Category Archives: News
Square to introduce digital customer loyalty cards for merchants
If there’s a big name in the low-cost mobile payment market right now, it’s Square. The company has quickly grabbed the attention and business of companies that want to accept payments, but don’t want to pay the ridiculously high rates charged by credit card companies. Today Square is announcing new services, including a loyalty and reward program for merchants.
With the loyalty program, customers get a virtual punch card in the Pay with Square mobile app. With each visit to a participating merchant, customers can follow their progress to a reward. Merchants can provide special discounts or free merchandise with a first purchase as a reward for new customers, and regular customers can get rewards based on total amount spent or number of visits.
iFixit examines the MacBook Pro Retina display
Last week, iFixit took apart a Retina MacBook Pro, and, this week, the repair company takes a closer look at the display assembly. In a 16-step guide, iFixit removes literally everything from the display assembly. It’s impressive to see all the films, sheets and other components that go into the LCD display.
Not surprisingly, iFixit doesn’t assign a repairability score to the component because there is no way to repair the display assembly. The company concludes that “if anything in the display assembly breaks, you’ll need to replace the whole thing.”
New Bento 4 for iPad adds design tools for customizing database solutions
It’s a bit hard to believe that Apple software subsidiary FileMaker has been marketing Bento for more than four years now. The Mac version of the personal database debuted in early 2008, and separate iPhone and iPad versions can be had on the iOS App Store. Today the company is jumping the iPad build from version 1.15 all the way to version 4, with new features to let users customize their libraries entirely on the iPad. Bento 4 for iPad is a completely new app, so it’s an additional purchase for existing customers rather than a free update — but it’s only $4.99 through the end of July.
Bento 4 for iPad still syncs with Bento for Mac (version 4.1, also out today) for loading libraries and collections, but the enhanced library design tools in the iPad version mean that plenty of users will be able to execute their projects, start to finish, on the iPad alone. Bento’s Template Exchange is now directly accessible in the iPad app, so it’s easy to download and work with a pre-configured solution that someone else has uploaded to the exchange. The exchange lists almost 600 templates in English and that many more in several other languages, covering organizational tasks from Action Figures to Wine.
ACDSee Pro 2 is a fantastic photo organizer and editor
When considering an upgrade from iPhoto, most Mac users either toward Aperture or Adobe Lightroom. But there’s an often-looked photo editor and organizer that Windows users have been familiar with for years: ACDSee. ACD Systems brought ACDSee Pro to the Mac in 2009, and today they’ve released ACDSee Pro 2. A couple weeks ago, I spoke with ACDSee’s Simon Tipler, who gave me a preview of the new features.
ACDSee is similar to Adobe Lightroom in that it utilizes a folder system rather than the albums that Aperture favors. For those who aren’t fans of the album system, the folders are easy to view and worth with. Unlike Aperture, you do not need to import photos as ACDSee will automatically see any photos on your hard drive and connected external drives. You can move photos onto your external drive or into different folders from within ACDSee.
Monster Physics is fun for any age
This universal iOS app comes from the “Gee, I wish I had this when I was a kid” category. Monster Physics teaches science, but in a fun way. You create your avatar then assemble a contraption from pieces available in the app. Wheels, cannons and all sorts of parts. You can weld things together and make moving joints. There are 68 items that can be used to make your gadget.
Then your creation gets rendered, and the true laws of physics will apply. Will the object roll smoothly, fly like an airplane or make a space flight? Several of my designs failed, and that is where the learning takes place. After awhile I was literally flying high.
