Please Note: All these apps are on sale only for a limited period of time, so if you snooze, you simply loose!               Watermark your videos, follow all the business news or make super-efficient lists. Here are todays discounted apps that will make you a more productive human being. iVideoMark – watermark vide o – From $2.99 to Free A watermark app, this one lets you add text, images and logos to your video to protect your work of art.     AyeNotes (notes with shorthand) – From $.99 to Free Perfect for students or professionals, this app lets you write notes quickly and easily using an advance templating scheme available on the iPhone/Touch.      Business Junkie – From $.99 to Free This app may just help you to become a business tycoon as it delivers the 13 biggest financial news sites on your iPhone or iPod Touch.     Build Watch –  From $.99 to Free You can track software projects on your iPhone as this app integrates with popular continuous integration systems.     My Items – From $.99 to Free A must have management tool as it lets you make lists of items, goods, things etc so that its easier to tell how many items you have and where you kept them in.    

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Filed under: Multimedia , Retail , Software , iTunes , Apple , iPhone , App Store You readers were skeptical that BarMax , the iPhone app that offered up a full law prep system for $1000 , would make too big a splash in the law prep community. But apparently that’s exactly what happened — three weeks later, BarBri, one of the more traditional competitors to the new app, has made significant changes to their pricing and service that appear to be aimed at keeping law students away from BarMax. First, they’ve decided to offer complete online access for free to every student that takes their courses (we don’t know how much they charged previously, but it used to be an additional cost). Second, in direct opposition to BarMax’s “buy once, use forever” deal, they’ve allowed students to save at least $2000 every time they retake the test courses, by offering retakes for free as well. That’s pretty incredible. Just by offering up one much cheaper alternative through Apple’s iPhone platform, BarMax has already started to revamp the entire business. Of course, I couldn’t tell you anything about the quality of these two programs (and whether either BarMax or BarBri is worth using at all), but clearly BarBri smells danger in the wind. It’s just not possible to publish content the old way when even one competitor has an alternative through cheaper channels, and the App Store model is as cheap a channel as you can get

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Today, legal publisher Fastcase has announced that they have released the world’s first legal research app, available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch according to PRWeb . The app will be the largest law library on the iPhone, available as a free download, and will allow free searching of the company’s national law library of both cases and statutes. In the app, it utilizes the same next-gen legal research engine as what is on Fastcase’s Web-based platform.  Mobile users can search Fastcase’s legal research database with a keyword search in addition to citation lookup for cases and statutes.  The app also allows users to browse statutes in an outline view. "The future of legal research is mobile devices – ubiquitous computing and access anywhere," said Ed Walters, CEO of Fastcase.  "The mobile platform is what’s next for legal research, and Fastcase is going to be a major player in this emerging market." Industry insiders have also agreed that this will be an important development.  Legal blogger Robert Ambrogi said, "I was impressed.  The app is easy to use and produces lightning-fast results…For legal research on the go, at any time, and for zero cost, this is a must-have for any lawyer with an iPhone." Law professor James B. Levy of the Legal Writing Professor Blog also feels this app will be significant and asked: "Will it be long before students are required to purchase iPhones for law school in addition to, or instead of, laptops?" For more information, you can check out www.fastcase.com/iPhone Image courtesy of Mobar.org  

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Google’s chief economic theorist, Hal Varian, commented to journalism students at UC Berkeley this week that he doesn’t feel the iPad will help to save old media such as traditional newspapers and magazines, according to the San Jose Business Journal .  While the new device may help provide some assistance, Varian feels that only some significant evolution will help to save traditional newspaper and magazine publishers. "We know there will be eventual competition from other devices, like the Kindle, and of course there’s still the whole Web," Varian said reportedly.  "I don’t think the tablet should be viewed as the be-all and end-all of distribution."  He said the problem is that more than likely the iPad will only be used during leisure hours, and not during working hours. He also went on to claim that the iPad does nothing to alter the loss of traditionally large areas of advertising revenue for publishers, in categories such as travel, automotive and home and garden.  He thinks readers are more likely to browse Web sites on those topics rather than go to a news site. "The verticals that drive traffic are things like sports, weather and current news, but the money is in things like travel and shipping," he said reportedly.  "Pure news is the unique product that newspapers provide, but it is very hard to monetize." None the less, he still believes that traditional media needs to figure out how to make devices such as the iPad work for them.  "The challenge is, how can we make newspaper reading a leisure-time activity again?  We know reading the news is valuable to our customers, but they don’t spend much time doing it," he said reportedly. Image courtesy of Fortune  

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Section: Software + Apps , Music , Utilities , Mac + Computers , Peripherals , Keyboards , Originals The YouRock guitar has nearly all the bases covered when it comes to guitar. From a real instrument to a game controller. It will rock your world for a price that won’t break the bank. First off, the YouRock guitar is a game controller.  It works with both Rock Band and Guitar Hero.  The colored buttons that you’re familiar with on the standard game controllers are represented by a single fret location spanning all six “strings.”  But what’s cool is that the guitar has a port specifically designed to let it adapt for future games or technology that is required of it.  So all you need to do is by the right cartridge, and it will work with most anything.  When launched, they’ll have the specific cartridges for each system and game config needed.  If you have a Wii, the carts are different for Rock Band and Guitar Hero, but if you have a PS3, you’re in luck, you only need one. The YouRock guitar is also a real instrument.  Not in the same sense as an acoustic guitar, but it works in a similar and familiar fashion to an electric guitar.  It has a wooden neck topped with simulated strings and frets.  Best of all, it never needs to be tuned (though you can change the tuning) and you never need to buy strings, unless you’re a monster and you break the thing.  Basically, it’s a multitouch surface that senses where your fingers are pressing, and I’m happy to say that I played with it and it actually works.  You strum what I’m calling simulated strings; basically metal cable just like strings suspended between the end of the fretboard and where the bridge would normally be.  You also have access to a whammy bar You can select from 130 of different patches that vary how the guitar sounds.  Think electric, acoustic, bass, synth, pretty much any sound you’d want.  There are also 25 backing tracks to play along with if you don’t have a full band, or just want to jam now. But just in case they don’t have the sound you want, it also triples as a MIDI controller.  This happens either over standard MIDI, or the USB port to your Mac and Garageband. There, you can trigger any software instrument that you have access t.  This means you can drum with a guitar, craziness. So really, the YouRock Guitar is an excellent choice for gamer-musicians, electronic guitarists, college students and musicians on the go. It’s even great for guitar beginners or gamers who want to cross over to the real music world thanks to the YouRock mode that doesn’t let you plat bad notes. The possibilities of this instrument/controller really blow my mind, and I’m imagining yours too.  I have even heard that there’s an iPhone app coming, so I guess there will be an app for this sometime soon too.  You can expect this thing to ship around summer time for $179 and the game carts for $20 each. You should definitely check out the YouRock guitar

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The news was hot over at 9to5Mac.com as well as on their Twitter page where they reported prices for the standard unibody MacBook at Apple’s Education Store as low as $728 (with screenshots to prove it). This, to put it mildly, was pretty exciting news, only commenters were reporting the rather higher price of $899. A tour through various other Apple-product- related blogs reporting on cuts to the MacBook price only confirmed the higher end figure. So what gives? Having walked through the order process online ourselves, we too were met with the $170 greater price. Now, while $899 is fifty bucks more off the Education discount, and while it’s not at all a bad price for your basic MacBook with 2.26GHz duo processor, a 250GB hard drive and 2 gigs of RAM, it’s certainly not $728. Apple’s known for a little discount here and there, what was so off about this one? Well, it turns out all that was needed was a call on the phone. We rang up the Help Desk at 1-800-MY-APPLE and had a conversation with Chad to get the scoop. According to our source, the deal in question was being offered by the University of Maryland to its students. That killer $728 price tag is only for this specific university, the additional discounts below the regular $899 deal provided by the university itself. As it turned out, someone got hold of the store link, posted it online at dealnews.com , a discount clearing house of links, and the story spread from there. As of this writing, the "deal" on dealnews.com is listed as " expired ," though Chad was sure to inform us that both Apple and the University of Maryland were aware of the situation, that the college was "monitoring" it and that there would be repercussions

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MacHeist announced its newest Mac app bundle, the MacHeist Nano.  The traditional MacHeist software bundle is usually severely discounted and there has always been a price. But, for this one, they’re giving the software bundle for free. MacHeist is offering six apps instead of the usual dozen or so it usually does with its regular offering…hence the “nano” part. ShoveBox (Retail: $24.95) ShoveBox catches all those little scraps of information that you can’t act on now but would rather not forget. It sits in your menubar, waiting for you to drag in text, images, URL’s and more. WriteRoom (Retail: $24.95) For people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a distraction-free writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you’re used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing. Twitterrific (Retail: $14.95) Twitterrific is a fun application that lets you both read and publish posts or tweets to Twitter. The application’s user interface is clean, concise and designed to take up a minimum amount of real estate on your Mac’s desktop. This is from the same guys who brought us the Twitterrific iPhone app. TinyGrab (Retail: $14) Harnessing the power of pre-existing and new OS screenshot taking capabilities, TinyGrab instantly uploads and allows you to share with a small URL — all in under 30 seconds. Hords of Orcs (Retail: $24.95) Hordes of Orcs is a tower defense game in which you must build walls and lethal towers to defend your village from the Orcs emerging from, what the village elders call, “The Glowing Portal of Really Bad Things That We Should Have Bricked-Up a Long Time Ago.” It’s made by Freeverse, the guys who made the popular Skee-ball and Flick Fishing iPhone apps. Mariner Write (Retail: $49.95) Mariner Write is a powerful, yet streamlined word processor for Mac OS X.

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How a jazz singer and voice coach uses her Mac to help students master their vocal range, in person and over Skype.   Case Study: Sandy Cressman Occupation: Singer and voice teacher Gear: MacBook Air loaded with iLife, MakeMusic Finale (for musical notation), CD burner, MIDI keyboard, Zoom H2 digital audio recorder, preamp Cressman and student Demetri Skentzos warm up with scales during a lesson at her studio. A musician who loves her Mac–what’s so groundbreaking about that? Nothing, on the surface. But Sandy Cressman, a San Francisco singer and voice coach who specializes in Brazilian jazz and travels the world to perform and teach workshops, simply couldn’t ply her art–or her trade–without her MacBook Air and a slew of other digital tools.   Going the Distance Cressman’s voice students sign on with her to improve their technique singing rock, jazz, and pop. “Some of my younger students definitely come in with American Idol in their minds,“ she says. But beyond that, goals run the gamut, from improvement for the sheer joy of it to prepping for live or recorded performances. Cressman primarily teaches from her home studio and at workshops, but a handful of her students take virtual lessons via Skype. Finding the right voice teacher is a lot like finding a therapist, contractor, or hair stylist. Once you click with someone, you want to do what it takes to keep working with him or her. When a German student asked if she taught over Skype, Cressman hadn’t tried it before, but she soon saw the advantages. “I realized if we have that connection and she feels comfortable with me, then that’s an important part of her being able to progress.” Cressman records her voice and piano playing using a pro mic and preamp, ultimately sharing MP3 files with students or collaborators on disc or via YouSendIt.

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It’s Week 3 of October, so we have this week and then two more weeks to go. So far we’ve teamed up to support projects reaching 176 students , which is awesome . We’re fourth on the leaderboard of Tech Blogs , and I’m so excited about the projects we’re backing that I’m ready to throw down a challenge: When we get our total to $250, I’ll kick in a $50 match. We already knocked out the "Legos Help Our Egos" project (and let’s all take a second to smile about how STOKED those kids are going to be the day those LEGOs show up, amirite?), but the Giving Page still has some fun, worthwhile stuff on it. In fact, I just added a few more things because so many of our projects have been completed — the Tech Blogs group as a whole has thrown in, oh, THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS so far, which is just…oh my gosh. It’s huge. So thanks for your support so far, and chip in a little more so we can get to the match — this is my own cash here, my second donation, money I might otherwise blow chasing Robbie’s dream of 31 tacos in a month . Which is noble, sure, but it’s just not quite as important as picturebooks for kindergarteners , is it now?  Oh, and other than the match, your donation this week will enter you to win a fabulous prize, namely a $25 iTunes Gift Card (which is a $25 value!!! Free shipping!!!), plus a brand-new copy of The Sims 3 (it’s a hybrid disc that can run on Intel Macs or Windows XP/Vista), plus a Mac|Life T-shirt (men’s or women’s sizes, not sold in stores, be the first on your block to have one). To enter, just forward me your donation receipt (susie at maclife dot com) before the deadline of 11:59pm Pacific on Saturday, October 17. Go ahead and shoot me an email if you have any questions. Now go forth and do good, you attractive, brilliant do-gooders. Thank you.

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Apple tablet rumors are swirling once again, and it looks like we might be able to put our hands on the mythical iTablet sometime early next year. The question that everyone is asking is where the device’s niche will be. Tablets have been around for years, but none of them have been what you would call a “success.” One area of strong speculation is that Apple will position the tablet for the ebook market, which has received a major boost since the release of Amazon’s Kindle device last year. I agree with this analysis, but I think the target market should not just be e-books, but more specifically e- text books. The Kindle is a great device for consuming books, even for those who aren’t tech savvy…just ask my Mom. The Kindle, however, is a very passive device by design. Jeff Bezos himself said he wanted the Kindle to dissapear while you were reading. This works great for a novel, but as Amazon has found with its attempt at e-textbooks, it’s much less effective when you need to interact with the text. Despite introducing the larger Kindle DX to target this market, early results from pilot programs at universities like Princeton are less than favorable.

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