Agen Schmitz
Agen Schmitz has worked within the Apple eco-sphere since helping manage conference speaker content for Thunder Lizard Productions in the mid-90s. After spending time at Amazon in the early 2000s (as senior editor for the Electronics, specializing in PDAs and MP3 players—he still has his original pre-release iPod), he has continued to focus on e-commerce content and works with a variety of brands across the e-retail landscape. Agen lives in Seattle with his wife and son (who, sadly, has moved onto Windows for gaming), loves making monthly music mixes, and is always dreaming of Iceland.
Adds new sharing options for Twitter and the new Messages app in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. ($14.99 new, free update, 637 MB)
Includes fixes that should improve overall stability. ($14.99 new, free update, 1.08 GB)
Apple updates Keynote, Numbers, and Pages to take advantage of Mountain Lion’s Documents in the Cloud and Dictation features, plus adds support for the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
Maintenance release for the keyboard launcher adds support for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and includes a plethora of fixes. (Free, 3.3 MB)
Laundry list of feature additions in the graphics utility, including support for both Flickr and Google+ as well as Photoshop-compatible plug-ins. ($39.95 new, free update, 125 MB)
Major new release transitions the venerable disk cloning and backup utility from donationware to a paid app, plus adds compatibility with the Gatekeeper security feature in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. ($39.95 new, 8.6 MB)
Adds new code signature and installer with improved support for Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper security feature. ($40 new for ChronoSync, $10 new for ChronoAgent; free updates; 28.9 MB, 8.3 MB)
Fixes two launching and stability issues when running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, plus adds support for forthcoming Mac OS X 10.7.5 update. ($30 new, free update, 10 MB)
Fixes an issue that increased increased CPU power consumption and improves USB compatibility for all MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models released in June 2012. (Free, 76.64 MB)
Adds several improvements including Quick Look windows and a command to quit all running applications, plus improves 1Password integration for those who have purchased the enhanced Powerpack. (Free, £15 for Powerpack, 2.6 MB)
Updates version available from Golden Hill Software with compatibility for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper security feature. ($24.99 new, free update, 7.7 MB)
The word processor’s major new release adds a live bibliography, full support for 10.7 Lion’s versions, revamped palettes with improved management, and more. ($39 new, $19 upgrade, 33.4 MB)
Maintenance release focused on improving stability with iCloud connectivity, plus ensuring all references to MobileMe are removed. ($99.99 new, free update, 77.7 MB)
After implementing iOS Restrictions settings to display only age-appropriate movies and TV shows on the iPad his five-year-old son uses, Agen Schmitz discovered the movies he had encoded himself were not filtered out because they didn’t include MPAA or TV Parental Guidelines ratings metadata. And there’s no way to add those ratings to a video file via iTunes. Here’s how he used the iDentify shareware app to protect his son from the evils of Louis C.K.
An important security update to the Office suite that fixes a vulnerability with folder permissions, plus squashes several IMAP-related bugs in Outlook. (Free update, 110 MB)