Another July day and still no OS X Mountain Lion? Well, the wait appears to soon be over, which means developers should step up releasing updates to support Apple's latest big cat, and we've got one of them in today's recap, Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner. But enough of our yakkin', let's get straight to the news for this terrific Tuesday, July 24, 2012!
With all of the controversy over Twitter's API plans for third-party apps, it's certainly a good time to stop and take a look at how many people are actually using the company's own products -- and the results may surprise you. Twitter user Benjamin Mayo did some digging, creating a script capable of scanning the source link of a tweet, then cataloged nine hours' worth of them on July 18. As it turns out, an awful lot of folks are still getting by with Twitter.com, which racked up the most tweets at 243,431. In distant second was the official iPhone app with 152,116, followed by its Android version with 116,765 and BlackBerry (?!) at 115,244. It was all downhill from there for third-party clients, with UberSocial for BlackBerry ranking fifth with 34,502 and Mac/iOS favorites such as Echofon (18,718) and Tweetbot for iOS (6,845) barely making a dent. Strangely, even the official Twitter for iPad app only clocked 9,603 users, and almost all of the third-party apps were eclipsed by Twitter's mobile website with 28,563 users. Strange, but true...
One of our favorite tools for maintaining our Macs has always been Northern Softworks' $10 Cache Cleaner, which does far more than its simple name might let on. Just before every new version of Mac OS X, the developer pushes out a new version that bears its namesake, and this week's launch of OS X Mountain Lion is no exception. Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner is now available from the Northern Softworks website, ready to keep the latest big cat OS running like a champ. Previous users can save a few bucks with a $6.99 upgrade, and the software is available as a free download for everyone else who wants to check it out before buying.
It's all too common: Spending thousands of dollars on a new Mac notebook, only to send it straight to the Genius Bar after spilling a drink on its keyboard. If you've been keeping liquids at bay since procuring your swanky new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, Newer Technology has arrived to save the day, announcing the NuGuard Keyboard Cover exclusively for the latest and greatest Apple notebook. Its black silicone cover is billed as the first and only keyboard cover on the market for the 15-inch Retina wonder, and comes complete with function keys for the full-sized U.S. 78-key keyboard. The latest NuGuard Keyboard Cover is available now through Other World Computing (OWC) for only $17.49 and fine retailers everywhere.
Could Apple finally be warming up to hackers? Seems unlikely, but a report from Bloomberg's Tech Blog notes that Apple manager Dallas De Atley will be hitting Las Vegas this Thursday to give a presentation on iOS security at the 15th annual Black Hat conference. It's a first for Apple, and clearly Black Hat general manager Trey Ford is excited about it. “Bottom line -- no one at Apple speaks without marketing approval,” Ford noted in an email to Bloomberg. “Apple will be at Black Hat 2012, and marketing is on board.” Cupertino declined to comment on the appearance, which could signal a shift in the company's security strategy moving forward. The report also notes that rivals Microsoft and Google have both taken the time to appear at Black Hat, beginning in 1998 and 2010, respectively.
SHAPE Services has released IM+ Pro 7.0, the latest update to its popular universal IM chat client for iOS. The update introduces "metacontacts," which allows users to merge multiple accounts for the same contact into one, and also adds support for iCloud for syncing IM+ settings across multiple devices. Version 7.0 also introduces support for MeinVZ and Gadu-Gadu IM services, but users of iOS 3.0 may be bummed to discover that the developer has dropped support for their old OS, which includes the original iPhone; beginning with version 7.0, IM+ Pro now requires iOS 4.0 or later. The update is free for existing customers and $9.99 for those buying for the first time, and the universal app works equally well on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.
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