Late yesterday and without so much as a well timed press release, mega-giant seller of all things on the Internet (aka Amazon.com) released the first Kindle application for the Mac. The free application works on Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 and above, and is version number of 1.0.0 beta 1.

The app allows you to download Kindle books you already own and read them on your Mac. In addition, and this is a nice feature, your progress through a particular book is kept synchronized between the application, your iPhone and your Kindle. This is especially great for people like myself who often take their Kindle somewhere but not a Mac. Although, in truth, I usually take both.

The application is defiantly of the simple variety and doesn’t really offer much in the way of bells and whistles. Although, what do you really need? It allows you to read your books on your Mac, adjust the size of the fonts and it keeps track of where you stopped so you can pick the book up later on another device. Plus, did I mention it costs nothing?

This is a great step in the right direction for Amazon. It is a shame that non-Intel Mac users and those not running Leopard or better can’t enjoy the app. But given the way things are moving, maybe those people are going to go ahead and upgrade themselves with a shiny new iPad instead? Hey, with over 150K pre-orders so far, it’s a real possibility.

Speaking of the iPad. I ordered one and will have a full review once its in my hands. Until then, try out this new app from Amazon right here.

Macs are great, except for when you want to play video games on them. Instead, OSX users rejoice whenever new and exciting titles are announced for the platform, and today is no exception. Kotaku has officially confirmed that along with the Steam software, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series are coming to Mac.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

This announcement has been rumored for awhile, as Mac-specific graphics were discovered in the beta files for the new Steam service last month. Valve dropped some serious hints later, with the release of some images of Valve games integrated with some familiar Mac themes.

Even more exciting is the new feature Steam Play, which will allow anyone who purchases a game on Steam for PC to download and play it for Mac, and vice versa, with no extra charge. Valve also hopes to release titles for Mac on the same day as the PC versions. The first simultaneous release for PC and Mac on Steam will be Portal 2, which was announced earlier this month.

Yesterday, Apple reported its financial results for Q1 2010, which ended December 26, 2009, and said results were, to say the least, impressive. The company had its all time highest quarterly revenue and its all time highest quarterly profit.

Here are the important numbers:

• Revenue of $15.68 Billion

• 58% of revenue derived from international sales

• Net quarterly profit of $3.38 Billion or $3.67 per diluted share

• Gross margin of 40.9 %

• $5.8 Billion generated in cash

Sales of Macintosh computers and iPhones blew up with Apple selling 3.36 Million computers and 8.7 Million iPhones, representing a 33% increase for Macintosh sales and 100% growth for the iPhone when compared to Q1 2009.

Continue Reading →

As Apple often does, everyone’s favorite fruit-flavored computer company quietly give their flagship line of professional computers, the Mac Pro, a bump in speed. They also included new storage options such as 2 TB 7200 RPM drives for the towers as well in this bit of enhancement magic. For the quad-core Mac Pro (but not the eight-core model), you can now order a 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor which, if you don’t know, is pretty darn fast.

This baby has 8 MB of fully shared L3 cache, Hyper-Threading technology, an integrated memory controller, Turbo Boost for short bursts of speed up to 3.6 GHz and can really blow the doors off any kind of intense rendering tasks like you find in Photoshop, After Effects, Final Cut Pro or similar. In short, if you’re a high-end graphics or video professional, your job, and making those tight deadlines, just got easier.

We were wondering what had happend with Apple’s top of the line Mac since the introduction the new 27″ Intel Core i7 iMac in October. Traditionally, the Mac Pro is the performance king and it was a bit odd that the line had not had an update. Fortunately, Apple has remedied that situation now. The new Mac Pro options are available today at Apple’s online store.

Fans of Apple’s advanced operating system known as OS X have another reason to be happy this week. Besides the OS X’s stellar reputation for ease of use, security and reliability, its now going to get a brand new update in the form of OS X 10.6 (aka Snow Leopard). This new OS, which we’ve talked about before, is being released by Apple this Friday, August 28th, so you can go to the store and pick up the $29.00 upgrade version — if you’re already running Leopard — and go to town.

Conveniently, you can also pre-order the update version at Apple’s website for delivery on the 28th. Shipping is free but it will still cost you sales tax. No getting around that one. Finally, you can do what I did and pre-order it from Amazon and wait until Monday for it to show up. If you do that, you wait a couple extra days but pay no sales tax or, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, no shipping. That’s the best deal going right now.

Remember, before you go ahead and buy the upgrade version, you can only install the upgrade if you’re currently using Leopard on your Mac. If you’re not, you’ll need to buy the Mac Box Set, available for $169 for a single user or $229 for a Family Pack.

For those of you who thought this day would never come and you were relegated to using Entourage at your Microsoft Exchange equipped offices, you’re in for a treat because Microsoft, or at least their Macintosh Business Unit, feels your pain and is going to do something about it. What, you may wonder? Well, they’ve announced today that you’ll be able to get a brand new, improved, feature packed version of Outlook for your Mac once the new version of Microsoft Office ships next year.

Can’t believe what your reading? Well, this official Microsoft press release should convince you. Check it out:

REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 13, 2009 — Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) today shared details about the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac, announcing that a new application, Outlook for Mac, will replace Entourage for Mac. MacBU is providing this early information to meet the planning needs of enterprise customers. For current Entourage users, Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition is available today, providing performance and reliability improvements and enabling users to sync Tasks, Notes and Categories.

Continue Reading →

Of the writers who work here at The Flickcast, we mostly use Macs to get our work done. The hardware just seems to be conducive to creativity and doesn’t get in the way of what you want to accomplish. Of course, what’s great hardware without great software? Fortunately, there’s a lot of software available for the Mac right now, with more coming out all the time.

Speaking of software, the folks at Kagi are at it again and offering a brand new bunch of useful Mac software, called the Mac Bundles, for your use and enjoyment. Want to know more? Here’s some of the info from the official Kagi press release:

Last month Kagi was pleased to announce the debut of a unique bundle of Mac software. This month a new complement of Mac software titles premieres at TheMacBundles and on Kagi’s own home page with savings of 80% off retail. Often smaller software developers have little opportunity to get widespread exposure to for their software without giving up a significant portion of their revenue. With the launch of TheMacBundles, developers have market presence and a fair share of the profits.

Continue Reading →

Let’s be honest, Apple makes some pretty great stuff. From iPhones to iPods, MacBook Pros to MacBooks, the company’s products are innovative, stylish and fun to use. They’ve carved out a well- deserved reputation for making some of the best products around full of great and useful features.

Up until now, the usefulness and features of Apple’s latest MacBook computers have been pretty well documented. Fortunately, there’s one more awesome new feature that most people don’t know about that we can bring you today in this video taken by Mac lover COREANOMAC.

Trying to put into words just how awesome this new, previously undocumented feature of the MacBook is would be an exercise in futility. You’ll just have to watch the video after the break and see for yourself. Believe me, once you’ve seen it, you’ll never look at your plain, old laptop the same way again.

Continue Reading →

We’ve brought you news of Apple’s brand new iPhone 3G S before, but that was just a preview. Having the real thing in hand to use and inspect will be so much better. But don’t worry, because that day has finally arrived. That’s right, today’s the day to go out and get your brand new iPhone 3G S. That is, if you can actually find one.

Some of The Flickcast team (and in particular Chris) are anxiously awaiting the delivery of their precious new toys professional productivity tools and will report back when they’ve got them in hand. Meantime, our friends over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog have all the scoop on where to get your iPhone 3G S, the lines, the chaos and all the fun. That is, if there are any lines at all — which CNN, for one, doesn’t expect.

If you don’t get an iPhone 3G S today because they sell out and you didn’t pre-order one in advance from Apple or AT&T, try not to get too upset. You can bet that Apple and AT&T want to put these devices into the hands of anyone who wants one. So, that means they will always make more and will keep shipping them out until every man woman and child has one. We know its tough but you’ll just have to be patient.