macOS New App Release – Haste

Product Announcements – Plastic Software Inc. Akashi, Hyogo, Japan, an indie software maker, has released the public beta of a macOS utility app named Haste, hoping that it helps us all Mac users power to search the web faster. Main Characteristics of Haste are as follows:

• Search on your favorite sites with customized configurations instantly: Double-hit the command() key to open the Haste Search Window anywhere, anytime. Enter your search text and select a Custom Search to open the results pages in the web browser.
• Find & Select your Custom Search with Hotkeys: Assign up to 3 Hotkeys to a Custom Search. Once you have entered your search text, hit the Hotkeys to reduce the Custom Searches to the one you want.
• Auto Search-Text Insertion:
  1. “Copy and Haste” – Copy text into the clipboard and open the Search Window within 5 seconds. The text will be in the search field.
  2. Drag and Drop – Select text and start dragging it, the Haste icon will show up. Dropping the text onto the icon will open the Search Window with the text.
  3. On Safari, just select text and go – If you have enabled the Haste Safari Extension, just select text on Safari and open the Search Window.
  4. Right-click via Services – Select text and right-click on it. Then select “Search with Haste” under the Services.

Other Useful Features:

• Add/Edit/Export your Custom Searches
• Light/Dark Appearances
• Sync Custom Searches across different Macs
• Works with your favorite browser

The public beta can be downloaded from the Haste product site now. Haste supports Mac OSX 10.11 or above). The dev team is planning to submit the app to Mac App Store within a few weeks. They are looking for anyone who would be interested in beta-testing the app. Any comments/suggestions/bug reports would be very much appreciated.

macOS New App Release – Sidify Apple Music Converter for Mac 1.2.4

Product Announcements – Sidify Inc. of Shenzhen, China  has released Sidify Apple Music Converter for Mac 1.2.4. When music becomes a necessity, everyone has different sources to choose from for listening to, whether specialized music players or streaming music services. So maybe you have ever been stuck with the limitations like offline playback after unsubscription, music transferring between any devices because of the DRM protection from Apple Music songs or playlists?

Fortunately, Sidify Apple Music Converter for Mac is the way out. It enables Mac users to get Apple Music songs (iTunes M4A/M4B, Audible AA/AAX audiobooks and iTunes M4P music also included) into plain formats like MP3, AAC, WAV and FLAC with lossless quality. Plus, it will transfer Apple Music songs to multiple devices like iOS, Android devices, MP3 player, game console like PS4 and TV consoles like Samsung TV for offline playback. ID3 tags and metadata also will be preserved with20X high speed conversion.

In order to improve the fluency and utility of Sidify Apple Music Converter for Mac users, the newly released version 1.2.4 is fully compatible with macOS 10.12.6 and the latest version of iTunes 12.6.2. Users can get DRM free Apple Music songs easily and smoothly without worrying about compatibility and other issues.

Sidify Inc. devote itself continuously to provide the best solutions and service of DRM decryption and music conversion with the highest quality for both Windows and Mac users all around the world. If you are looking for the best solutions for Apple Music and Spotify Music, Sidify Inc is your best option, where Apple Music Converter and Spotify Music Converter (free version is available now!) will never let you down.

Sidify Apple Music Converter for Mac can be downloaded from the Sidify website for free. The price of Sidify Apple Music Converter for Mac is $39.95, which is a one-time fee.

macOS New App Release – PubCoder 3

Product Announcements – PubCoder of Torino, Italy has released PubCoder 3, a major release of the software, in beta version, available for Mac users only. PubCoder is a desktop application that allows users to design and distribute interactive content for mobile in any digital format, such as iOS and Android Apps, EPUB and KF8 ebooks, as well as HTML5 interactive widgets. PubCoder is a preferred digital publishing tool for creatives and designers. The beta, free to download and test for 30 days, contains a new user interface, presents more than a dozen new features and introduces its companion mobile free app PubReader.

“We decided to take a step back and use what we learned in the last 3 years to redesign the software from the ground up,” says Paolo Albert, PubCoder CEO and Founder. “We added many new features, but we also took some bold choices that led to drastically change some of the existing features, simplifying and hiding complexity where necessary. We think that PubCoder 3 will boost designers’ ability to create interactive contents for mobile like never before. We expect feedbacks from the community on this beta for Mac before taking the Windows version to the same level.”

PubCoder 3 beta version includes the following key features and improvements:

• From Workspaces to Renditions:
  Export directly content to all available formats: iOS app, Android app, EPUB, KF8, HTML5, XPUB without having to create a workspace for each format. Use renditions to adapt content for different platforms and languages where needed.
• PubReader and XPUB:
  Live preview content via Wi-Fi and share it with your colleagues and customers: export your project in XPUB, a new open format for digital publications, and load it on PubReader, the newly free companion app available for free on App Store and Google Play. PubReader fully supports interactivity, multiple renditions and localizations created through PubCoder.
• On-stage Text Editor:
  Edit text directly on-stage. No more double-clicking to open the text editor in a new window, edit your text and see the result directly on the layout.
• Improved Code Editor based on Ace:
  Code your own through the newly code editor based on the widely adopted Ace. The editor features syntax highlighting for HTML, XML, Javascript and CSS, powerful find/replace with regular expressions and many other options to manage code at best.
• Google Open Images and Unsplash API integration for Creative Commons images:
  Browse and use directly in your project thousands of images through Google’s Open Images database, which exploits machine learning technology to search for objects inside those images. In addition, integration with Unsplash APIs allows searching their great catalog of free quality photos to be used in the project.
• Google Zopfli integration for improved compression:
  Optimize image quality and file size of your output using a new option which takes advantage of Google’s Zopfli lossless compression algorithm.
• App-friendly UX:
  Preview content fastly as native app iOS or Android without the need to define app code signing identities, provisioning profiles and keystores. At time of submitting your app, PubCoder will help by filtering installed signing identities and profiles and checking that all metadata are correct.
• 64-BIT
  Takes full advantage of all the RAM memory on your computer and is ready for the future.

System Requirements (Pubcoder 3 Beta): macOS 10.9 or later

PubCoder, free to test for 30 days, is available at a subscription license fee of Euro 99 per year. Discount price (Euro 49 per year) for educators, students and teachers. License can be purchased only via the official Pubcoderwebsite.

macOS New app Release – Data Shredder for Mac 2017

Product Announcements – ProtectStar of Miami, Florida  has released Data Shredder for Mac 2017, their new military grade data deletion tool for macOS. The app allows users to drag-and-drop files, folders, hard drives, (even external drives) to the app’s shredding area and securely erase the data with just a click of the “Shred” button.

Using the same data shredding techniques as their popular Data Shredder for iOS app, ProtectStar’s Data Shredder for Mac securely and efficiently deletes data using methods that meet and exceed government, military, and industry standards. The app eliminates any chance for data reconstruction, even by government agencies.

“Many users believe that when they delete files from their Mac’s hard drive, that they’re gone for good. The truth is, the files can be recovered using any one of a number of macOS disk utilities. That’s due to the way computers ‘delete’ files. They don’t really remove the data, they simply mark the files as deleted,” says Chris Bohn, CEO of ProtectStar. “Files aren’t really gone forever until that storage space is overwritten using secure deletion algorithms. Data Shredder for Mac securely overwrites the ‘deleted’ files using patented security standards, making it impossible to recover any deleted data.”

Data Shredder for Mac is available in two versions. The Professional Edition offers 11 different data shredding methods, completely wiping all free space and overwriting the storage area, to completely shred all of the stored data. The Data Shredder Military Edition offers 18 erasing methods in total, while also offering advanced deletion reports.

Data Shredder Professional Edition Features Include:

• Compatible with all Mac models
• Deletes files, folders, hard drives, external drives, USB Sticks, SD cards, and more
• Secure data deletion up to the top-secret security standard level
• A detailed deletion report provides evidence of deletion
• Compatible with Solid State Drives (SSD) and Flash memory
• Full Drag & Drop support
• Includes 1 year of technical support and free upgrades
• 24/7 support via e-Mail
• Data Shredder Military Edition Includes the above features, plus:
• Advanced deletion reports
• Enhanced military deletion methods

Data Shredder for Mac Professional uses certified deletion algorithms, including: DoD 5220.22-M ECE, Peter Gutmann, DoD 5220.22-M, HMG Infosec No.5, German BSI-2011-VS, US Army AR380-19 and more. Data Shredder for Mac Military Edition uses those same algorithms. Plus, it makes use of enhanced military deletion methods like NATO standard, US Navy NAVSO P-5239-26 (MFM & RLL), USAF AFSSI-5020, BSI TL-03423 and CSEC ITSG-06. Each algorithm has been analyzed by independent authorities and organizations to ensure it really does what it promises, which is destroy data beyond any hope of restoration.

Both editions have integrated the high-secure Advanced Secure Deletion Algorithm developed by ProtectStar Inc. in 2017. The new deletion method also encrypts the blocks completely using the 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Algorithm) and uses high-quality random numbers generated based on Feder Information Processing Standards (FIPS).

Data Shredder for Mac 2017 is one of the easiest to use, yet most secure ways available to completely erase files from any Mac drive, allowing users to remain secure in the knowledge their data can never be recovered by anyone. Drag-and-drop, and press a button. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

System Requirements:

• Mac OS 10.11 or higher
• Supports macOS 10.13 macOS High Sierra
• 64-bit processor
• 50 MB
• Internet connection for activation and updates

Data Shredder for Mac 2017 Professional Edition is just $19.90 and is available worldwide exclusively through the ProtectStar website. Data Shredder for Mac 2017 Military Edition is just $29.90 and is also available worldwide exclusively through the ProtectStar website.

macOS New App Release – Firetask Pro

Product Announcements – Elemental Tools of Eggersdorf/Graz, Austria  has released Firetask Pro, the next generation of Firetask, the leading project-oriented GTD(R) task management app for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. The new app provides tons of new features based on end user feedback including project portfolios, actions for subdividing tasks, iCloud syncing, a new iOS Today widget, and Apple Watch support. Firetask Pro is available immediately from the iTunes and Mac App Store.

“With Firetask Pro we are raising the bar for project-oriented task management apps,” said Gerald Aquila, CEO of Elemental Tools. “By keeping what our users love and optimizing the Firetask workflows based on years of end user feedback we strongly believe that we have created an exceptional GTD task management experience.”

Enhanced Focus Through Optimized Workflows:
The new app provides significant improvements to the collect and focus workflows. “Today” now focuses really on tasks that are marked as starred, or are due today (or already overdue). Upcoming due tasks in the next days as well as next tasks per project are summarized in a new “Next” view. In addition, “Waiting For” has been moved into the “Focus” area and provides a much improved view of your delegated tasks grouped by assignee.

The new “Collect” area groups “Inbox”, “Someday”, and “Scratchpad” together and now supports free reordering of tasks providing you with a more natural way of collecting and organizing thoughts and ideas.

More Order via Portfolios and Actions:
Portfolios allow users to group projects together in order to provide more order for your active projects. Actions provide a simple, but powerful way to subdivide your tasks into individual steps that have to be done before a task can be completed.

Consistent Experience Across Platforms:
Firetask Pro brings much more functionality from the Mac to iOS as well as from the iPad to the iPhone. For instance, all previously Mac-only overviews such as “Priorities” and “Starred” are now also available on iOS. In addition, the new universal iOS app brings “Kanban” and “Dates” views to the iPhone for the very first time enabling you to perform more effective GTD reviews also on the go.

Additional Improvements and Availability:
Additional improvements include a new, improved Today widget on iOS, a very focused Apple Watch app providing quick access to Inbox, Today, Next, and Waiting For lists, Contacts, Calendar and Reminders integrations, and easy to set up syncing via iCloud.

Firetask Pro for iOS and macOS are available from the iTunes and Mac App Store respectively and require iOS 10 and macOS Sierra 10.12. For more information or a free 15 day trial of the Mac version please visit the Firetask website.

macOS New App Release – Rixtag 2.4

Product Announcement – Independent development team, Rixstep of Stockholm, Sweden has released Rixtag 2.4, an important update to their macOS tag editor. The massive size of the Mac’s internal and external hard drives makes it tough to organize files and directories. Rixtag helps users rethink how they store and categorize files and directories through the use of descriptive tags, making it easier to search and find anything stored on a Mac hard drive.

Rixstep saw a need to rethink the way Mac users stores and categorize their files. It isn’t unusual to find a home directory with tens of thousands of files stored inside it. While users can certainly create sub-directories with descriptive names, such as “Movies,” “Photos,” “Music” and more, it isn’t enough.

“Most people have too many files. They’re desperate to store them in a way so they can find them later,” says John Cattelin, Rixstep Media Contact. “Users are relegated to using file names of an unwieldy and inordinate MAX_PATH length, folders and subfolders, and subfolders inside those subfolders, and even colors to organize files. There had to be a better way.”

Features:

• Adds descriptive file names
• Simply drag-and-drop to apply a tag to a file
• A quick refresh shows all file tags
• Click a file tag to display all related files

Rixtag is fast, and it’s easy to use. Simply fire up the app, and hit the “Refresh” icon in the Rixtag toolbar. The app will then scan all of the files in the Home directory. Users can also click the “Expression” button to limit their search to a particular regular expression (for example, “.jpg$” will find all JPG graphic files), or limit it to a certain subdirectory.

All file tags will be listed on the left, click any tag in the left pane, and every file that has been tagged with that tag will be displayed in the right pane. Double-click any file shown in the right pane to view the file. Information about any highlighted file can also be displayed by clicking the file and then clicking the handy “Info” button in the toolbar.

Adding an existing tag to a file is a breeze. Users can click on a file, click the “Tags” button in the toolbar and enter the tag to be applied to the file. Or, drag-and-drop can be used to apply a tag, by selecting the file or files in the right pane, and dragging and dropping them on the desired tag, in the left pane.

Replacing a file tag is also as simple as drag and drop. Hold down the Command key on the Mac’s keyboard while dropping the file on the desired tag, and the tag won’t be added to the current tags, but the new tag will instead replace the old tags.

“File names have never been descriptive enough. Google Desktop wasn’t the answer, and neither was Spotlight,” continues John. “Users needed something more, an app flexible enough to address their current and unique situation. Rixtag makes organizing and finding files on huge multi-terabyte drives easier than ever.”

Device Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.7.5 or higher
• macOS Sierra 10.12 compatible
• 64-bit processor
• 275 KB

Rixtag 2.4 is part of the Xfile bundle along with over 20 other file management utilities, for only $59.00 USD (or an equivalent amount in other currencies) and is available worldwide exclusively through the Rixstep website. It is also available as part of a $99.00 ACP subscription.

macOS New App Release – Cocktail 10.4

Product Announcements – Maintain of Ekero, Sweden has released Cocktail 10.4 (Sierra Edition), the latest maintenance update for users running macOS Sierra 10.12. The update is highly recommended for all users of Cocktail (Sierra Edition).

What’s New:

• Added ability to perform essential system maintenance with a click of a button, without any need to configure even a single option
• Added Safari 11 compatibility
• Added macOS Sierra 10.12.6 compatibility
• Other bug fixes and interface improvements

Cocktail is a general purpose utility for macOS that lets you clean, repair and optimize your Mac. The application serves up a perfect mix of maintenance tools and tweaks, all accessible through a clean and easy to use interface. Cocktail’s features are arranged into five categories that helps you manage various aspects of your computer. It also comes with an automatic Pilot mode that allows you to simply press a button and relax, knowing that Cocktail will take care of the rest.

Disk:

• Automatically check S.M.A.R.T. status of disks
• Enable or disable journaling
• Set disk sleep (spindown) time
• Modify standby delay
• Change other disk sleep settings
• Force eject CD/DVD

System:

• Run periodic maintenance scripts
• Purge inactive memory and optimize virtual memory usage
• Manage Spotlight indexing
• Erase Spotlight indexes
• Modify Time Machine settings
• Rebuild Launch Services and Help databases
• Rebuild Mail’s Envelope Index
• Update locate and whatis databases
• Force empty the Trash
• Change startup mode or set startup delay
• Disable startup sound
• Disable Gatekeeper
• Disable Notification Center and App Nap

Files:

• Clear system caches
• Clear user caches
• Clear font caches
• Clear virtual memory swap files
• Clear temporary files
• Clear Internet caches
• Clear cookies, download lists, form values and history files
• Clear Adobe Flash Player caches and cookies
• Clear applications caches
• Search for corrupted preference files
• Delete unnecessary localization (language resources) files
• Clear and manage (view, print and save) log files
• Delete invisible DS Store files
• Delete locked or inaccessible items

Network:

• Change speed, duplex and MTU of network cards
• Easily optimize network settings for common connection types
• Modify IP configuration parameters
• Configure File Sharing settings

Interface:

• Customize look and features of Finder, Dock, login window and other system services
• Modify hidden settings of Safari, iTunes and Launchpad

System Requirements: Cocktail (Sierra Edition) requires macOS Sierra 10.12 to run. Cocktail (El Capitan Edition) for OS X 10.11, Cocktail (Yosemite Edition) for OS X 10.10, Cocktail (Mavericks Edition) for OS X 10.9 are Cocktail (Mountain Lion Edition) for OS X 10.8 are available for download from Maintain website.

Cocktail is $19.00 (USD) for a single user license and available for purchase from the Maintain website. When unregistered, Cocktail runs in demo mode and will expire after the tenth launch.

macOS New App Release – SimpleumSafe

Product Announcements – Simpleum Media GmbH of Hamburg, Germany is pleased to announce a website sale promotion, offering a 30% discount on SimpleumSafe for Mac. The company is also introducing their new Store. SimpleumSafe is an easy-to-use app for password-based encryption of personal and professional data. Thanks to proven AES-256 encryption technology, used by government, banks and industrial enterprise, all kinds of digital information are well protected against attacks from the Internet, as well as unauthorized access.

Ingeniously simple, simply ingenious. SimpleumSafe combines intuitive operation and ease-of-use. Much of what users have already learned during daily use of the Mac can be applied using the Encryption-App.

Opening the safe and decryption of files is done via a user-defined password. Moreover, SimpleumSafe offers numerous tools for importing, organizing, tagging, and editing of the files. SimpleumSafe is designed for the average consumer, who wants to protect and archive personal information, as well as for companies who are interested to protect personal information and secret documents from unauthorized access.

Features:

• Simple and intuitive usability
• Strong encryption with AES-256
• Extensive support of Drag & Drop
• Organize files similar to Mac Finder
• Mark files and folders with tags
• Store safe locally, on USB device, and in the cloud
• Create as many Safes as you want
• Comment files and folders
• Mark files as Favorites for fast access
• Number of files and size is only limited by the free space of your device
• Show file content for Microsoft Office and iWorks documents, PDF, Images, Text, Movies, Audio and more
• Target directory chooser (Import, Copy, …) shows the last 10 used directories for faster selection
• Picture viewer

New in Version 1.3.0 for Mac:

• App-to-App Drag & Drop: You can e.g. drag an mail, appointments, contacts, photos etc. directly into a safe.

System Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or higher
• 30.2 MB

Special Price:
SimpleumSafe 1.3.0.1 for Mac is available 22nd thru 23rd of July 2017, for the promotional price of $12.60 USD (instead of $17.99) on the Simpleum website. It is available in German and English.

macOS New App Release – Financial Infographics Solution for ConceptDraw PRO

Product Announcement – CS Odessa of San Jose, California has released Financial Infographics Solution for ConceptDraw PRO, which is now available in Solution Park. The Financial Infographics solution is a great tool for creating professional looking and high-quality infographics and illustrations which can be used to rapidly visualize financial data and statistical information.

The Financial Infographics Solution is perfect for presentation and illustration of documents; as well as reports and presentations involving the subject matter of finances, money, accounting, banks, taxes, expenses and incomes, savings, investments, currencies, and budgets. This innovative solution is the ideal companion for anyone who needs to visually demonstrate financial information.

ConceptDraw PRO is well-known for its ability to exchange documents with Microsoft Visio – the de facto standard in business graphics documents. ConceptDraw PRO can open and save documents that can be used by Visio users. It is supported by the powerful business solutions located in the Solution Park.

The ConceptDraw product line is known for constantly adding value to its products. These new addition to Solution Park is for current users of ConceptDraw PRO v11 – the latest edition in the ConceptDraw product line. ConceptDraw PRO v11 is compatible with macOS and Microsoft Windows.

The Financial Infographics Solution is $25 (USD). ConceptDraw PRO v11 retails for $199 and is now included in ConceptDraw Office v4 which retails for $499 (USD).

Star Wars Fan Film “Inquisition”

Star Wars – This short Star Wars fan film was published to YouTube in December 2016 by Pshcho Jellyfish. If you visit their website you will find not only this film, but podcasts and their series, “The Highwaymen”. The synopsis for this film is:

A rural family’s patience is tested as the Jedi padawan they’ve been hiding for years is putting their family at increasing risk. With their father dead, and their crops not selling, it’s time to decide what to do. Evil comes knocking, and one Jedi finds you can’t hide forever. A coward can’t be a hero.

I thought that this film was pretty good, though the acting, special effects and action sequences could have been better.