Ah, the weekend is fast approaching, but that doesn’t mean the last full week of October won’t bring a harvest of goodies before it winds to a close. Lots of free (and cheap) stuff hit the App Stores today, and we’re all geared up for iTunes Match which is running out of days to launch in “late October”. In the meantime, here’s all the news that’s fit to print for this Thursday, October 27, 2011.
Announced early last month, Adobe Carousel is now available on both the iOS and Mac App Stores. The software is a new cloud-based initiative from Adobe that attempts to keep all of our photos available at all times. Upload them once and they’ll be instantly available on your Mac, iPhone, iPod touch or iPad -- perfectly for families who want to access the same photo library or sharing with friends. The software even includes editing tools to make the most of your collection. Adobe Carousel is free to download and comes with a complimentary 30-day subscription; after that, you can take advantage of a limited time offer for $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year (discounted from the regular $9.99 per month/$99.99 per year).
After our Wednesday recap was published, Apple tossed out a handful of updates you might want to take advantage of. AppleInsider has collected them all in one convenient post, which includes links to EFI firmware updates for 2011 model iMacs, Mac mini, MacBook Air and Macbook Pro which enables OS X Lion Recovery mode as well as Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode, depending on the model. Also available is an iPhoto 9.2.1 update which addresses an issue with the 3ivxVideoCodec plug-in that was causing some crashiness, and for our Windows friends, a QuickTime 7.7.1 update squashes some security issues on that side of the world. Check ‘em out!
AllThingsD is reporting that music sharing service/utility SoundCloud has pushed out an update to its iOS Thursday which is now available in the App Store. Version 2.0 adds universal compatibility for an all-new experience on the iPad, complete with gorgeous new waveform designs and improvements to make it easier when posting or viewing comments.
If you’ve been (im)patiently waiting for Apple to launch iTunes Match, you won’t have much longer to wait -- after all, at the company’s “Let’s talk iPhone” event earlier this month, they promised it would launch in late October and… well, there’s only two more business days left. In what may be a telltale clue, MacRumors is reporting that developers have been notified of an iTunes Match reset taking place today, which certainly sounds like the service could launch tomorrow (no promises, though).
If you have an aversion to Adobe Photoshop or simply can’t afford the high price tag, another option has just hit the Mac App Store today in the form of Pixelmator 2.0. According to MacStories.net, the latest version is billed as a “significant update with significant improvements, completely new features, a new look and full support for OS X Lion.” Best of all, the introductory price is a mere $29.99 for a limited time -- and absolutely free for anyone who’s already purchased it from Apple’s virtual storefront. Among the great new stuff is a healing tool with content-aware fill, new brushes editor and type tool and native Auto Save and Versioning in OS X Lion. Sounds like a winner!
Cnet is reporting that manufacturers made have their work cut out for them with the rumored leap to a 10-inch Retina Display for the iPad 3. Having such incredible pixel density on an iPhone is one thing, but a 10-inch tablet is entirely another. According to sources, display manufacturers LG Display and Samsung are aiming for a 2048x1536 display, which equates to 264 pixels per inch (PPI) -- twice that of the current iPad 2, but a hair short of the 326 PPI found on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Should manufacturers fall short of their goal, they could even dial it back to 1600x1200. One source called the 2048x1536 display a “quantum leap in pixel density… this hasn’t been done before.” Come on guys, let’s make this happen!
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Bseagull
October 27, 2011 at 2:51pm
Woah retina on any ipad is gonne give off a ton of seizures. Especially with some of those really flashy apps. :D
