Each week, we round up our most significant stories from the past seven days, mostly because the powers that be at Macworld refuse to let us write about the biggest news from the week ahead. This week we covered App Store drama, iPad 3 rumors, and a typical slew of Mac advice.
Apps and Downs
We love Apple’s iOS here at Macworld, but we did come up with a list of ways Apple could improve the iOS experience. But despite our complaints, we can’t quit our i-things—hence this video tutorial on sharing links between your Mac and your iOS devices using Safari’s Reading List. Safari is a much better sharer than, say, my three-year-old daughter.
Rumors abound that Apple’s going to unveil the iPad 3 soon. Ugh, and I’m still writing “Original iPad” on my checks.
Speaking of the iPad, we asked Dan Moren to try working exclusively from his for three days. He filed this report, but he’s never really been the same since.
Meanwhile, Apple warned developers not to try to game the App Store rankings. That’s going to make it really hard for Zynga’s new App Store Rankings With Friends game to take off, I’m afraid.
And always, we reviewed oodles of apps:
- Game Your Video—which we hope kicks off an iOS trend of naming apps in the Noun your Noun style;
- Phrase Wit—which, for all intensive purposes, ensures you’ll never get a phrase wrong again;
- Nag—an app for the single man;
- Mad Chef—a game where the cooks is madder than the cows;
- Tweetbot—the only Twitter-surfing robot that’s not out to destroy humanity; and
- Flick Kick Field Goal—a fun game focused on the most boring aspect of football games.
Oh, and we launched a new feature: The Week in iOS apps, wherein we highlight major app upgrades and releases. In case, you know, I’m not enough for you.
On the Mac
If your mission is to better master Lion’s Mission Control, you’ll want to read up on making apps appear correctly with it. If you’ve always wished your MacBook Pro would emphasize the “book” part a bit more, don’t miss our report on new ePub-reading app Bookle.
We premiered our new Ask the iTunes Guy column, but apparently he only answers questions about iTunes; my question about how they get those big ships in the little bottles was completely ignored. If you also find that the only person who truly hears you is, in fact, you, you might want to check out our review of MiJournal, a diary app for Mac.
Other Mac software we reviewed included Psychonauts and WeatherMin. Sadly, there’s still no WeatherPsycho app starring an always-wrong meteorologist who decides to rain down a hail of fists where the sun don’t shine. But a man can dream.
We took a look at what’s happening with Thunderbolt one year after the technology’s unveiling. And if you’re still clinging to technology of old—like the sadly discontinued Flip camera—rest assured that you can still transfer the video it shoots onto your Mac. Of course, if you’re wondering why anyone would ever need to shoot video with a flip in 2012, the answer’s simple: To capture the unboxing of your HD video-recording iPhone.
That’s it for this week’s wrap. But fodder for next week’s wrap officially begins… now.