A photo sent in by a reader to Business Insider, allegedly showing Flipboard for the Mac, an app which will launch along with the Mac App Store on January 6th. It sounds like a good prospect and is the kind of app i’d love to see on the Mac taking advantage of the Magic Trackpad.
Supposedly you’ll be able to browse the Flipboard app by flicking your Mac trackpad, sort of how you browse FlipBoard with the iPad’s touchscreen.
However, if something sounds good to be true, it usually is. I’m doubting the validity of this more than i’m doubting the launch of a 7” iPad (it’s not going to happen guys, move on), namely because of the appalling picture quality, why not take a screen shot? You could argue it’s done not to disclose too much about the application, but then we move onto my next point - of all the sites you could leak it to, why Business Insider? Really? You have so many other, Apple devoted, news sites. Then, of course, we have the icing on the cake:
Flipboard didn’t respond to our request for comment, and therefore didn’t verify its authenticity.
If you don’t know its true why would a reputable site like yourselves post it then!? I’m 99% leaning towards this being an obvious publicity-stunt trolling to get more Mac readers, of course, I might be wrong, or I might be right that they’re lying but there is a Flipboard app coming to the Mac. We can dream right? Even if it doesn’t we’ll still get offerings like Tweetmate, Sparrow, Chopper 2, Weet etc. so it’s all good!
Update: An update from 9to5Mac about the situation.
A “leaked” picture of Flipboard for Mac made the rounds this morning and many had their doubts about its legitimacy. Flipboard contacted 9to5mac to let us know the “screenshot” is fake and “is not from Flipboard.” Flipboard also told us:
We definitely believe the desktop is part of our future, but it’s still on the whiteboard and not something we are launching soon. The desktop requires a lot of attention to design and UI and we’d like to take the time to get it right.
So there you have it. Flipboard for Mac is not launching soon and is not coming to the Mac App Store on January 6th.
We may not be getting Flipboard for Mac soon but at least we know it’s in the pipeline now, maybe for release when I finally have an Intel Mac?
Going to be beta testing the new version of Bodega, cool app from the guys at Freshcode thats been around for a while and acts as an application store platform for the Mac. The new update features a tonne of bug fixes and updates.
- Added keyboard shortcuts CMD-left/CMD-right for navigating Back/Forward.
- Applications counter displays a count of all items requiring attention, including updates and new installs.
- Attempting to download previously downloaded software now displays an alert message.
- Fixed issue where software that was uninstalled while Bodega was running could not be installed again unless Bodega was restarted.
- A selected category displayed in the sidebar is deselected when opening a URL containing bodega://.
- Added extra check to handle both encoded and unencoded URL strings
- Fixed issue where newly updated software would continue to display the original version until Bodega was restarted.
Haven’t been a regular user of Bodega until now, so going to try it out and see how it squares up to the previews of the Mac App Store since I can’t use the Mac App Store myself because of the limitations of my elderly Mac. Shall try and put a review up soonish.
Cydia For Mac Will Be Ready “Within Weeks”
Jay Freeman (a.k.a. “saurik”), the mastermind behind Cydia, recently stated that Cydia for Mac will be available “within weeks.” The unofficial app store for the Mac is expected to go head-to-head against Apple’s Mac App Store, which should be released in January 2011.
The news came a couple of days ago, at the 360|MacDev conference. After the huge success of Cydia for iOS (10 percent of all iDevice run Cydia, nowadays), Freeman thought the Mac could benefit from Cydia, too.
At the conference, Freeman criticized Apple’s infamous app restrictions, and noted that they’ll likely appear in the Mac App Store, too. This seems to be one of the key motivations behind Freeman’s desire to make Cydia available on the Mac.
We’ll be reporting on Cydia for Mac when more news becomes available.
I cannot wait for this! Just hope its available for PowerPC Mac’s. I’m a big fan of Cydia for iOS and I can kind of see how it could be successful. Though, I must say I don’t get how it’s going to solve the problem of the Mac App Store having restrictions, if someone gets their app rejected they can just distribute it online, like they always have. What I see Cydia for Mac as is a platform to download tweaks and UI themes which you can easily apply on your Mac, at the moment it’s difficult having to go into the Package Contents etc. if Cydia implemented a Winterboard style way of doing this on the Mac, i’ll be wow-ed. Of course though, if Cydia for Mac is an alternative Mac store, it’s not all bad - like one commenter said ‘any venue to promote apps is for a good cause’.
Well well, never knew clever guys at MacPaw were working on a new application, from the guys behind Clean My Mac it’s a new application called Ensoul - with a snazzy video to boot! Launching with the Mac App Store. Icon doesn’t give much away though, and neither does the video, just something very reliant on you having an iOS device. Oh and every 100th subscriber to the mailing list gets a free license, worth a try eh?
Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the fairest Twitter client of them all?
Looks like the launch of the Mac App Store is going to be a good time for OS X Twitter clients, with Tweetie for Mac abandoned people are looking for a new client on their Mac. I’ve tried Echofon, Itsy, Twitterrific, even Adium! None of them though fulfill the minimalism I expect from a Twitter client since i’ve used Tweetie. That appears set to change though with three tall, dark and very, very handsome Twitter clients set to appear soon. First up is the fourth iteration of the well know Twitter client Twitterrific which I mentioned just a moment ago, although I don’t like the current version the next update looks better to say the least. By the looks of it it’s been completely re-built with a new(ish) interface. They can’t wait, and neither can I, the only thing that bug’s me about Twitterrific is the price, $15 is steep for a Twitter client so i’ll probably be opting for one of the free or at least drastically cheaper options.
Then you’ve got Weet, saw this on MacStories today and it’s looking good. After the success of Weet for iPhone they’re now working on an app for OS X, you can actually apply for the beta version by going on the app on your iOS device going into accounts and selecting Mac App, then you just enter your e-mail and hopefully they’ll get back to you (and me) soon. Not many pictures of Weet for Mac have been leaked but what i’ve got from it is that it’s minimal and basic. But if i’m honest it’s a little too basic for my liking; it’s good and i’ll definitely be checking it out when it reaches release but I prefer my Twitter clients of the shiny persuasion.
Finally, the application i’m most excited about, is Tweetmate. Tweetmate is set for release in early 2011, with the Mac App Store and again not much is know about it, only a couple of screen shots have been released and they seem to show as little as possible for it to still count as a screenshot, it’s even a struggle to find on Google. But what you do see in the screenshots, wow, a beautiful graphite interface, it looks like Tweetie but current.
Of course, it should be the features that matter and I do advise everyone else checks the applications out before downloading one based on its looks, but i’m clearly not a Twitter power user: I use Twitter to follow news feeds and talk to the occasional person, so for me all that really matters is the looks actually. So far Tweetmate looks to come out on top in this category. However, with this client being sold through the Mac App Store I expect it will cost money, but as long as it isn’t a moronic $15 this is the client i’m going to be investing in when it comes to release.
