MacFamilyTree 7.1.6, MobileFamilyTree 7.1.2 Released

Last week, both MacFamilyTree 7.1.6 and MobileFamilyTree 7.1.2 were released. Both releases had the same fixes/improvements, keeping them synchronized (no pun intended). MacFamilyTree and MobileFamilyTree are two different applications, the first being for OS X obviously, the latter for iOS, however they can use iCloud to share genealogy information between … Read more

Mac Bundle 5.0 at StackSocial – Good for Genealogists

Snapheal 2.0 The Mac Bundle 5.0 at StackSocial, a “Name Your Own Price” bundle, is one of the better deals for Mac-using genealogists, even if it doesn’t have any Mac OS X genealogy software in the bundle.

It ends on May 7th, and it comes with several applications, including software that would let you run Windows apps on your Mac (without needing to install Windows or run Boot Camp), an application that can remove unwanted objects from photos, as well as fix damaged photos (tears, scratches, etc.), data recovery software, and PDF/OCR software.

The apps I listed above are all very handy to a lot of genealogists, and can be had for under $10 (or more deepening on how much you feel it’s worth to you). If you paid full price for all of the apps, it would be over $800, and even the apps I singled out would cost $280.

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Apple’s New iPad, iPhoto Updates

By now you know that Apple’s new iPad has been officially announced. We won’t see it in stores until the 16th of March, but it’s a very nice update and in some ways better than expected. It’s being called their new iPad – not iPad 3 or iPad HD as … Read more

Apple Announces Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

Apple has announced Mac OS X 10.8, aka Mac OS X Mountain Lion today, or rather the developer preview of Mac OS X Mountain Lion, which is the ninth major release of Mac OS X (don’t forget Mac OS X 10.0! – I know we try to forget Mac OS X 10.0, but that was a long time ago). It brings in several features from its mobile iOS platform, including Messages (covered here), Notes, Reminders, Game Center, Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay mirroring. Mountain Lion also introduces Gatekeeper, which controls/helps secure your Mac. Gatekeeper provides “complete control over what apps are installed on your Mac“.

It’s being built with a focus on making iCloud integration easy to use and easy for developers to integrate with Mac OS X applications, allowing for easy access to your data between applications, as well as an online backup.

There is a lot going on with Mountain Lion, and I’ll be talking more about it as I take a look at the developer preview.

For now, I’m interested to see how well the iCloud integration is, and whether Mac genealogy software developers are able to better use it to provide an easy way to sync and share genealogy information between Mac OS X genealogy applications and genealogy apps on iOS devices. Apple is already doing things that benefits genealogists – easy backups with Time Capsule and iCloud, and pushing the idea of making your data available anywhere, without a lot of effort on your part. A lot of us have probably experienced the issue of losing data due to a computer crash in the past or just not being able to have easy access to our data/information away from our “main” computer or Mac.

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Family Tree Maker for Mac Mentioned in Wall Street Journal

Katherine Boehret, writing in the Wall Street Journal, talked about using Family Tree Maker for Mac as well as the iOS (iPad/iPhone) software from Ancestry.com. I’m not sure if she was using Family Tree Maker for Mac or Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 which just came out last month. … Read more

iPhoto 9.2 Released

Just received this notification through Software Update – iPhoto 9.2 (626) has been released. There are several issues addressed and features updated for iPhoto ’11, but for those using iCloud and iOS 5 it is highly recommended. iPhoto 9.2 supports iCloud and iOS 5. Updates/Changes in iPhoto 9.2 (626) * … Read more