Agricola is one of the most popular board games around these days — it’s sort of a farming simulation game, where you can take two turns every round, and then periodically get rewards paid off in a harvest. Playdek is an up-and-coming iOS developer that’s mostly done card games so far — they’re behind the Penny Arcade card game, as well as the excellent Ascension and a more complicated one I really like called Nightfall. Now, Playdek has teamed up with the creators of Agricola and Lookout Games to produce this iOS adaptation, available right now on the App Store for $ 6.99.

The way the game works is that every round, you send out a family member to perform some task for you, including growing crops, bringing in resources, or building fences for animals. During the game, you can add more members to your family, which means you’ll have more chances to bring in resources, but you’ll also have more people to feed when the harvest comes around. The game is complex, but the core idea (of building up your farm bit by bit) is strong, so after playing through the tutorial and seeing the process for a while, it’s easy to start building your own strategies and plans.

Just as with the rest of their titles, Playdek has done a great job here in the presentation — the game’s stark but beautiful music goes well with the theme of fighting just to have enough, and all of the title’s various processes and features are clearly displayed with charming and iconic touches. The game uses a top-down 2D drawn style, which might not have been quite as impressive as a full 3D farm environment, but works very well in getting all of the information you need across clearly. Plus, in addition to four gameplay modes, there’s online or offline multiplayer, including a pass-and-play mode which is always a nice. Playdek knows well how to translate card games over to iOS, and this title proves they’ve been able to bring that expertise to board games as well. Agricola might be a bit pricey for those unfamiliar (or uninterested) in the original, but if you’re looking for a full-featured, well-made adaptation of the popular board game, this is definitely it.

Daily iPhone App: Agricola is Playdek’s great adaptation of the board game originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The excellent iOS RPG Knights of Pen and Paper has been updated to the +1 Edition (as we heard it would be back at GDC) and is now available as a free update on the App Store. This new version, which is technically 2.02, brings lots of new content, game updates, new dungeons to explore, and many other extras. For example, there’s now a place called The Tavern, where you can keep old heroes and swap in new ones. Several new battle options nearly turned Knights of Pen and Paper into entirely new game.

The +1 edition was spurred on by the game’s new publisher, Paradox. Thanks to that collaboration, the game is also now available on Steam for $ 9.99. But again, the iOS version is a free update, so if you’ve grabbed the game already, do be sure to download and give this version a try. If you haven’t purchased it yet, you can grab it now for $ 2.99.

Knights of Pen and Paper now updated to +1 edition originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld

MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – Front Page

Pushing towards a paperless future, the neat folks at Neat have released version 2.0 of Neat for iOS. The new build of the scanning-on-the-go application features much faster performance, scan annotation, new sharing and collaboration options, plus a new expense reporting tool.

Neat has made its bones as a desktop scanning solution, offering both compact and ADF-enabled scanners that work with the company’s Mac and PC applications for document management. The Neat mobile app extends that find-my-files experience for access on the go, with scans and folders synchronizing to the NeatCloud online service. You can quickly share folders or individual scans to collaborate with colleagues, or search the OCR/indexed text of your documents to find what you need quickly.

The expense report feature is intriguing; it creates a summary PDF from a collection or folder of receipt scans, totaling up the expenditure and listing categories as it goes. It’s not going to supplant dedicated expense reporting iOS tools like Concur, but for mobile freelancers who want a quick way to send expense overviews while simultaneously filing the receipts for safekeeping, it may get some traction.

The NeatCloud platform also includes an optional human-powered verification step called NeatVerify, which will run the automatic OCR results from your receipt or business card scans (no documents) past the eyes of a real live person for checking. You can get 30 credits for this service for $ 4.99 a month, so it’s probably best to save it for key items.

Speaking of credits, while the Neat application is a free download from the App Store, the required NeatCloud service works on a paid subscription basis. After a 30-day free trial, you will need either the $ 14.99 or $ 29.99 monthly NeatCloud plan (discounted if you sign up for a year) to use the app; both plans offer additional features like extra users, cross-service search and more. Compare and contrast the $ 45 annual cost of an Evernote premium subscription, and you get the sense that Neat is aiming at the more demanding side of the market.

Neat revises mobile scanning app, adds expense reporting originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Flexibits has released Chatology for Mac (US$ 19.99), which lets you search your Messages chat history with great ease and success. It’s looks will make it familiar to just about anyone who’s used a Mac within the last ten years and and its integration with Messages is just lovely. Say goodbye to Apple’s chat search.

Looks

Chatology is similar to iTunes, iPhoto and others as it has a list on the left and related details on the right. Again, it will be super familiar to most Mac owners, so you’ll be up and running in no time. Click any name on the right to view the associated chat logs in clear, legible text. Conversations, images and links are a mere click away.

Finally, you can opt to see your conversations as balloons or boxes (I prefer balloons).

Use

Chatology finds the chat logs stored on your Mac at launch and displays each conversation according to the person on the other end. Click any name in the leftmost column to see your full history with that person in the center column, sorted by date. You’ll also see the conversation’s start time and duration.

You can refine your history by viewing logs from today, within the last seven days, the last 30 or within the last year. Once you’ve selected a particular history to scour, you can view the full conversation, just images or just links. While testing this app I was able to find two images I remembered seeing in chat but failed to drag out. It was crazy easy to find them: I just pulled up the conversation, clicked “images” and there it was.

There’s a search box, too. Simply type in the term you’re after and there it is.

Here’s what I love about Chatology. There’s a preference to enable Messages integration. When enabled, you’ll be brought right to Chatology when you hit Command-F in Messages. It’s like launching über-search mode.

Finally, you can export any conversation as a plain text file, use Quick Look to view images and delete a chat log, all from the app.

Conclusion

Those who have lots of conversations in chat, especially those that might include desirable reference information, will do well to install Chatology. Likewise, it’s a good choice for users who are not satisfied with the search feature in Messages.

Chatology for Mac is available now for US$ 19.99 from the Flexibits Store. It requires Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later. Please note that Chatology for Mac will only be available from the Flexibits Store. It will not available from the Mac App Store. Unfortunately, Apple’s policies won’t allow an app like Chatology on the Mac App Store.

Pick it up now and get searching.

Chatology for Mac lets you easily search Message histories originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld

MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – Front Page

Apple has released the Apple TV 5.4 beta to developers. The latest beta software for Apple’s setup box adds support for several new features, notes iDownloadBlog. The first up is iTunes Radio, which Apple announced at WWDC would be coming to Apple TV in the fall. iTunes Radio functions much as it will over iOS 7: users can access the Apple TV’s built-in Music app to stream songs over the Internet.

Perhaps the coolest new feature is called Conference Room Display. As the name suggests, this mode is aimed at Apple TVs in the workplace. Users can set the Apple TV’s home screen with a custom image, like a corporate or event logo, and a custom message. Viewers will see the custom image and message and also an overlay telling them how to connect their devices to the Apple TV.

Finally, Apple has added increased subtitle features to the Apple TV. Users can now choose between closed captioning or subtitles and also alter the way subtitles look. Users will be able to set the font color and size and also the background color of subtitles.

It is presumed that Apple will release the Apple TV 5.4 software to users when iOS 7 ships in the fall.

Apple TV 5.4 beta adds iTunes Radio, Conference Room Display originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe has announced the release of 15 all new Creative Cloud apps. Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps allow files to be stored in the cloud and opened on devices running multiple platforms including desktop, mobile, and web. In addition to feature updates to Adobe’s apps, they all now feature Behance integration. Behance is the world’s largest social network aimed at allowing designers to share their work.

Adobe has spotlighted some of the new features available, including:

• Photoshop CC ships with new sharpening technologies and designer workflow enhancements. Camera Shake Reduction deblurs images that would have otherwise been lost due to camera movement. All-new Smart Sharpen makes texture and detail pop, and Adobe Camera Raw 8 adds even more powerful photographic controls to straighten and perfect images. Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC are the first Adobe desktop applications to include the ability to post files directly to Behance, showcasing work immediately and integrating peer feedback into the creative process.
• For designers, the Touch Type tool in Illustrator CC offers a new level of creativity with type. Move, scale, and rotate text characters knowing that it remains editable. This feature works with a mouse, stylus or multi-touch device. Illustrator also enables painting with a brush made from a photo. Art, Pattern, and Scatter brushes can contain raster images, so designers can create complex organic designs quickly, with simple brush strokes. And Illustrator CC features integration with Behance, so work can be shared directly to Behance to get feedback and showcase projects. A new, modern architecture for InDesign CC turbocharges performance, and in-browser editing in Adobe MuseTM CC — a tool for designers to create and publish HTML websites without writing code — allows clients to make edits to a published website, which can then be reviewed, approved, and updated by the designer.
• For video customers Adobe Premiere Pro CC includes dramatic new editing features, customisations and improvements to help editors work efficiently. Premiere Pro CC integrates powerful colour workflows, with the addition of the LumetriTM Deep Colour Engine to easily apply rich colour grading looks. A high-impact version of Adobe After Effects(R) CC brings motion graphics and visual effects artists more creative possibilities and allows them to work more easily in 3D with the new Live 3D Pipeline with Maxon Cinema4D integration. There are also all-new versions of Adobe SpeedGrade CC, Audition(R) CC, PreludeTM CC and Adobe Story CC Plus.
• Web designers and developers can look forward to significant advances in Adobe’s family of Edge tools and services. The latest Edge Animate CC lets web designers create animated and interactive content with amazing ease and precision, using native HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Dreamweaver users can look forward to the most up-to-date CSS and properties via the intuitive visual editing tool, CSS Designer. And Adobe Flash(R) Pro CC features a modern, modular 64-bit architecture rebuilt from the ground up to be fast and reliable.

Access to the full Creative Cloud suite is only available via subscription. Monthly subscription rates are US$ 50, with discounts available to current owners of Creative Suite software.

Adobe releases 15 all new Creative Cloud apps originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

For those familiar with the TextExpander 4 for Mac utility, it may come as no surprise that Smile Software offers a $ 5 iOS version of the app called TextExpander touch. While some may have been disappointed by TextExpander Touch Version 1’s limited feature set when compared with the Mac version, Smile has recently released TextExpander 2, a huge upgrade that has added support for more advanced “macros” and “fill-in” fields, putting it nearly on par with the latest Mac version.

In TextExpander’s terms, a macro is a placeholder that inserts variable information (like the current date, the contents of the clipboard, performing a math calculation, or moving the cursor) into an expanded snippet. A fill-in field tells TextExpander to pause while expanding the snippet so that you can fill in variable information yourself. TextExpander’s macros allow you to build some very powerful snippets.

Here’s one small example from my snippet library. I store just about everything on my Mac in plain text files that sync to Dropbox, where I can access them from my iPhone and iPad using any of a variety of Dropbox-powered text editors. I store my business expenses in one of these files, and I use the following snippet to enter an expense:

Date: %Y-%m-%d%|
Project: %filltext:name=project%
Amount: $ %filltext:name=amount%
Mileage: %filltext:name=mileage% miles
Purpose: %fillarea:name=purpose%
Billable: %fillpopup:name=billable:default=Yes:No%

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Macworld

Well it’s official now. With iOS 7 now out of the bag, Jony Ive’s title at Apple has recently been changed to reflect his added responsibilities and increased influence across Apple’s product line. Whereas he used bear the title of Senior Vice President of Industrial Design (as recently as June 9), he now holds a more comprehensive title — Senior Vice President of Design.

Ive originally made a name for himself as the man behind Apple’s gorgeous and often innovative hardware designs. With the October ouster of Scott Forstall, however, Ive began applying his design aesthetic to Apple’s software as well, an aesthetic which first became apparent last week when Apple unveiled a complete revamp of iOS.

via 9to5Mac

Apple shortens Jony Ive’s title to “Senior Vice President, Design” originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At this year’s WWDC Apple previewed the latest version of OS X 10.9 named Mavericks. The name was a departure from its previous scheme of naming OS X after cats. As Phil Schiller noted in the keynote, Mavericks is a popular surfing spot in California that many Apple employees like to go to to catch a wave – and as we’ve noted, it’s close to where Phil Schiller lives.

An interesting little factoid about Mavericks (courtesy of keen eye reader Tyler G) is that this is not the first time Apple has used the name.

Way back in 2005 the company spotlighted the Mavericks surfing spot in promo material for its then-newly released Aperture software. Surfing images from Mavericks, along with the locale’s name, can be found as elements of custom-made Aperture books and also as contact sheets on the original web page announcing the features of Aperture.

Apple’s love of ‘Mavericks’ has been around for a while originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Adobe has added some nice features to its new, subscription-based, pro-level Photoshop Creative Cloud; it also rolled all of the features of Photoshop Extended into the CC version. The inclusion of 3D tools aside, Photoshop CC isn’t the most feature-packed release ever, but it has some good stuff, especially in the realm of actions, filters, and enlargements. Unfortunately, Bridge CC, Photoshop’s perennial file management sidekick, didn’t fare as well—it’s had several useful features removed.

New features

Photoshop CC, which you download and install locally on your hard drive, fully supports Retina displays (Apple’s superhigh-resolution monitors); you’ll spot a new 200 percent option in the View menu (which lets you see Web graphics at the size they’ll appear in a browser). Several plug-ins also support these crystal-clear displays including Liquify, Save for Web, Merge to HDR, Vanishing Point, Adaptive Wide Angle, Lens Correction, and the Filter Gallery. And look for two tiny new icons at the bottom left of document windows: one for syncing your settings to the Creative Cloud for access on other machines, and one for uploading artwork to the collaborative, online Behance community.

One of the most useful new features in Photoshop CC is for conditional actions; it lets you record an action that chooses among previously recorded actions and runs the one that matches criteria you set (in order to account for variables such as document size, color modes, adjustment layers, and so on). The Image Size dialog box was simplified and includes a resizable image preview that lets you see the results of your settings before applying them. And a new Preserve Details interpolation method sharpens areas of fine detail in your image in order to produce higher-quality enlargements (this new method includes a noise-reduction slider, too). Happily, all interpolation methods now have keyboard shortcuts, and the new Fit To drop-down menu has a handy list of size presets.

Introduced in Photoshop CS6, the Field Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt-Shift filters make creating blurry backgrounds easier than ever. In CC, those filters work with Smart Filters, so you can run them nondestructively. They also take advantage of OpenCL, a technology found in newer graphics cards that lets Photoshop tap into the card’s processing power whenever it wants. As a result, previewing and applying these filters is noticeably faster.

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Macworld

We couldn’t be more pleased to announce that our new family of Creative Cloud desktop apps, and many of the powerful publishing and collaborative features that we announced at Adobe MAX in May, are now available. These include:

– Hundreds of new features in new versions of the apps you love, including Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Adobe Muse CC, Dreamweaver CC, Edge Animate CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC, and more. Your Creative Cloud membership includes more than 30 tools and services that enable professional-grade content creation and delivery across print, web, mobile apps, video and photography.

– The new Creative Cloud app for your desktop, which keeps your entire creative world in sync and organized. Download and manage the latest product updates, keep tabs on your work and your followers on Behance, and more – all right from your desktop.

– The ability to sync your application settings to Creative Cloud. Whether you use a Mac or PC —or both! — you can synchronize your workspace settings — including things like preferences, presets, brushes, and libraries. No more tedious fussing with your apps on a new computer. Just log in, sync, and get back to work.

Individual Adobe users will now be required to pay a $50 monthly fee to access the entire suite of apps and features, though additional pricing options are available for single app subscriptions, teams, and students. Subscribers who own CS3 or later will also receive a $10 per month discount.

While the new CC apps are cloud based, the software does not require a constant internet connection to function. Annual users are required to connect to Adobe’s servers and check in after 180 days, while month-to-month subscribers will need to check in once per month.

More information about Adobe Creative Cloud and its included apps and features can be found on the Creative Cloud website.


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MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – Front Page

With the impending doom of Google Reader just around the corner on July 1, RSS fans have been searching for an alternative to their beloved feed. Digg has heard their cries, and will be launching the first public beta of its new Reader replacement, called Digg Reader, next week.

The beta will slowly roll out at first, but Digg promises it will be available to everyone by June 26. Digg has made it clear the service will become a freemium product, akin to services like Evernote which provide free services with extra paid options available to those willing to pay. However, all of the features available during the free beta will remain part of the free version of the reader in the future.

Digg Reader will come with migration tools to help you move your feeds from Google Reader. In addition, Digg promises the core product will feature mobile apps that sync with your Reader web page, a clean layout that focuses on article content and support for subscribing, sharing, saving and organizing.

The mobile beta will launch on Digg’s iOS app, with Android support coming in the 60 days following launch. Other upcoming features include integration of third-party services like Buffer and Evernote and improved sorting and filtering of feeds, notifications and search.

Digg Reader beta launching next week on iOS originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog