After being promised several months ago, Amazon’s free Kindle for Mac has finally arrived in beta form — right as Apple’s iPad and its accompanying iBooks app looms large over the horizon. Kindle for Mac joins a vast array of available options for Amazon e-book buyers. In addition to the company’s own $259 Kindle 2 and $489 Kindle DX hardware options, e-books purchased through Amazon can also be read on the iPhone or iPod touch, Blackberry, Windows PC and now Mac — and presumably an updated iPad version is yet to come as well. According to AppleInsider , Kindle for Mac allows users to purchase and download from Amazon’s ever-expanding catalog of more than 450,000 e-books and read them on the device of your choice. Amazon’s Whispersync technology is featured on all versions of the software and hardware, which automatically saves and synchronizes bookmarks and the last page read across devices. For instance, you can start reading an e-book on the new Mac version, then open the same tome on your iPhone and pick right up where you left off, on the go. "Kindle for Mac is the perfect companion application for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX," said Amazon Kindle director Jay Marine. "For those customers around the world who don’t yet have a Kindle, Kindle for Mac is a great way to instantly access and read the most popular new releases as well as their old favorites." Of course, Amazon would probably prefer that e-book buyers still favor the hardware Kindle over the software options, but ultimately the company has done the right thing by making it available on every possible platform — especially given that Apple will likely have its own iBooks for iPad in its own walled garden as usual. Kindle for Mac isn’t quite feature complete yet — Amazon plans to add more new features, such as full text search and the ability to create and edit notes and highlights. The free beta version is available for download now and requires Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 or greater and an Intel processor

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Amazon Kindle for Mac Beta Now Available

Apple continues to release developer seeds of Mac OS X 10.6.3 for testing, but judging from those using it, the official release may be getting close. On Tuesday, Apple made Mac OS X 10.6.3 Build 10D571 available to developers, and MacRumors managed to get the details , courtesy of website iPhone in Canada . Cupertino has asked developers to “focus their testing on Graphics Drivers, iChat, Quicktime and Fonts.” Among the two biggest issued addressed with the new developer seed: – Issues addressed that caused background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling – Issue resolved that caused machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly A known issue affecting Software Update has also been documented, and to test the problem, Apple is having last week’s Safari 4.0.5 update offered again in the new build. It’s been 11 days since the last developer build of Mac OS X 10.6.3 was seeded, and MacRumors is predicting “a final version to the public in the relatively near future.” While Apple’s update schedule can be a slippery fish to catch, as developer seeds get released at a faster pace, it’s a good sign that development is winding down on a particular release. Apple released the final Mac OS X 10.6.2 update in early November and began seeding 10.6.3 to developers in early January.

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Mac OS X 10.6.3 Gets One Step Closer to Reality

Apparently, you can secure venture-capital funding and launch a successful business all from an iPhone.   Case Study: Amos Winbush Occupation: Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CyberSynchs Gear: iPhone 3GS loaded with Citibank (to keep track of startup finances), Facebook (to keep track of CyberSynchs’ fan page and connect with fellow entrepreneurs), and Twitter (to stay abreast of business news and keep followers informed) Who knew that Pret A Manger at East 17th and Broadway could be such a locus of wheeling and dealing? Listen, we know you love your MacBook. And we love ours. But consider what a hassle it can be when you’re working on the road. A MacBook has to be painstakingly removed from a messenger bag or backpack and plugged in regularly for power (good luck with finding that A/C adapter). And you can’t really use it unless you’re sitting down. And you have to manually connect to whatever Wi-Fi hotspot you can find. And then there are the interminable delays while you boot and launch applications. Plus your MacBook apparatus weighs you down mightily–five pounds or more, and that’s on a good day. Yet for most professionals–especially at the executive level–getting work done without a computer is foolhardy at best, impossible at worst. The notebook is a necessary evil that represents a basic cost of doing business when you aren’t anchored to a desk. Amos Winbush took that conventional wisdom and slapped it in the face. When he launched CyberSynchs, a company that makes data-synchronization software, in 2008, he did it with little more than the iPhone in his pocket

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Wireless Workflow, Emphatically Redefined

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Mac Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for March 16, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh Selznick Scientific Software, LLC has announced PasswordWallet 4.5 , a major update to their best-selling password management solution for Macintosh and iPhone. The app now allows the user to automatically share all of their passwords between their Mac, iPhone and MobileMe accounts, as well as their Windows, Android, Windows Mobile and Palm Pre devices. Simple and secure, PasswordWallet encrypts and stores passwords and other private information in one, convenient location. Yazsoft has announced Playback 1.5.1 , an important update to their popular zero configuration media server for Mac OS X. Playback allows anyone to share their media with any Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or other supported UPnP compatible device. Playback can also share media stored in folders or even make entire disks available to a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. By default, Playback will share almost any content on the users system.

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Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – March 16, 2010

Filed under: Gaming , Software , Odds and ends , Other Events , Apple , Developer Last month at Macworld, Telltale Games announced that they’ll be releasing their games day-and-date on both Mac and PC at the same time. Last week at GDC 2010, they announced a brand new season of Sam and Max, and also the news that, on April 15th, the first episode of The Devil’s Playhouse will be available on both Mac and PC (as well as the PSN, if you’re into that sort of thing). I got a chance to see the game at GDC, and while the version I saw was running on the Playstation 3, I can promise you that they said we’d get Sam and Max, and that’s exactly what we’re getting. Like the other games in the series (which aren’t on the Mac quite yet, but are coming soon ), The Devil’s Playhouse (the first episode is called “The Penal Zone”) is a cartoony point-and-click adventure game featuring the legendary Freelance Police duo. We played through an initial sequence that had the two going up against the evil General Skunkape and his spaceship, armed only with Max’s ability to travel through phonelines, some silly putty that will let him change into a potted plant (or a bazooka), and the help of an alien brain in a jar. Just like the rest of the series, Sam and Max features item-based puzzles with plenty of absurdity and humor. Continue reading GDC 2010: Hands-on with Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse GDC 2010: Hands-on with Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . GDC 2010: Hands-on with Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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GDC 2010: Hands-on with Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse

The recent spike in sales of vinyl and turntables brings a warm glow to our hearts. We love our technology, but vinyl is just a beautiful format. Having said that, vinyl records aren’t perfect. They’re bulky, fragile, and easily scratched, and those milk crates filled with your block-rocking jams can get heavy. Fortunately, DJ software is a rock-solid alternative for amateurs and pros, and one of our favorites, djay (5 out of 5 stars, Jan/10), just got a sweet dedicated hardware controller, the Vestax Spin. Because algoriddim (djay’s developer) and Vestax worked together to make the Spin the go-to controller for djay, you’re ready to bring the beats in djay as soon as you plug in the controller. The Spin controls nearly all of djay’s onscreen options in an all-in-one hardware package. Rather than unintuitively pressing keys on your MacBook and clicking away at onscreen turntables, this hardware controller aims to replicate the feel of rocking the wheels of steel. The “turntables” are two metal jog wheels with glowing lights underneath them. They’re touch-sensitive, and if you’ve ever bumped a turntable with your coat sleeve, you’ll realize how helpful it is that Spin only responds to your fingers. The mechanisms are smooth, and for every two turns of the physical jog wheel, the onscreen turntable spins once

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Vestax Spin

On Windows, when you’ve finished using a particular piece of software, you close it with the X symbol in the top right corner of the application window. Many switchers assume that the window close control in the top left of an OS X application window does the same job: but that’s not quite true. On Windows machines,

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100 Tips #3: Quit And Close, They’re Not The Same

On Windows, when you’ve finished using a particular piece of software, you close it with the X symbol in the top right corner of the application window. Many switchers assume that the window close control in the top left of an OS X application window does the same job: but that’s not quite true. On Windows machines,

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100 Tips #3: Quit And Close, They’re Not The Same

Filed under: Apple We’ve had a few concerned readers contact us, worried that Apple has deleted or otherwise discontinued the “Downloads” section of its Web site. Fear not, gentle reader, they are still available in the same place as always: http://www.apple.com/downloads/ . What caused the confusion was the redesign of Apple.com that took effect at the end of last week. In order to make room for an iPad tab in the navigation bar at the top of Apple’s Web site, something had to go. Fortunately you can easily locate the downloads section simply by typing the word “downloads” into the search box. Below the links to Apple products, the iTunes store and the Apple store, the bottom link will bring you to Apple’s downloads page, which has a wide variety of applications available, both from Apple and from various third-party developers. You can also click the Support tab if you’re looking for Apple Support Downloads , where you can find downloads for security updates and “point-releases” of software that you might otherwise update via Software Update. Downloads aren’t gone from Apple.com, just less visible originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Downloads aren’t gone from Apple.com, just less visible originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Downloads aren’t gone from Apple.com, just less visible

When a pair of rugged adventurists decides to trek 700km across a frozen lake in Siberia, chronicle the expedition in a daily blog complete with photos and videos — and share it all on the Internet — it should come as no surprise when Apple hardware and software features prominently among their gear. Vašek Sůra and

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Pair Puts Apple Gear to Siberian Trek Test