Mac Apps

Google Now cards now rolling out on desktop in Chrome for Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 30, 2023

Rich desktop notifications have been available in Google’s Chrome browser for the Mac for some time now, provided you were on the Canary channel where Google hosts early and unstable alpha releases of its browser. The normals, however, had to wait until desktop notifications for the Now cards made their way into the stable Chrome channel.

According to Google itself, that day is today - people on stable Chrome releases should start seeing Google Now alerts being pushed to their Macs and PCs. The handy alerts are nested right inside the browser’s notification center that sits in your Mac’s status bar (bottom-right if you're using Windows)...

Tweetbot for Mac gains thumbnail size option and three-finger swiping

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Tapbot's popular Twitter client for iOS and OS X, Tweetbot, has been refreshed on the Mac with a few fixes and two new features.

Version 1.5, now available in the Mac App Store as a free upgrade to existing users, lets you choose the size of inline image thumbnails in your timelines, a feature developers added to the iPhone and iPod touch client earlier this month.

And for those who take advantage of multitouch gestures in OS X, Tweetbot now supports swiping left and right with three fingers to navigate through your timelines without having to manually click on the back button...

GarageBand for Mac gains three new Drummers, can now export to MP3 and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 20, 2014

If you're an aspiring musician and a user of Apple's free music-making software for the Mac, you should know there's a new GarageBand update sitting in the Mac App Store.

The free GarageBand version 10.0.2 edition contains multiple enhancements to Accessibility and adds the option to export a song as an MP3 file.

The latter is much welcomed as you were previously required to export songs as QuickTime or some other format and then use iTunes or a similar app to manually convert the digital file into the commonly used MP3 format. There are also some new Drummers, but more on that after the break...

Microsoft’s OneNote hits Mac App Store, available free for a limited time

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The rumors were true: Windows giant Microsoft has just released its note-taking app, OneNote, for the Mac.

It's available right now in the Mac App Store free of charge for a limited time and includes a brand new clipper feature akin to Evernote, as well as a host of other capabilities designed to boost your productivity.

OneNote is also available for Android, Windows and Windows Phone devices.

As a result, your notes are platform-agnostic, synchronize across all devices, multiple people can collaborate on them and more. The full reveal is right below the fold.

1Password 4.2 for Mac improves upon 1Password mini, AutoSave and item editing

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

We're pretty big fans of AgileBits's 1Password for iOS and OS X (Jeff and myself are converts). But why bother with a third-party app when Apple's new iCloud Keychain feature in iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks keeps all your website and app passwords, Wi-Fi logins and credit cards synced?

Lots of reasons, mainly because iCloud Keychain won't sync plenty of personal items like private notes, software serial numbers, bank accounts, passports and what not.

That's where 1Password comes in handy. First and foremost, 1Password uses a robust architecture to ensure that your private data remains private. Apps to manage passwords usually tend to be cumbersome, but that's never been the case with 1Password.

The software has been praised for its sleek interface, rich feature set and handy tools like browser extensions and the 1Password mini app which patiently sits in your Mac's menu bar to make remembering new passwords a hassle-free affair.

AgileBits is now introducing a new edition of 1Password for Mac which further refines the experience of using 1Password mini, the AutoSave feature and item editing. Read on for the full reveal...

Microsoft OneNote reportedly hitting Mac soon: free, new clipper feature and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Windows giant Microsoft is said to be bringing its note-taking app, OneNote, to the Mac later this month. The company has companion OneNote apps for the iPhone and iPad in the App Store, available free of charge. On the desktop side of things, however, the app's been exclusive to Windows.

The Verge is reporting that Microsoft, for the first time, will be making the desktop app free to both Mac and Windows users in March, unbundling it fully from the cost of Office.

The Redmond giant originally released OneNote more than a decade ago...

Star Trek Online MMO is now available for the Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 28, 2017

Today's a good day to be a Mac gamer. First, Blizzard unleashed Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, its free-to-play fast-paced strategy card game set in the Warcraft universe, and now this. Avid gamers will be quick to point out that PC users have been privileged to enjoy Star Trek Online since its release back in 2010.

Unfortunately, as developers Cryptic and Perfect World originally failed to introduce the Mac edition alongside the PC version, it's taken them three long years to produce the Mac edition of Star Trek Online, with a little help from conversion specialists TransGaming and its Cider technology.

Now available on a free-to-play basis, Star Trek Online is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game set in the 25th century, in the original Star Trek universe.

It's awesome that all of the familiar themes, sides, races, locations and vessels are in there, including the embattled Federation, the mighty Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire, the Dominion - even the Borg Collective is included.

Who's ready to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations in a vast, expanding universe? Good, I've included more tidbits after the break so read on...

Blizzard releases free-to-play Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft on the Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Following a brief public beta period, the acclaimed games maker Blizzard Entertainment (a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard) on Tuesday released its Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft on the Mac (Windows, too).

Now available on a free-to-play basis from Blizzard's website, Hearthstone is a strategy card game set in the Warcraft universe which pits you against your Battle.net friends and aims to “evoke the spirit of a friendly match played beside a crackling tavern fire”.

Each player starts with a deck of thirty Magic-style cards, with additional cards becoming available once you win battles or buy new cards through the in-app purchasing mechanism (that's why they call it a free-to-play game).

There are hundreds of unique cards to choose from. Each player’s card deck focuses on a hero representing one of nine Warcraft classes - customized with a set of minions, spells and weapons - and features iconic characters like Jaina Proudmoore, Gul’dan, Uther the Lightbringer and Thall...

This free Mac util lets you open iCloud Tabs in any web browser

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 5, 2014

Apple's iCloud is a great way to keep your content synchronized across any number of Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPod touches.

It keeps your photos, calendar items, contacts, passwords and more up to date across devices, including Safari items like bookmarks and open tabs.

This useful feature, called iCloud Tabs, unfortunately is limited to the Apple ecosystem and only works with the company's own Safari browser for the Mac and iOS. As a result, people who rely on a non-Apple browser such as Mozilla's Firefox or Google's Chrome are unable to access the tabs they have open on their other devices.

That is, unless they consider CloudyTabs, a nifty little utility by Josh Parnham that puts iCloud Tabs right in the Mac’s menu bar...

Evernote for Mac gets natural-language searching

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 4, 2014

Evernote for Mac has expanded on its stock search capabilities by introducing natural-language processing for your queries.

Activated from Evernote’s search bar and dubbed Descriptive Search, the feature allows for descriptive searching across your images, notes, documents, attachments and other data.

With Descriptive Search, Evernote fans can now search their notes by place, file contents, date ranges and lots more. This feature is now live in the new Evernote 5.5, available free of charge in the Mac App Store.

The full reveal is after the jump...

Tweetbot for Mac refreshed with conversation icon, ‘Save Image As’ option

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Tapbots has just issued a maintenance update to Tweetbot for Mac which added a pair of feature tweaks and some bug fixes. Tweetbot version 1.4.2, now available as a free update in the Mac App Store, finally allows you to save images from tweets to folders other than the default Downloads folder.

There's also a new conversation icon next to tweets that are a reply to another tweet, which allows for a more visual navigation and helps make sense of your feed.

The full breakdown is after the break...

Command-C lets you copy and paste between iOS devices and Mac

Lory Gil ∙ Updated February 19, 2018

I often find myself wishing I could copy text from a document on my iPad and paste it to a document on my MacBook Pro. It happens regularly. I use DeskConnect to share a lot of stuff between devices. However, sometimes I just want to copy text on one device and paste it on another without having to open any apps or programs.

Command-C is a productivity app that lets you share clipboard items without having to open another program first. Just copy on one device, send it through Command-C and immediately paste it in another device…