It’s looking like a green Christmas for those of us on the East Coast, so we can use all of the cheering up we can can get over here. Yeah, we won’t have that awful snow to shovel or plow out of our driveways when the family comes to visit, but there’s just something not quite right about a holiday weekend without the white stuff. With that in mind, let’s settle in for a short winter’s night with some tasty tech news for this fine Thursday, December 22, 2011.
We annotate a lot of screenshots here at MacLife.com, and one of the key tools we do it with is Skitch, the Mac software that Evernote acquired earlier this year and made free to all. Last night, the company announced the release of Skitch for iPad, which managed to slip into the App Store at the eleventh hour before Apple’s elves shut down for a week to enjoy the holidays. Skitch for iPad is also a free app and from a quick test, includes almost all of the power of the desktop version but with a touch-friendly interface. Annotated images can be saved to Evernote or shared via Twitter, email and even AirPlay to an Apple TV, which is pretty cool. Best of all, the Evernote gang promises that an iPhone version “is in the works” as well. Skitch for iPad is a free 10.1MB download that requires an iPad running iOS 5 or later; iPad 2 users will also have access to that model’s cameras.
The Mac App Store has only been in business for less than a year, but developers are moving quickly to bring their best iOS titles to the Mac. One of the latest is Firemint’s popular Real Racing 2, which is now ready to burn rubber on your desktop or laptop Mac. The critically acclaimed racing game features 30 officially licensed cars and races in 15 different locations, with up to 10 hours of continuous playback in Career Mode. Best of all, Real Racing 2 for Mac lets you control the on-screen action via touch or tilt by steering with your iPhone, iPad or Mac controls. Real Racing 2 for Mac is a 711MB download requiring Mac OS X 10.6.6 and is available now in the Mac App Store for only $12.99.
Despite the enthusiasm that greeted the iPhone 4S in the United States, Great Britain and Australia, Apple’s market share is slipping throughout continental Europe, according to Reuters. While research film Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows Apple’s smartphone share rising to 36 percent in the U.S. (up from 25 percent a year ago) and 31 percent in the U.K. (up from 21 percent a year ago), the reverse is true in France, where the share slipped from 29 to 20 percent or Germany, down to 22 percent compared with 27 percent a year ago. “Similar drops were seen in Italy and Spain,” the report reveals. So what’s behind the slip? Google’s Android, as usual, appears to be the culprit, with “a dominant 61 percent share of smartphone sales in the latest 12 weeks” in Germany, where Samsung’s Galaxy S II is currently the top seller. “European consumers are keeping a lid on their expenses as government spending cuts and job losses deprive companies of demand for goods and crush exports,” the report explains.
Remotely accessing your Mac or Windows computer from a mobile device is wildly popular, finally breaking the chains for many of us to get out and enjoy the world while remaining close to our work. LogMeIn, Inc. has one of the better solutions (if not one of the priciest) with LogMeIn Ignition, which they’ve now rebranded as simply Ignition at the same time as they introduce a free universal LogMeIn app today. LogMeIn gives you a taste of what the app can do, then dangles a $39.99 annual in-app subscription to unlock new features like HD video and audio streaming, which only works with Windows computers for now (Mac support promised in early 2012). If you already own LogMeIn Ignition, you’ll get the latest goodies at no extra cost, but the legacy app now carries a stiff $99.99 penalty -- er, price tag -- for those who haven’t purchased yet.
Sometimes, it pays to complain. Financial software maker Intuit has announced today that its popular Quicken for Mac 2007 will finally get an OS X Lion compatibility update sometime in early spring of next year. The news was announced in both a support document as well as an open letter to Quicken Mac customers from Aaron Forth, the general manager of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group. Forth writes that he understands customer frustration over the lack of OS X Lion compatibility, and promises the company has “put a team in place to address that issue.” Of course, the better solution might be to introduce a proper Quicken for Mac 2012, but the GM admits the Lion fix “is just a first step in winning back” customer confidence. Now there won’t be many reasons left to avoid an upgrade to Apple’s big cat...
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