MacUpdate Offers 10 Apps for $49.99, Including Toast 14, Sparkle, ExpanDrive 5, and More

MacUpdate today launched its latest software bundle, offering ten Mac apps that have a total value of $550 for a $49.99 purchase price. Several popular Mac apps are included, with normal prices ranging from $15 to $149.

A full list of the titles included in the bundle, their value, and a software description is below:

– Toast 14 ($99.99) – There is no easier or faster way to save, share, and enjoy your digital media on disc. Capture, convert, copy, burn and share with Toast, the complete digital media toolkit for your Mac.

– ExpanDrive ($49.95) – ExpanDrive builds cloud storage in every application, acts just like a USB drive plugged into your Mac. With ExpanDrive, you can securely access any remote file server directly from the Finder or even the terminal.

– DEVONthink Personal ($49.95) – DEVONthink Personal keeps your documents, notes, bookmarks. Its unique tools and artificial intelligence let you manage your files effortlessly and focus on things that really matter.

– iMazing ($34.99) – Ultimate iPhone to Computer Transfer. iMazing supports iPhone 6 and every iPhone, iPad & iPod and gives you total control and absolute simplicity in use.

– Boom 2 ($14.99) – A system-wide volume booster and equalizer app, Boom 2 comes with a smart interface, self-calibration, hands-on advanced equalizer controls for finer audio control and amazing audio effects for enhanced audio output.

– Paragon 3 in 1 Bundle ($39.95) – Just install the driver, attach a disk or other media and use it as you wish, either under Windows OS or Mac OS X. Bundle includes NTFS for Mac 12, HFS+ for Windows 10 and Camptune X.

– Sparkle ($79.99) – The web design tool for creating modern sites with unparalleled creative control. Skip the tedium and design a gorgeous site that works right out of the box.

– NetSpot Pro ($149.00) – NetSpot Pro is a simple and accessible wireless survey tool for Mac users, which allows collecting, visualizing and analyzing Wi-Fi data using any MacBook.

– MacOptimizer 3 ($29.00) – An incredibly fast and efficient disk utility to quickly help you clean, repair and organize your Mac. MacOptimizer gets your Mac back in shape with quick, essential tools.

– TG Pro ($15.00) – Find out which components of your Mac are potentially overheating, turn up the fan speeds to cool down your Mac, get notifications for temperature alerts and more.

The first 5,000 people who purchase the MacUpdate bundle will also receive a copy of Seasonality Core, valued at $24.99. Seasonality Core is a weather monitoring app that includes weather forecasts, astronomical information, satellite images, and a weather journal.

The MacUpdate software bundle will be available for purchase for the next two weeks. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with MacUpdate, so bundles purchased through the links in this article will benefit MacRumors financially and provide a way for readers to support the site.

‘Launch Center Pro’ Gains Notification Center Widget, Support for New Apps

First released in 2012, Launch Center Pro was one of the first quick action apps in the App Store, designed to let users create shortcuts to features normally buried within apps, such as opening up Instagram directly to the camera, or opening a specific search within Yelp.

Over the years, Launch Center Pro has been updated several times with new features and while it has encountered some trouble with Apple, it continues to be a popular choice for users who are looking for a shortcut-based quick launch app. As of today, Launch Center Pro is getting a major update, which adds a new Notification Center widget.

With the new Notification Center widget, it’s possible to add twelve of your favorite Launch Center Pro actions for quick and easy access. You can do things like call a specific person, add an event to a favorite calendar app, get directions home, scan a QR code, send a group text, and more directly from the Notification Center.

More complex actions, like controlling a Nest Thermostat from IFTTT, scanning a barcode and searching Amazon, or taking a photo and messaging it to an entire group are also supported by Launch Center Pro. Apps like Safari, Twitter, Facebook, and Google are all supported by Launch Center Pro, and today’s update also adds support for more than 100,000 additional apps and iOS 9.

In the future, Launch Center Pro plans to support iPhone 6s features, introducing 3D Touch-based Quick Actions that will be able to be launched by using a force press on the Launch Center Pro app icon on the Home screen.

Launch Center Pro can be downloaded from the App Store for $3.99, a 20 percent discount from its usual price. [Direct Link]

Apple Building Unified Cloud Platform for iCloud, iTunes, Siri and More

Apple is moving forward with plans to build a unified platform for cloud-based web services such as iCloud, iTunes and Siri over the next few years, according to The Information.

The new platform is based on Siri, which itself is powered by open source infrastructure software called Mesos on the backend, according to the report.

The system will be what’s called an “orchestrated infrastructure” that has the ability, among other things, to run Internet applications inside “containers,” which make it easier to scale the apps and make changes to them on the fly, one of these people says.

Apple is reportedly placing more emphasis on open source software in an attempt to attract open source engineers that can help improve its web services, but it remains to be seen how far the company shifts away from its deep culture of secrecy.

Apple sometimes requires engineers submitting code to open-source products to do so through a third party rather than let Apple be affiliated with the code. One person who’s been through the process says they felt that submitting code to an open-source project like Mesos or Hadoop is generally “frowned upon” by managers at Apple. But the process has gotten easier over time, people who have participated in the process say.

The paywalled report explains how Apple is slowly embracing the open source community and becoming more transparent about its open source projects. It also lists some of the open source technologies that Apple uses, including Hadoop, HBase, Elasticsearch, Reak, Kafka, Azkaban and Voldemort.

Bloomberg reported in June that Apple is building a high-speed content delivery network and planning upgrades to its data centers with more in-house equipment to better compete with Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other cloud service providers. The improved infrastructure will allow for faster web services and more efficient delivery of cloud-based content such as streaming music.

Apple Pay Now Supports Citizens Bank, E-Trade Bank and Over 40 Other U.S. Issuers

Apple updated its Apple Pay participating issuers list today with 46 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions supporting the contactless payment service in the United States. Apple Pay now has over 500 participating issuers nationwide, and several more plan to support the NFC-based mobile payment service in the future.

Citizens Bank and E-TRADE Bank highlight the complete list of Apple Pay participating issuers, although it’s worth noting that some smaller banks, credit unions and financial institutions listed may have already had support for the contactless payments service and are only now being reflected on Apple’s website.

The full list of new Apple Pay participating issuers:

• Amplify Federal Credit Union
  
• Bank of the Ozarks
  
• Branch Banking & Trust
  
• Bridgehampton National Bank
  
• Capital Educators Federal Credit Union
  
• Centra Credit Union
  
• Charlotte Metro Credit Union
  
• Citizens Bank
  
• Coastal Federal Credit Union
  
• Credit Union 1
  
• “Dollar Bank, FSB”
  
• Eglin FCU
  
• ETRADE BANK
  
• First Community Bank
  
• First Community Credit Union (OR)
  
• First Florida Credit Union
  
• First National Bank of Waseca
  
• Floridian Bank
  
• Georgia United Credit Union
  
• Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union
  
• Kennebunk Savings Bank
  
• Kirtland Federal Credit Union
  
• Leaders Credit Union
  
• Maine Savings Federal Credit Union
  
• McGraw-Hill Federal Credit Union
  
• Merchants Bank
  
• MIT Federal Credit Union
  
• National Penn Bank
  
• Navigant Credit Union
  
• Nodaway Valley Bank
  
• Nymeo
  
• OU Federal Credit Union
  
• Pacific NW Federal Credit Union
  
• Power Financial Credit Union
  
• Seaboard Federal Credit Union
  
• SECU of Maryland
  
• Southern Security FCU
  
• Southwest Financial Federal Credit Union
  
• Sterling Federal Bank
  
• The Cape Cod Five Cent Saving Bank
  
• The Focus Federal Credit Union
  
• Trupoint Bank
  
• UBI Federal Credit Union
  
• Vinton County National Bank
  
• Watertown Savings Bank
  
• Xceed Financial Federal Credit Union

Apple Pay remains limited to the United States and United Kingdom, although Apple is committed to an international rollout of the mobile payments service in additional countries such as Canada and China in the future. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Apple is planning a November launch of Apple Pay in Canada.

Tim Cook Talks iPhone Security, His Favorite New Features, and Deleting Stock iOS Apps

Following last week’s announcement of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Tim Cook has been paying unannounced visits to a few Apple Stores to talk with the store’s employees and take pictures with customers. During a ride to the company’s flagship 5th Avenue location in Manhattan, Buzzfeed got a few minutes with the Apple CEO, where he discussed everything from the privacy concerns of the new “Hey Siri” feature to whether or not iPhone users will ever be able to delete those Apple-created stock apps from their smartphones.

Directly addressing the privacy and safety concerns of “Hey Siri”, Cook mentioned that anyone who is fearful of such things can always turn the feature off. Still, he described “the real answer” to be the fact that any information collected by the feature remains on the iPhone, and isn’t sent to Apple or anyone else. On the lighter side, when asked about the newest features coming to the next generation iPhones, Cook’s favorite appears to be 3D Touch.

Cook is hot on all of this stuff; he describes Live Photos with near Jobsian hyperbole — “I think Live Photos is a medium that hasn’t existed before. It’s like discovering a new form.” But he’s most excited by 3D Touch. “I personally think 3D Touch is a game changer,” he says. “I find that my efficiency is way up with 3D touch, because I can go through so many emails so quickly. It really does cut out a number of navigational steps to get where you’re going.”

When asked whether the company ever holds back a massive innovation ready for an “S” year, for the next generation (next year’s assumed “iPhone 7″), Cook was adamant in stating “As soon as products are ready we’re going to release them. There’s no holding back.” Another such innovation, the new iPhone Upgrade Program, is promised by the CEO to be aimed at improving customer experience with an “easier” and “simpler” way for those who want the new iPhone each year.

Thanks in part to the announcement of products like the iPad Pro, Cook also mentions that because “we’re at the point where the iPad does what some people want to do with their PCs,” he posits that some people may “never” buy a proper desktop or laptop computer. Still, he believes the Mac is a “key part” of the company’s strategy and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

One aspect that may be changing in the future, however, is a much-requested way to delete apps like “Stocks” and “Tips” from the iPhone. Cook and the company are aware of the fans’ cry for the feature and want to work something out, but it may be more complicated than it seems.

“This is a more complex issue than it first appears,” he says. “There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone. If they were to be removed they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone. There are other apps that aren’t like that. So over time, I think with the ones that aren’t like that, we’ll figure out a way [for you to remove them]. … It’s not that we want to suck up your real estate, we’re not motivated to do that. We want you to be happy. So I recognize that some people want to do this, and it’s something we’re looking at.”

Apple announced the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPad Pro last week along with other products like the new Apple TV, and some new information on upcoming updates like iOS 9 and watchOS 2. The new iPhones went up for pre-order over the weekend and are scheduled to launch next week on Friday, September 25. Cook’s interview with Buzzfeed in New York today precedes his upcoming appearance on the new Late Show with Stephen Colbert, airing tonight at 11:30 p.m. on CBS.

The full interview between Cook and Buzzfeed is worth a read.