iTunes Gift Cards can make the perfect simple gift, and they're one of the only ways to "giveaway" digital downloads of apps, movies, and music these days. They work in iTunes and the App Store, so anyone who owns an Apple device of any form or even a Windows PC can put it to use. You could pick one up at a store, but that takes away most of the simplicity. Instead, why not just buy one from iTunes directly?
The only problem is, the option to buy an iTunes Gift Card is a tiny bit hidden, and there's not even an option to buy a gift card from the Mac App Store. So here's what you need to do.
Just open iTunes on your Mac or PC, select the iTunes Store, then on the right-hand side under the Quick Links and account links you'll see a link to "Send iTunes Gifts". That's what you're looking for, so click that link.
Now, just enter your recipient's email address, a message (with a whole 60 characters more than Twitter), and choose the gift card size you want to send. You can even pick to have the gift scheduled to be sent later, so you can pre-schedule birthday gifts without even having to really remember everyone's exact birthdays. Click Next, and you'll get to confirm your info and send the gift card. The charges will be deducted from the default card you have on your iTunes account, so there's not even any payment info to have to enter.
If you happen to be on an iOS device instead, just open the App Store or iTunes, scroll to the bottom on the default page (Featured or Music, respectively), and select "Send Gift". The steps after will be practically the same as in iTunes for Mac or Windows.
I know, I know: I should have multiple backups, ideally locally and off-site. And I do, for my documents and most important data. But I had all of my photo backups on the same external disk as my virtual machines, and when something went wrong, everything went wrong and my whole external drive was wiped.
I panicked, but then figured there had to be a way to get most of my data back. There was, with Disk Drill. It turned out to work better than I hoped — only it didn't restore my file names, folder structures, and virtual machines.
Here's my full disk recovery saga, one that hopefully will be helpful for you if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.
Techinch Magazine has been on the App Store now for about 3 full days now, and has been officially launched for just over a day. It's been terribly fun seeing the reactions to the magazine app on the App Store, Twitter, App.net, and more. Here's my favorites so far:
Beyond the tech guy
"Evolution as Darwin suggested is long gone for us; humans now evolve through technology. What Techinch stands for is to humanize the world of tech. It's not a magazine solely for geeks and nerds, but people eager to evolve into an improved human being."
"The Internet's got tons of blogs, many of them like this one here. Most of them aren't worth reading. But Newsstand doesn't have a ton of magazines yet. Making one that speaks to Matt's interests with Techinch is an awesome idea, but it also indicates that it features better quality writing than just your average blog. I've read through the first issues a couple times this weekend on vacation, and it is much better than the average blog. As always, Matt's writing is impeccable and deeply insightful. If nothing else, I'm sure you'll find it interesting."
I'm terribly excited to let you know that my latest venture officially launches today: Techinch Magazine. It's taken a long time to go from idea to inception, but it's finally here and ready for your reading pleasure.
I first announced the upcoming magazine back in March, but I'd thought of making a magazine or a subscription part of Techinch.com for quite some time. Then, in January when I first heard of TypeEngine, I knew it was something I had to try. I'm always trying new apps anyhow, so the idea of a Markdown powered web app that'd let me publish directly to an iOS app was too exciting to pass by. It took a while to get done, but thanks to the amazing TypeEngine team we've finally got Techinch Magazine launched on the App Store. TypeEngine has made publishing on the iOS Newsstand almost as simple as blogging, and I'm excited that Techinch is one of the first sites to have a companion iOS app powered by TypeEngine's technology.
I've opted for a basic theme on Techinch.com, one that's focused on reading, and the Techinch Magazine app looks almost exactly the same. It's instantly familiar on iOS: you can change the font size and brightness from the gear icon on the lower left of the app, share articles from the share button on the top right, and open new articles and issues by swiping in from the right. It's free on the App Store, with a $1.99/month subscription (which will get you access to all of our back issues, as well as every new issue that'll be published once every two weeks).
The first issue includes 4 articles (plus a preloaded Welcome article, which you can also read here on Techinch.com/Magazine/Welcome), each of which I'm proud of and hope you enjoy. Here's what you'll find in the current issue:
Welcome — An introduction to Techinch Magazine, with more info into my vision behind the magazine and what I hope it becomes. You can also read online for free at Techinch.com/magazine/welcome.
You, Too, Can be Iron Man — A look at how everything from Google Glass to Siri points to a sci-fi future that's already here.
Serving Two Masters — Why you'll likely never find the best todo app for everything, and what to do about that.
Perspective — What we've lost in society's rush for the instant, and how we can get it back.
The Photo Apps to Try This Summer — A new take on an app roundup combined with short reviews, this article brings the scoop on the best iOS photo apps that have been released recently — and there's a ton of new good ones lately.
You can read all of those articles today with the Techinch Magazine app — and you can even read them for free with the default 7 day free trial. I've also made PDF and ePub copies of Techinch Magazine, so you can subscribe to the magazine even if you don't have an iOS device. You can purchase a copy of Issue 1, or you can purchase an email subscription to Techinch Magazine to automatically get the PDF and ePub copies sent to your inbox as soon as they're published on the iOS app.
I'd love to know what you think of the app, the articles, and the subscription options. I want Techinch Magazine to be something you'll want to read, so let me know what you want to see in it, and anything you'd like to see changed.
Just published on Web.AppStorm, here's the 5 RSS apps that are the very best online right now in my opinion. If you haven't left Google Reader behind yet, now's your last chance to switch, and you can't go wrong with these apps.
Personally, I went with Fever, but I think I'd be happy with any of these, especially after looking at the competition since March.
I happen to love Creative Cloud, and think it's a great move for Adobe, but there's a few things they could do to make it better. After reading comments and thinking about the discussion, I've got two ideas that I think could make Creative Cloud much more attractive to a far wider range of users: smaller suites with a smaller price (instead of the current 1 app or everything options), and a way to keep your current version of CC apps running without a subscription if you subscribe for a minimum of several years or so. Put those together with what's already great in CC, and you'd have something few could honestly complain about.
Or that's what I think, anyhow. Check out the full open letter and leave your thoughts in the comments there. And here's to hoping someone at Adobe actually reads it ;)
Wherein I take the new NetNewsWire 4 beta for a spin and see how it holds up. And it's good, very good in fact … but it's missing anything that takes it over the edge to great or unique, and that's sad.
But still, if you don't have a favorite web-based RSS sync tool yet, you should be sure to give it a try. It's the best stand-alone Mac RSS reader right now, I'd say. But since I'm committed to Fever for RSS syncing, I'm still enjoying ReadKit 2 as my native Mac RSS reader.
Jump over to Mac.AppStorm for the full scoop on the latest version of the most storied RSS app on the Mac: NetNewsWire 4 beta.
"…we are always trying to identify is a system’s unique appeal, its underlying concepts, [and] go from there."
~Max Seelemann, The Soulmen
I just had the chance to interview The Soulmen team about their work on Ulysses III and more at Mac.AppStorm. It turned into what I think is the most interesting interview I've published yet. Add it to your Instapaper queue for the weekend!
…or so says today's xkcd. Turns out, people have been worrying that our communications are getting more shallow and meaningless for, oh, perhaps as long as mankind has been communicating. Or at least as long as we've had any form of electronic communications at all.
Adobe's finally released their new Creative Cloud suite, the subscription-based successor to Creative Suite. It's quite the controversial upgrade due to the price and licensing changes, but if you look beyond that at the apps themselves, there's a lot to be excited about. Adobe's actually done quite a bit with most of the apps, and the new Creative Cloud installer makes installing the apps you want as simple as 1 click and 1 password entry.
Over at Mac.AppStorm, I've written up a thorough walkthrough of your Creative Cloud upgrade options and how to get your upgraded apps installed on your Mac. Take a look if you're considering upgrading to Creative Cloud.
And expect more Creative Cloud coverage coming soon. There's a lot of neat stuff in there.
