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With UXKit, Apple has devs jumping with joy

Photos for OS X, releasing this Spring, could quietly signal a much welcomed change in direction for Mac development. That is, if Apple decides to let programmers access the same private framework it tapped in constructing the clean and elegant user interface seen in a developer beta of Photos for Mac.

As SixColors pointed out, several prominent developers took to Twitter to share their excitement about the framework Photos for Mac uses, currently available only to Apple. It's called UXKit and appears to be an OS X version of the UIKit framework on iOS.

What does this have to do with you? Read on...

Apple seeds OS X 10.10.3 beta with new Photos app

The death of iPhoto is here, as Apple has begun rolling out OS X 10.10.3 to beta testers on Thursday with the all-new Photos app found within the pre-release software.

Developers can grab the OS X 10.10.3 software from the Mac App Store software update tool or through the Developer Center. 

Poll: your next computer — iPad Pro or Retina Air?

If the rumors pan out, we could see both an iPad Pro and a Retina upgrade to the MacBook Air some time in the following months, possibly as soon as April.

Both are thought to include an ultra high-resolution screen measuring about twelve inches diagonally, run quietly thanks to fanless design and the latest power-savvy chips and redefine portability with an even lighter and thinner appearance. True, you'd be hard-pressed to call a twelve-inch tablet ultra portable.

But given Apple's obsession with thinness and lightness, I suspect a larger iPad could be easier to carry around than you'd think. And assuming that rumored creative stylus accessory is indeed in the works, Apple would be wise to create a vastly improved iOS version with true multitasking, side-by-side apps and other productivity features.

With a proper OS, powerful chips, a screen to die for and an optional accessory, the iPad Pro could be the ultimate productivity tablet you've been waiting for.

On the other hand, the twelve-inch Air is said to be almost as light and thin as the iPad. It's poised to blur the line between the notebook and the tablet even further. Therefore, why bother struggling with an oversized tablet if the new Air will be just as light and thin, while offering a built-in keyboard and OS X?

Buoyant Mac sales seen growing 10-15% in 2015

The Mac continues to be a success story. During the last three months of 2014, Apple moved 5.52 million Macs around the world, a fourteen percent annual increase from the 4.84 million units shipped in the year-ago quarter. Apple now sells more Macs than iPods and, more importantly the Mac has been outpacing the rest of the PC industry for years now, consistently posting a double-digit growth.

Exhibit A: Mac shipments for all of 2014 were up 14.43 percent from a year earlier.

During the same periods, global PC shipments were on a downward spiral and declined 2.1 percent versus the previous year. The Mac momentum is expected to go unabated throughout 2015, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers who spoke to DigiTimes.

How to reclaim ‘Other’ storage on your iOS device

If your iPhone or iPad is running out of space, manually removing unwanted photos, videos, songs, apps and stuff like Safari's Reading List is a good way of freeing up some store space. But more often than not, this isn't enough.

The devil, as they say, is in the detail — in this case, the mysterious ‘Other’ category that iTunes displays after connecting your iOS device to a computer.

‘Other’ storage is a section iOS uses to store temporary data, cache files inside apps and items retrieved through the iOS Background Refresh feature to make apps load faster. ‘Other’ storage balloons over time and can quickly add up to anywhere between a few hundred megabytes to a couple gigabytes of wasted on-device storage.

Aside from performing a clean install of iOS or restoring your device as new, there's no easy way of manually reclaiming your ‘Other’ storage. But thanks to a brilliant new Mac app in town, created by Nice Mohawk, anyone — even novice users — can free up storage space on their iPhone and iPad in minutes. Not only does the app let you reclaim your ‘Other’ storage, but also delete caches, back up your photos and videos, as well as remove large apps and music.

Review: PlugBug World by Twelve South, the versatile little charger Apple should have made

Aren't you sick and tired of those unsightly, clunky wall chargers lying underneath your desk? I'm all for simplification so solutions that cut down the number of power adapters needed to juice up my devices are bound to win my attention.

Twelve South's PlugBug World is a cute hybrid charger which connects to any MacBook brick or Apple USB wall charger.

By integrating an additional 2.1-Amp USB port, this compact accessory can quickly recharge any iOS device, or a lower-powered USB device, while feeding power to a MacBook at the same time.

Continue reading as I let you in on the PlugBug's little secrets, such as its cunning adaptability, versatility and smart design choices that make it stand out from other products and turn it into an indispensable companion in your mobile arsenal.

Google Earth Pro goes free, a $399 per year saving

The Internet giant Google announced over the weekend that the Google Earth Pro desktop application is now available at no cost. A business-oriented upgrade to Google Earth, Google Earth Pro used to command an annual subscription fee of $399 so this is a significant development.

It has more features than the standard edition of Google Pro, including map-making tools and add-on software such as movie making, GIS data importer, advanced printing modules, radius and area measurements and more.

Video: Sid Meier’s Starships gameplay

Earlier this month, publisher 2K Games and developer Firaxis announced that Sid Meier’s Starships, a brand new tactical strategy game in the Beyond Earth universe, will be coming to the Mac, iPad and Windows platforms this Spring.

And now, the first ever gameplay footage of Starships went live on YouTube, with Sid Meier himself demoing the game as part of the Firaxis Games Megapanel at PAX South.

Annual Back to School promo launches in New Zealand and Australia with $25-$100 gift cards

Apple's annual Back to School promotion launched today in Australia and New Zealand, as noted by 9to5Mac. Unlike last year when the promo included iTunes gift cards, this time around Apple Store gift cards are being offered to university students, students accepted to a university and parents buying for a university student.

A qualifying Mac, iPad or iPhone purchased is required.

The sale runs from January 30 through March 19.

Microsoft just made OneDrive totally awesome

Wednesday, Microsoft rolled out an all-new version of its OneDrive sync client for the Mac while bringing out a plethora of really cool features on the web and releasing a revamped iOS app.

The iOS client now supports OneDrive for Business accounts so basically your work and life can now be on all your Apple devices in a single app.

Not only does the redesigned iPhone and iPad app look nicer, it also lets you search photos by tags and create gorgeous albums. It even recognizes text in photos and PDFs and integrates with the popular password-management software 1Password and LastPass.

Photos for Mac goes from “early 2015” to “available at a later date”

Photos for Mac, a missing piece in the iCloud Photo Library puzzle, has just gotten delayed until later this year.

Last summer, Apple took us by surprise saying it would cease development of Aperture and transition users to Photos for Mac, a new app that was supposed to replace iPhoto on OS X Yosemite as well. But Yosemite came and went and native Photos Mac app was nowhere to be seen.

Apple then gave us a vague new shipping date: “early 2015.” However, the updated wording in this support docs now lists the app as being “available at a later date.”