executable file. No installation necessary, which makes this a good candidate for carrying with you on a USB flash drive. And second, Desktops offers a wide range of keyboard shortcuts to choose from, which could come in handy if your Alt+1 key combo is reserved for something else.

If you're scratching your head trying to figure out what a virtual desktop is, here's how it works. You can create up to four different desktop spaces and switch between them. In other words, you can load a few programs in desktop 1, a few more in desktop 2, and a few others in desktop 3. They'll all keep running as you switch back and forth. So if you have iTunes playing in desktop one, and an Office document to edit in desktop 2, you can keep listening to music while you're typing away.

The advantage is that if you've got, say a 1280 x 1024 pixel monitor, but you like to have umpteen applications open at once and there's no way to keep them all visible on that display. A virtual desktop gives you another 1280 x 1024 pixel canvas or two, or three to work with.

[via Digital inspiration]

Microsoft releases Desktops, new virtual desktop manager originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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