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Air Stylus turns iPad into pressure-sensitive drawing tablet for your Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

Both FiftyThree's Surface Pressure technology coming to its Pencil stylus this Fall and Adobe's new Ink stylus offer a glimpse of iOS 8′s variable touch sizing technology that allows these accessories to vary the pressure, thickness and width of lines you create.

Say you're an artist in a desperate need of a drawing tablet. Sure, you could pick up a dedicated Mac drawing tablet from the likes of Wacom, Intuos and others.

But why spend hundreds of dollars on a dedicated drawing surface when you already have one in your home - your iPad? All you need to turn your beloved Apple tablet into a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet for the Mac is Air Stylus, a $19.99 app from Avatron...

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Apple seeds OS X 10.9.4 build 13E19 to developers

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Apple has seeded the third beta of OS X 10.9.4 to registered Mac developers this afternoon. The update comes almost a month after Apple released OS X 10.9.3 to the public, which included improved 4K display support and more.

Today’s new 10.9.4 build is available to developers via an update in the Mac App Store or as a download on Apple’s online developer center. It does not, however, appear to be out in Apple’s new public Mavericks Beta Seed program yet…

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Poll: which one’s a better buy – $1,099 iMac or MacBook Air?

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 18, 2014

Apple is taking some heat over its $200 cheaper baseline iMac, which released this morning. See, in order to bring the price down to an attractive $1.099, the iPhone maker has sadly skimped on the specs.

This $200 saving translates into half the hard drive storage and a slower Intel CPU/integrated graphics.

Specifically, the entry-level 21.5-incher packs basically the same dual-core 1.4GHz Intel Core i5 processor and integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000 as the MacBook Air family. And with recent MacBook Air price drops, choosing between the all-in-one and one of ultra-portable Airs is anything but trivial.

That's why I've created a quick poll, so we could learn from your opinion. Tell us which one, in your opinion, is a better buy: a $1,099 iMac or a $1,099 MacBook Air...

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Apple TV rumored to receive Continuity integration with iOS 8 and Yosemite Macs this Fall

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 18, 2014

iOS 8 and Yosemite come with Handoff, a particularly useful feature for completing tasks across multiple devices and seamlessly moving from one device to another. Part of the broader Continuity capability, Handoff relies on proximity sensing via power-sipping Bluetooth 4.0 to detect nearby devices which then broadcast user tasks.

Handoff lets you easily create an intelligent Instant Hotspot on your mobile device, start writing an email on your iPad and continue right where you left off on a Mac, receive and make phone calls and handle text messages on Macs and lots more.

According to one blogger, Apple will be bringing Continuity to its Apple TV media-streaming box when iOS 8 launches this Fall, resulting in a much tighter Apple TV integration with Mac and iOS...

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Apple drops Mac mini prices across Europe, too

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 18, 2014

Apple is on a roll today. First it announced a $200 cheaper baseline iMac model, then we heard about slight Apple TV discounts across Europe and a lot deeper price cut on refurbished Time Capsule wireless base stations and now comes word that Cook & Co. have dropped prices of Mac mini models across key markets in Europe.

That's right, our fans in Europe can now pick up a Mac mini for anywhere between €30 and €60 less (translates to approximately $40 and $82, respectively), depending on the country and model...

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Apple brings entry-level 21.5-inch iMac down to just $1,099

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 18, 2014

Apple's online store went down briefly this morning as the company has refreshed its iMac family of all-in-one desktops. The baseline model now starts at $1,099, a full $200 cheaper over the previous model.

Only the entry-level 21.5-inch iMac has been refreshed with what's apparently a significant specs downgrade.

The $1,099 configuration comes with a low-end 1.4GHz dual-core Intel i5 processor with three megabytes of L3 cache, a 5,400rpm 500GB hard disk drive, 8GB of RAM and integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000...

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How to enable Yosemite’s somewhat functional dark mode

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2014

There were lots of oohs and aahs in response to Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi showing off a new dark UI mode in OS X Yosemite at WWDC two weeks ago. It basically alters the appearance of the menus, sliders, buttons, windows and other UI elements.

The gorgeously subdued look is inspired by the dark appearance of Apple's pro software such as Aperture and Final Cut Pro. In fact, I like it so much that I enthusiastically tweeted right after the keynote that I was very much looking forward to using it on a permanent basis come this Fall.

However, dark mode was notably absent from the first beta of OS X 10.10 and is nowhere to be found in the just-released Beta 2. For a good reason, too, as it's unfinished and very much work in progress so not really ready for prime time yet.

If you're a type of person who can't wait to see it in action, you can enable Yosemite's dark UI using just a simple Terminal command...

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Parallels Access now lets you access remote desktop via iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Parallels Access was released last August as an iPad-only application allowing users of the popular desktop virtualization software Parallels to access remote computers on their Apple tablet.

It instantly became indispensable to mobile warriors who want to run Mac or Windows apps remotely and need to access desktop files and documents wherever they are.

Today, the free Parallels Access app has been updated with native support for the iPhone and iPod touch so users can now access their desktop on the go and use their PC and Mac applications in full-screen mode like they were made for their handset...

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Screens VNC app now supports Dropbox, in addition to iCloud

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

An app called Screens is one of the best and most elegant pieces of software for accessing your desktop through the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, over Wi-Fi or cellular. It lets you connect to remote computers as if you were sitting in front of them, run apps remotely, copy documents between machines and lots more.

Edovia Software, the company behind Screens, has updated both the $19.99 iOS client and $34.99 Mac client with support for Dropbox for seamless syncing of your saved screens across devices...

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Macphun Bundle offers $260 worth of pro photo-editing Mac software for just $99.99

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 10, 2014

San Diego, California based developer MacPhun is kicking off the summer with an attractive bundle which appeals to your inner photography buff.

The prolific developer is responsible for some of the top-rated photo-editing software on iOS and OS X platforms and you could imagine I've gotten pretty excited about their new promotion. Beginning Tuesday, June 10 and through Sunday, June 22, you can get a $260 worth of Mac software for just $99.99.

That's a cool $160 saving right off the bat. The MacPhun Bundle includes Creative Kit Plus which is comprised of Intensify Pro, Snapheal Pro and Focus 2 Pro apps. They're also throwing in a ViewBig Premium membership and a free copy of a brand new app, when it ships later in the summer...

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