TOKYO (MacHouse) – What a nightmare week! The main iMac computer we’ve been using is broken. He just had his 2nd birthday some 10 days ago. So we’ve been forced to buy a new one. The repair cost for the broken one is about US$450, Apple, Inc. says. Additionally, we’ve been trying to submit a new application to Mac App Store. Yet, iTunes Connect has been having network problems half a day long. Anyway, the first software title of the month we have is called Buttons123.

Buttons123 is a Mac desktop application that lets you create web button images with rounded corners in a matter of probably not a few seconds like 1-2-3 but maybe in several seconds. You can cast shadow inside and outside of the button. You can of course insert a text title (only one title) to the button with the font and text color of your selection. More interestingly, you can save button properties. So select a button to load in the scroll view window at the bottom and click on the Load tool button to reconstruct a web button.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – Several hours ago, we managed to submit the fifth software title of the month to Mac App Store. This new release is called FontsView2. FontsView2 is an updated version, Version 2, of FontsView that has been developed from scratch with Objective-C.

FontsView2 is a desktop application designed such that the user can pick the best font for a particular text string. You can add your best candidates to the Favorite font list for quick access. You quit the application, and FontsView2 will of course restore the list whenever you launch it again.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – FontsView is a Mac desktop application we first released in June, 2011. So it’s been at least 2 years old. It’s available for Windows as well as for iPad. In fact, we are pretty much done updating the Mac version to Version 2.

As you see in the screenshots above, the latest version isn’t that far off the ongoing version. Version 2 has been developed from scratch with Objective-C. Now, instead of a separate window, the favorite font list appears as a popover window. And you can now choose one of seven display background colors. Clicking on the CKB, the application will set the background color to checkerboard. There are several new features. One feature that we’ve adopted from the iPad version is comparison of fonts. You can now compare different styles over a separate window. If necessary, you can just grab a row of font style and move upwards or downwards.

So when will FontsView2 be available? Development is pretty much complete. We only have to write User’s Guide. So we will probably submit the application to Mac App Store tomorrow.

TOKYO (MacHouse) – It’s been more than 10 days since we released the last software title. Just about half an ago, though, we submitted the fourth software release of the month to Mac App Store. This new release is called MakeCheckerboard.

MakeCheckerboard is a Mac desktop application that lets you create and save checkerboard (alternating square tiles) as image. You can set two alternating colors as well as dimensions of square tiles. These alternating colors don’t have to be 100% opaque (not completely transparent). So you can control each color’s opacity level on the color picker panel.

MakeCheckerboard is a very small application. The file size is about 740 KB, probably the smallest of all Objective-C applications we’ve built over the last eight or nine months. That doesn’t mean it was easy to program. In fact, we faced some difficulties partly due to Apple‘s sandbox restrictions.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – It’s probably not difficult for you to send the exactly same message to tens or hundreds of people at a time. But what if you want to send the same message with something like a unique coupon code to each person? That can be a challenge. Imagine that you have to distribute a promotional coupon code redeemable at Mac App Store to each of 50 Mac software review people. There must be an easy approach. Hmm… How about Super MSG? It’s a new Mac software release that we submitted to Mac App Store some 10 hours ago.

Super MSG is a Mac desktop application that lets you create one Mail message that can be sent out to a number of people with values uniquely adjusted for each recipient. You can let Super MSG extract data from Contacts to create a group of mail recipients to whom you would like to send a message. Select a text file so that Super MSG can allocate one key code (i.e. software activation key, coupon code) to each mail recipient. Easily find out which key code has been used and which has not been under the Key tab.

Note that Super MSG only generates e-mail messages, which must be sent out through Mail. Super MSG is not designed to send them out for you.   Continue reading →