Steve Jobs was honored in a special ceremony at this year's Webby Awards. Introduced by the reunited Justin Long (Mac) and John Hodgman (PC), the tribute video allowed many interesting public figures to present a five-word tribute to Mr. Jobs. The five-word tribute was an offshoot of the traditional five-word thank you speech that each Webby Award winner is allowed to make.
Courtesy of Apple
Notable in the video tribute were George Lucas, Vint Cerf, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore. My favorite five-word tribute? "He made turtlenecks sexy again."
You can see the Steve Jobs tribute video at the webby site.
Apple has been busy sending out reminders to Mac app developers that starting June 1, 2012, all new apps sold through the Mac App Store must meet the sandboxing constraints. Existing apps will still be available in the store, and Apple will allow maintenance and bug fixes to be posted in the store for existing apps. However, if new features are added, the app must meet the sandboxing standard.
Sandboxing is an attempt by Apple to increase security in OS X by preventing applications from unilaterally being able to execute code and functions either built-in to other apps or provided in the OS by Apple. In essence, a sandboxed app knows nothing about the environment it runs in, has no knowledge of the network your Mac is on or data stored by other apps, and has no access to system resources that the OS does not allow.
The result should be a more secure environment for users, at least for apps purchased from the Mac App Store. Developers can still produce apps that don't honor the application sandbox, but they won't be able to sell them through the Mac App Store.
The downside is that some apps, including many plug-ins, will no longer work, or will be need to be rewritten to work correctly.
Looking for a fabulous deal on an Apple or related product? Well, so am I! Every Sunday, I scan the Apple refurbished store to see which Apple products are currently available, and which ones represent good bargains. I try to look only at current versions of Macs, but once in a while there will be a great deal on a last-generation product that may be too good to pass up.
Screenshot courtesy of Coyote Moon, Inc.
This week there's a nicely configured Mac mini just waiting for a good home. The good deal on an entry-level 13.3-inch MacBook Pro that was available last week is gone already, but the 2.4 GHz model priced just a tick above $1,000 isn't a bad deal.
Also, the 32 GB model of the iPad 2 Wi-Fi Only model is back in stock. If you're looking for this model of the iPad, you may want to grab it now. The 16 GB and 32 GB versions have been in short supply and will probably continue to be.
Apple Refurbished Store
Quantities are limited, so if any of these tickle your fancy, be fast on the trigger to make a purchase.
MacBook Air
11.6-inch MacBook Air 1.6 GHz Dual-Core i5 with Intel HD Graphics 3000: $829.00
13.3-inch MacBook Air 1.7 GHz Dual-Core i5 with Intel HD Graphics 3000: $1,099.00
MacBook Pro
13.3-inch MacBook Pro (Review) 2.4 GHz Intel Dual-Core i5 with Intel HD Graphics 3000: $1,019.00
15-inch MacBook Pro (Review) 2.0 GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 with AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics: $1,359.00
15-inch MacBook Pro (Review) 2.2 GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 with AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics and anti-glare (matte) screen: $1,659.00
17-inch MacBook Pro (Review) 2.42 GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 with AMD Radeon HD 6750M and standard glossy screen: $1,949.00
17-inch MacBook Pro (Review) 2.2 GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 with AMD Radeon HD 6750M and anti-glare (matte) screen: $1,999.00
Mac mini
Mac mini (Review) 2.5 GHz Dual-Core i5 with Thunderbolt port and AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics: $699.00
iMac
21.5-inch iMac (Review) 2.5 GHz Intel Quad-Core i5 with ATI Radeon HD 6750M graphics: $999.00
27-inch iMac (Review) 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 with ATI Radeon HD 6770M graphics: $1,419.00
Mac Pro
Mac Pro (Review) 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics: $2,119.00
Displays
27-inch LED Cinema Display 2560x1440 resolution: $849.00
27-inch LED Thunderbolt Display 2560x1440 resolution: $849.00
Mac Accessories
2011 AirPort Extreme Base Station, Dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi with printer and hard drive sharing: $139.00
iPads
32 GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 (Review): $399.00
64 GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 (Review): $499.00
16 GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad 2 (Review): $449.00
32 GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad 2 (Review): $529.00
64 GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad 2 (Review): $629.00
Want to find out more about Apple refurbished Macs? Take a look at the process my wife and I experienced when we took the Apple refurbished store for a spin.
Here at About: Macs, we love utilities that make common tasks easier. DragonDrop does just that. It takes the task of dragging an item from one location to another and makes it easier. If you're wondering how such an easy task can be made any easier, how many times have you started to drag an item and then had to stop halfway through to find the destination? This usually means dropping the item back in its original location, opening a Finder window, navigating to the target location for the item, and then grabbing the item again and dragging it to its destination.
DragonDropWith DragonDrop, you can pause the dragging process by simply shaking the mouse or dropping the item on the DragonDrop menu bar item. Either way, the item is temporarily stored in a floating window that stays on top of the Desktop, while you unclutter your Desktop or open a Finder window and navigate to the destination. You can then simply continue dragging the item from where you left off.
DragonDrop is $4.99. A demo is available.
See other software choices from Tom's Mac Software Picks.
