As you probably heard by now, the Mac App Store is live. It is bundled together with OS X 10.6.6 update. USD$4.99 is the new USD$0.99 in the Mac App Store. I have not gotten any paid app from there yet as I bought all the software directly from the software company itself and hence the Mac App Store is pretty useless for me in terms of paid app. I only wish you can transfer license for those Mac software that you have bought to the Mac App Store so that it will handle the updating for you. But right now that is not possible. The only way is you have to buy it again which is stupid. Lets see what happen to the Mac App Store eventually.

From Panic Blog (Makers of Coda & Transmit)

If you’re a current customer, there’s no way to convert a previous purchase into a Mac App Store purchase — that requires a re-buy. But remember, what you have now will continue to work just fine.

The Mac App Store may show software bought from us previously as “Installed”, even though they’re two different licenses. You will not get Mac App Store auto-updates unless you purchase from the Mac App Store. To re-enable the “Purchase” button in the Mac App Store, just drag the app to the trash and empty your trash. Your preferences/sites will not be affected.

Main Page

App Page

Purchases Page

Updates Page

Categories Page

Top Charts Page

Official Site: Mac: App Store

Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac is now available. You should be able to find it on the shelves of most computer retail stores.

Here are the two editions of it:

• Home and Student Edition:
  • Includes:
    1. Word for Mac
    2. PowerPoint for Mac
    3. Excel for Mac
    4. Messenger for Mac
  • Suggested retail price:
    • SGD$188 (1 licence)
    • SGD$228 (3 licences Family Pack)
  • Apple Store Singapore:
    • Home and Student Edition (3 licences Family Pack)
• Home and Business Edition:
  • Includes:
    1. Word for Mac
    2. PowerPoint for Mac
    3. Excel for Mac
    4. Messenger for Mac
    5. Outlook for Mac (NEW!)
  • Suggested retail price:
    • SGD$298 (1 licence)
    • SGD$398 (2 licence Multipack)
  • Apple Store Singapore:
    • Home and Business Edition (2 licence Multipack)
    • Home and Business Edition (1 licence)

If you get the Home and Student Edition (Family Pack) or Home and Business Edition (Multipack), you can redeem a free Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 worth SGD$54!

*UPDATE* Apple has updated its store with Microsoft Office 2011! Post has been updated to include the link

Steam for Mac is now available for download and you will get Portal for free!

Portal used to cost money. Until May 24th, it’s free. End of story.
Well, technically speaking, there are some strings attached. Fortunately, they’re entirely decorative. We just like the way they look, swaying in the gentle breeze created by a million people simultanously fainting from shock at the news that Portal is free. Now you have no reason not to try Portal.

“I have a reason,” some of you are probably typing into an angry email. “You see, sir, I own a Mac.”

Well guess what: For the first time ever, Portal is also available for the Mac.

“Capital news! But the excellent puzzle adventure Portal won over 40 Game of the Year awards; Surely it must cost at least five or six hundred dollars.”

You’d think that, especially since it actually won over 70 Game of the Year Awards. But, like we keep saying, Portal is free. Free on the Mac. Free on the PC. But only until May 24th. So you only have a few days to decide if your free copy of Portal is worth the price we’re currently charging – which is you ever-so-slightly moving your index finger just barely enough to click the big red “download” button right there to the left.

Steam: Download Steam For Mac
Steam: Mac Store

I love my Dell 2408WFP Monitor because it has not 1 but 2 DVI ports! This allows me to connect to my Windows desktop as well as to my MacBook Pro without physically switching the DVI cables from my monitor.

As I have been using Mac a lot during office hours, I wanted the same setup I have in my office at home which is 1 external monitor and dual screen it with my MacBook Pro. In order not to clutter my desk with too many items, I bought the Apple Wireless Keyboard for SGD$98 and together with my Apple Magic Mouse paired using bluetooth to my MacBook Pro, I am able to have both Mac and Windows environment with just a single monitor but having 2 separate sets of keyboard and mouse.

Box

Box Open

Box Content

Read More (15 More Words, 4 More Images)

I am all along a Window user and have been doing web development on Windows for years. When I started work, all the guys in the engineering team are using Mac, so I thought I go with the flow and begin doing web development on a Mac. The experience was excellent, just need some time to get used to. After intensively using Mac for more than a month, I am proud to say, I am not going back to a Windows PC. My next computer shall be a Mac. I am hoping the 27″ iMac gets refreshed next year and it I am going to get that. Even Valve is bringing Steam to Mac. With Blizzard games able to run on Mac and Razer supporting it mice with Mac drivers. There is no reason for me to use a Windows PC anymore. If there is really a need (like testing website in IE), I will just use VMWare to run Windows 7.

Here are some software I use to do web development on Mac:

IDE: Coda (USD$99) by Panic
SVN: Versions (EURO€39) by Sofa & Pico
MYSQL: Sequel Pro (Free)
FTP: Flow (USD$25) by Extend Mac
localhost: MAMP (Free)