Tag: mac

Categories
Apple TV Software and Apps

How To Video Stream From Mac To Apple TV

Earlier this month, Erica Sadun – hacker and writer for TUAW had launched an alpha-stage ad supported  tool called AirPlayer that enabled users to stream videos from their iPhone or iPad to a Mac computer using AirPlay. The tool basically hacked a Mac and made it camouflage itself as an Apple TV that subsequently helped her stream her videos from an iDevice using AirPlay.

Now in another nifty development, Sadun has developed another tool called AirFlick that will enable Mac users to stream videos from their computers to an Apple TV. She writes,

“AirFlick works by transforming your Mac into a web browser, the same way AirPlay works on your iPhone or other iOS device. For Mac-based files, AirFlick tells your Apple TV to connect to a local URL and serves the data that the Apple TV plays back. So long as those files are in a supported format such as mp4, m4v, mp3, etc, the Apple TV can read and display the file data.”

AirFlick comes with a number of additional features like transcoding of unsupported file formats in real time as well as the ability to play videos directly from the web.

You can download the alpha-version of the software by clicking here. Also, check out a video demo of AirFlick embedded below.

Categories
iPad iPhone Software and Apps

How To Stream Videos From iPhone To Mac Using AirPlay

If you are an Apple TV owner, you may have already checked out the AirPlay feature that lets users to stream videos and other media content from an iOS-based device to your television over Apple TV. Now, Erica Sadun – a hacker and a writer for TUAW has come up with a custom version of AirPlay that brings the nifty wireless streaming service to Macs.

Called AirPlayer, this software basically lets a Mac to camouflage itself as an Apple TV thereby letting you stream videos to your computer. AirPlayer does not require you to jailbreak your device and is currently available only for Macs. Erica says that a variant of AirPlayer can be easily created for Windows and Linux platforms as well though she is unlikely to release one soon.

So, if you are a Mac user, then head over to Erica’s website here to download an alpha-stage ad-supported version of AirPlayer.

Categories
Apple Software and Apps

No Game Center For Mac App Store – Many Features Missing Too

Apple’s new application market for Macs, the Mac App Store could be missing a number of features when it launches next month, according to the updated version of the iTunes Connect Developer Guide published yesterday.

According to reports, the Mac App Store may not let users to demo or trial applications before purchase. Also, unlike its iOS cousin, developers may not be able to generate promo codes for select users to try applications from the App Store without purchase. It is worth noting that iOS app developers may generate up to 50 promo codes that can be distributed to reviewers and friends across the world.

This is not all. The upcoming Mac App Store may also lack other anticipated features like an in-app purchase functionality and support for Game Center, the recently launched social network for gamers.

Apple has always been known to offer minimalistic first version of devices and so it is likely that these features may be offered as software upgrades sometime down the line. But if you were eager to challenge your friends over Game Center, then you may have to wait for some more time.

Categories
Apple

New Mac OS X 10.6.6 Golden Master Edition Seeded To Developers

Just weeks after Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.5 to its customers, the company is learned to be already in the process of releasing the next major release. A new version of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.6.6 – termed Build 10J537 – has now been released to developers and is available for download.

What’s interesting is that this new build has been dubbed the Golden Master edition to developers who access the application via the Mac App Store developer program. GM editions are basically those versions of software releases that are released just prior to a public release and are considered to be the last of the test releases. Dubbing the recent release as a GM edition could mean another public release of Mac OS X is just round the corner.

We wonder if this could happen before the new year though.

Categories
Software and Apps

Group Video Chat On Skype For Mac Now Available [Video Demo]

Following the release of group video calling on Windows PC in September this year, Skype has now introduced the functionality on the Mac. The new Skype 5.0 for Mac is now available for download in public beta and comes with a number of new features besides support for video calling.

Most importantly, the user interface seems to be reworked quite a bit. The contacts address book is now available as a floating bar for easy access and it is also integrated with the Mac address book. There is also a new calling bar that makes it easy to hang up the call from any screen. If you are a user with a pretty weak internet connection, you should also happy about the new auto-reconnect feature.

But group video calling is definitely the highlight of this new download. You can watch a demo of the application in the video embedded below. Click here for the download link and here for the latest from Skype.

Categories
Jailbreak

Jailbreak iOS 4.1 On iPhone 4 With Mac Compatible Limera1n

George Hotz, known as GeoHot to the jailbreaking community, has announced that a Mac compatible version of the iOS 4.1 jailbreak tool, the Limera1n is now available for download. With this, users of PC as well as Mac computers can now connect their iDevices to a computer to jailbreak the iOS platform.

The past one week has been extremely eventful for the iPhone jailbreakers. Posixninja, another popular jailbreak team was all set to bring their SHAtter exploit based jailbreaking solution to the iPhone before GeoHot one-upped them by launching his own version of jailbreaking software. This has forced the Dev Team to save the exploit for a later date and have modified their jailbreak solution to make use of GeoHot’s exploit. A Mac solution from Posixninja is still awaited.

Nevertheless, if you are a Mac user waiting to jailbreak your iPhone 4 immediately, hit this link to proceed to the Limera1n website. Jailbreaking is dangerous and you know it. So you proceed at your own risk.

Categories
Microsoft Software and Apps

Zune Software For Mac To Be Available For Download Soon

With the launch of Microsoft Windows Phone 7 handsets imminent, the company is apparently getting ready to make associated software and tools available for all the major platforms available. Zune Software, which will now be the iTunes equivalent for Windows Phone 7 phones could soon be made available for the Mac platform. This comes from Oded Ran, a UK based Microsoft executive in charge of Windows Phone 7 marketing. In a tweet posted recently, Ran had written,

“DAILY #WP7 ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m glad to confirm that Mac users would be able to use Zune on their Macs to sync with #WP7. More details soon.”

Not surprisingly, the tweet got deleted soon after though it had gotten into the hands of several of his Twitter followers by then. But considering that Ran was actually “glad to confirm” this news indicates that an official announcement in this regard is not too long away.

Categories
security

AVG LinkScanner For Mac Announced

AVG Technologies, the popular antivirus solutions company has announced its plans to unveil a new LinkScanner malware detector application for Mac. The application will allow users to check web pages in real-time for malware in the outbound links from any website.

The application is already available on the Windows platform and AVG has revealed that the Mac version of LinkScanner will also be free to download. Explaining the software’s algorithm, the company notes that rather than relying on a database of blacklisted sites to offer an advice to users, LinkScanner will resort to real-time scanning of destination websites to issue an alert to users.

The date of release of the application has not been announced as yet.

[via PC World]

Categories
Microsoft Web

Microsoft Office 2011 For Mac To Be Closer To Windows Version

In an effort to improve cross-platform compatibility, Microsoft has revealed that its upcoming 2011 version of Microsoft Office for Mac productivity suite will offer greater feature parity with the Windows version.

The new version shall offer improved support for Exchange and Visual Basic Applications. You may recall that support for VBA was dropped in the 2008 version of Mac Office.

The new tool also brings co-authoring tools to the platform. In a press release, Microsoft has said,

“The new co-authoring tools in Office 2011 give you and your teammates the ability to work on a file from Word, PowerPoint or Excel [via the Office Web App version only] from different locations, brainstorm ideas, and stay on the same page regardless of time, geography or platform. Co-authoring improves the processes of working together, removing the pain and frustration of multiple versions, lost edits, or even trying to set a time for the group to meet. With this new feature you can keep track of your team with the Presence Everywhere feature that gives real-time status updates on who is working on the document directly in the application.”

[via Apple Insider]

Categories
Apple Gadgets

Apple Store Expansion Influence On Mac Market Share Gain

As Apple has been expanding its retail footprint, there is a positive change in the corresponding market share gained in the company’s Mac segment. Silicon Alley Insider notes the increase in three of Apple’s most important markets : USA, West Europe and Japan. Here are the number of stores added between 2004 and 2009 and the corresponding market share gain observed on the sale of Macs

USA : 123 (4.3%)
W. Europe : 33 (2.8%)
Japan : 5 (1.1%)