Archive for December, 2008

Macworld! Free Passes! Celebrity Demo!

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

mw_logo_web.gifIt’s New Year’s Eve, which means we are working furiously to get ready for next week’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco. We’ll be at our booth, #407 in the South Hall of the Moscone Center, January 6 – 9, 2009.

(I have to start getting used to typing 2009…)

We’ll be showing off the latest version of PDFpen 4, as well as DiscLabel and TextExpander. Please do come by to see us and to check out the newest features of our software. (And we will have candy!)

If you don’t have an Exhibit Hall pass yet, we still have some to giveaway. Just use this link to register for the show. January 4, Sunday, is the last day to take advantage of these free passes. The number is limited, so don’t delay.

I am excited to announce that Don McAllister, the host and producer of ScreenCastsOnline, will be in the SmileOnMyMac booth on Thursday, January 8, from 2 pm to 3 pm, to talk about the Mac Switcher Bundle. The bundle is a great collection of software (TextExpander, 1Password and Witch) plus a special series of ScreenCastsOnline video tutorials aimed at helping new Mac users get the most out of their Macs.

DonMcAllister1106.jpgDon will be doing short demos of the Mac Switcher Bundle software, as well as showing off ScreenCastsOnline. He’s definitely achieved Mac celebrity status with his best-of-class video tutorials and his frequent appearances on Mac Break Weekly, MacVoices, Mac Roundtable, and many others. You can hear Don on a special episode of MacVoices with me, 1Password developer Roustem Karimov and Witch developer Peter Maurer.

Don was also a faculty member on the Geek Cruise last month, and achieved celebrity status on the ship when the crew thought he was missing in Santorini. (It turns out their card readers were faulty–he was, in fact, aboard. He even has proof. You can hear the whole story on this episode of Mac Roundtable…)

The Mac Switcher Bundle

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

We’re announcing a very special collaboration with some of our favorite people in the Mac development community. The Mac Switcher Bundle offers 3 popular and top-rated Mac OS X utilities (TextExpander, 1Password and Witch) along with a special series of video tutorials aimed at the new Mac user from ScreenCastsOnline. This bundle (a great gift for the new Mac users in your life!) is only $49.95, a discount of over 50% of its value.

We wanted to give new Mac users a taste of what makes the Mac OS X experience so great. All three of these utilities are favorites among those who make the lists of must-have Mac software. All three have been awarded 4.5 mice by Macworld. But we wanted to go beyond a great software bundle, and add the top-quality ScreenCastsOnline video tutorials that help new Mac users take full advantage of the power of their shiny new hardware.

For me, the collaboration is also emblematic of what makes the Mac so great: a wonderful community of fellow enthusiasts. Dave Teare at Agile Web Solutions supported the idea from the beginning. We’ve both worked with Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline and know firsthand the value of his video productions via his TextExpander and 1Password tutorials. We knew that an educational component would make this bundle unique.

Finally, Peter Maurer of ManyTricks suggested Witch as an ideal program for easing the transition from Windows to Mac by offering a window-switching functionality that former Windows users were accustomed to. (And Peter is the original developer of Textpander, so it comes full circle…)

We have really enjoyed working with these guys to put this together, and we are looking forward to spreading the word about the Mac Switcher Bundle at Macworld 2009, coming up so very soon…