Lots of great stuff for you this week, leading off with Agen Schmitz’s look at iOS 6.1.2, which fixes a serious bug communicating with Microsoft Exchange Server. Josh Centers and Joe Kissell team up for a pair of email-focused articles, with Josh reviewing the much-heralded Mailbox app for the iPhone and Joe suggesting kindly that if you’re having trouble staying on top of your email, it’s not email in general or the app you’re using that’s the problem; it’s you that needs to change. Adam passes along the news of additional Microsoft accreditation for consultants at MacTech BootCamp events in 2013, and examines the popular but controversial Kickstarter campaign to create an open-source version of the HyperCard-inspired LiveCode development environment. Notable software releases this week include TextWrangler 4.5, Adobe Acrobat XI and Reader XI 11.0.02, Transmit 4.3.2, KeyCue 6.4, Java for OS X 2013-001 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 13, iTunes 11.0.2, Firefox 19, and BusyCal 2.0.3.
The latest version of iOS fixes a bug that caused excessive battery drain on iOS devices communicating with Exchange Server, but it doesn’t patch the recently discovered passcode security exploit.
Consultants looking to promote professional credentials can now get Microsoft’s “Microsoft Office for Mac Accredited Support Professional” accreditation in a free half-day course that precedes each of the MacTech BootCamp II training events in 2013.
Mailbox makes processing incoming email easy and fun on the iPhone, but its innovative interface approaches may not be sufficient to make up for the app’s lack of key capabilities and worrying requirement that all your email go through the company’s servers.
Feeling overwhelmed with email? That’s a genuine and common problem, but Joe Kissell takes umbrage with those who complain about email as a medium or look to a new email app to be a magic bullet.
LiveCode, a development environment inspired by HyperCard, may add a free edition and release its code under an open-source license, if owner RunRev meets the goal for its Kickstarter campaign by the end of February. For many, the promise of a free version of LiveCode and its code being available to view, modify, and distribute in changed form is compelling; others find controversial the amount of money sought and other details about the project.
Notable software releases this week include TextWrangler 4.5, Adobe Acrobat XI and Reader XI 11.0.02, Transmit 4.3.2, KeyCue 6.4, Java for OS X 2013-001 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 13, iTunes 11.0.2, Firefox 19, and BusyCal 2.0.3.
New hardware from Google monopolizes this week’s ExtraBITS, with an eyes-on report on Google Glass and an overview of Google’s new high-end Chromebook Pixel.