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- BumpTop Mac is Now Available
For those of you looking for a different desktop experience, BumpTop Mac is now available for public consumption.
Almost four years ago we got a glimpse of the BumpTop prototype, and the application of physics to desktop-based files looked great. Since then, the Windows version has been made available, and the Mac version has been in closed beta (as I’ve mentioned previously). I still like the concept, and it definitely feels like it was made for OS X (versus just a Windows port) which is ideal. To find out more about what BumpTop Mac does, and why (or why not) it may be useful for you, read on.
The good folks at BumpTop brand it as, “Your Mac Desktop, Reinvented,” which I believe is a fair statement. Though I look at it more as what Path Finder did for the Finder — it adds a bunch of features, and makes the standard OS X desktop prettier (in some ways).
Essentially, BumpTop works to make your computer desktop more like your physical desktop. It adds walls around the flat space that allow you to pin things up ‘out of the way’, it lets you click and fling files across the space using physics characteristics (so if one file is represented as larger, it will crash through a group of smaller files), and more. The best, and most useful feature, in my opinion, is the Piles concept. Clicking and dragging a circle around several files allows you to group them together into a pile, signifying relevance to one another. Of course, all of this is great, but assumes that you keep lots of files and ’stuff’ on your desktop — which goes against my Desktop Zero concept, but to each his/her own!
Does all of this sound interesting to you? If so, you can download BumpTop Mac for free. Should you decide you want to upgrade to the Pro version, it will cost you $29. The Pro price tag brings with it some extra bling features like unlimited sticky notes and the ability to flip through your Piles, as well as ‘Find-as-you-type’ search, multi-touch gestures, and preferred support. (As a note, the multi-touch gestures currently support the MacBook line’s trackpads — there is no mention of the Magic Mouse.) Are those things worth the price to you? It’s very possible that they are, and who are we kidding, it’s a very cool concept to play with. But try the free version first and see if this alternate way of handling your desktop jives with your workflow.
Переслать - Apple's Tablet Is Good News for the e-Reader Market, Even If It Isn't Real
The effect of Apple’s still speculative tablet on the electronics industry continues to amaze me. Not only has it prompted countless computer makers to join the fray and release their own slate devices, but now it’s affecting e-book pricing policies over at the biggest player in that fledgling market.
Amazon announced today that it will now be offering a much more financially attractive deal for publishers providing content for its Kindle platform. Maybe it has just reached a profitability milestone in terms of the cost of Kindle unit construction that allows it to shift the burden away from content providers, but I’d hazard a guess the move has more to do with Apple’s impending announcement next week.
Why would I think that? Let’s look at the numbers. Up until now, Amazon’s profit-sharing model has been, shall we say, less than kind to the people who provide its digital books. The new model gives content providers 70 percent of the total revenue derived from sales, while Amazon would keep only 30 percent. Sound familiar? That’s exactly Apple’s formula for App Store revenue sharing. Under Amazon’s previous model, providers received just about half the cut they’ll now be getting. Pretty aggressive, if you ask me.
The deal isn’t automatic for every book sold through Amazon’s Kindle store, though. There are a few criteria providers have to meet. Here’s how it breaks down, according to AppleInsider:
- The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99
- This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book
- The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
- The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
- Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices. Amazon will provide tools to automate that process, and the 70 percent royalty will be calculated off the sales price.
Whether or not a war really is coming, Amazon clearly doesn’t want to be left behind. And the bottom line is that’s great news for us consumers. Amazon’s revenue-sharing model has been one of the major barriers to getting more content available for the platform, and now that they’re feeling the heat from Apple, be it real or imagined, the floodgates are open.
Related GigaOM Pro Research: Rumored Apple Tablet: Opportunities Too Big to Ignore
Переслать
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