Archive for the ‘SmileWorthy’ Category

Macworld: Meet the Podcasters at Smile

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

It’s that time of year again. Smile will be at Macworld|iWorld this year. You’ll find us in the OS X Developer Zone (#201) and in the Mobile Applications Showcase (#818), where we’ll be showing off our iOS products.

We are also happy to announce that the popular “Meet the Podcasters” is back.  Each day at 3 p.m., we’ll host some of your favorite podcasters at the Smile kiosk in #201. The podcasters will be there to meet listeners and answer questions.

Thursday, January 26, 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Dave Hamilton & John F. Braun
Mac Geek Gab

Friday, January 27, 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Adam Christianson
The MacCast

Saturday, January 28, 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Katie Floyd & David Sparks
Mac Power Users

Smile is proud to be a sponsor of these great podcasts. Come on by just to say “hi” or chat about the Mac, iPhone and iPad. These are the experts!

(Photos, l-to-r: Dave Hamilton, John F. Braun, Adam Christianson, Katie Floyd, David Sparks)

 

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Apps for Water: Developers Support charity:water

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Apps for Water

Smile is participating in the Apps for Water fundraiser for charity:water. All the developers will donate their revenue from app sales on December 20, 2011.

charity: water is a non-profit organization that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.

We really appreciate Gaucho Software‘s Mike Piatek-Jimenez, who did all the hard work of putting this project together. We’ve done a special discount of 20% on our Mac apps to encourage you to buy great software and support a very worthwhile cause at the same time.

And if you already own PDFpen, TextExpander and DiscLabel, check out the other great software that is available, or consider giving gift licenses to your favorite Mac users.

 

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MacMania 10: Geek Tourism 101

Friday, May 7th, 2010

The Veendam has been docked in Hamilton, Bermuda since Tuesday. When we are in port, we don’t have conference sessions generally, so that folks have time for sightseeing and excursions.

The most popular spot amongst the geek cruisers: the iStore, Bermuda’s premier Apple retailer. It’s only one block from the ship!  (46 Reid St. between Burnaby and Parliament).

iStore Bermuda

A home away from home for Mac geeks.

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Don’t worry, Philip and Greg. I am not moving to Bermuda and getting a job at the iStore. :-)

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The iPad is not officially for sale in Bermuda yet, so these demo models have been played with a lot.

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Here are a couple Danish guys I met while hanging out doing some email. After talking to me for 10 minutes, they are ready to place their orders. If only Apple paid commission!

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The iStore folks threw a nice party for us at Flanagan’s the night before we are to leave Bermuda. Typical Mac geeks, everyone brought their iPhones AND iPads. Here’s Jason Snell of Macworld and Trish Mulvihill of DC Comics (right) sharing their favorite games.

You too can travel to exotic ports of call to hang out in the local Apple Store with your fellow Mac geeks. In fact, many of the group have done some exciting non-Mac-related activities like swimming with porpoises (Rich & Kerri) or going scuba diving for the first time (Andy). No matter how geeky or adventurous you are, check out Capt. Neil Bauman’s offerings on Insight Cruises. Next trip is to Patagonia in February 2011 (too close to Macworld for me…).

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The Mac Switcher Bundle

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

We’re announcing a very special collaboration with some of our favorite people in the Mac development community. The Mac Switcher Bundle offers 3 popular and top-rated Mac OS X utilities (TextExpander, 1Password and Witch) along with a special series of video tutorials aimed at the new Mac user from ScreenCastsOnline. This bundle (a great gift for the new Mac users in your life!) is only $49.95, a discount of over 50% of its value.

We wanted to give new Mac users a taste of what makes the Mac OS X experience so great. All three of these utilities are favorites among those who make the lists of must-have Mac software. All three have been awarded 4.5 mice by Macworld. But we wanted to go beyond a great software bundle, and add the top-quality ScreenCastsOnline video tutorials that help new Mac users take full advantage of the power of their shiny new hardware.

For me, the collaboration is also emblematic of what makes the Mac so great: a wonderful community of fellow enthusiasts. Dave Teare at Agile Web Solutions supported the idea from the beginning. We’ve both worked with Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline and know firsthand the value of his video productions via his TextExpander and 1Password tutorials. We knew that an educational component would make this bundle unique.

Finally, Peter Maurer of ManyTricks suggested Witch as an ideal program for easing the transition from Windows to Mac by offering a window-switching functionality that former Windows users were accustomed to. (And Peter is the original developer of Textpander, so it comes full circle…)

We have really enjoyed working with these guys to put this together, and we are looking forward to spreading the word about the Mac Switcher Bundle at Macworld 2009, coming up so very soon…

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MacSanta has come to town!

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

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Quite a number of our fellow Mac software developers have teamed up to bring a little joy to Mac users this holiday season, in the form of the MacSanta 20% discount!

Every day, until December 24, five different developers’ wares are featured at 20% off for one day only. SmileOnMyMac is featured today! Besides the daily 20% off specials, you’ll find extended savings of 10% off during the rest of the MacSanta festivities. (One of our “smileworthy” picks, SpamSieve is among them!)

Thanks to Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba for organizing this great gift for fans of Mac software.

SmileOnMyMac’s products can help with the holidays. Use DiscLabel to make CDs, DVDs, and packaging for holiday gifts. Use PDFpen to handle last-minute corrections to your family’s annual letter. Use TextExpander to save time typing your thank you notes. Use PageSender to fax your Christmas list to Santa. Use BrowseBack to provide a visual history of your Web search for the perfect present. Use PhotoPrinto to create stunning photo albums on your ink jet printer.

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Smileworthy: SpamSieve

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

For the second entry in our new “Smileworthy” category, in which we highlight software we like and use from other software companies, we chose SpamSieve. Like our first entry, LaunchBar, Philip, Greg and I all use this. It is another application we would not want to live without.

SpamSieve will keep your email inbox nearly free of unwanted email. It uses Bayesian filtering to determine if an email is spam. And it is smart! It gets better at filtering the longer you use it. If something spammy gets by SpamSieve, you mark it as spam and SpamSieve learns from that. Likewise, if a “good” email is snagged by SpamSieve, you can mark it as such.

In practice, I get a few spam emails in my inbox everyday, but the vast majority go into the Spam folder automatically. I rarely get a “false positive,” i.e. a good email that is falsely sent to the Spam folder.

Another thing we at SmileOnMyMac can really appreciate: great customer support. All my emails to the developer are answered very promptly–and very helpfully.

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Smileworthy: LaunchBar

Friday, August 3rd, 2007

We’re inaugurating something new: a category we’re calling “Smileworthy” to feature software we use and really like. Philip, Greg and I often trade recommendations on software from other developers, and we want to share those recommendations with you.

We’ll launch this feature (pun totally intended), with LaunchBar from Objective Development. All three of us use LaunchBar and none of us can imagine using a Mac without it. With LaunchBar, you can instantly access applications, documents and information from most anywhere on your hard drive.

When I think how I used to go to the Finder, open a window, click on the Applications folder, find the application and double-click on it to launch it, my fingers and wrists hurt.

With LaunchBar, you hit Command + Space Bar, type a short abbreviation, hit return, and your application opens. LaunchBar learns abbreviations from your choices. The first time you type the letter “P”, LaunchBar will show you a list of choices that begin with “P”. If you choose PDFpen from that list, LaunchBar will assume you want PDFpen the next time you type “P”.

LaunchBar’s handiness is not limited to applications. You can open documents, look up a contact’s information, run Apple Scripts and more. Much more. In fact, I know I don’t come close to using LaunchBar to its fullest. Objective Development just released version 4.3, and I’m inspired to try out some features I’ve overlooked.

If you use LaunchBar and have any tips, please do share them in the Comments.

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