Amidst a sea of iPhone applications, “Coffee Spot” stands out for its combination of eye-catching design and extreme ease of use. Where most other location-based applications require multiple steps or frequently unreliable voice commands, “Coffee Spot” requires only one click to find the closest cup of coffee.

Coffee Spot displays a listing of all types of coffee shops, from small Mom and Pop’s to large chain vendors. You can map, call, and invite a friend to meet you at a specified coffee shop. Or, if you’re a road warrior, add locations to your “Favorites” to find spots you’ve visited while traveling.

Jen Gordon, Owner and “Head Creative Juicer” at Clever Twist sees a clear demand for such applications. “Locating your favorite items shouldn’t have to be a complicated process. Everyone has something, whether its coffee or burgers or something else that they just can’t live without. My goal is to make it as simple as possible to find the stuff you love.”

Minimum Requirements:
iPhone or iPod touch 2.1 or later

Pricing and Availability:
Coffee Spot is available for both iPhone and iPod Touch (calling is disabled on the touch version). Coffee Spot Pro is available for download in the Apple App Store for $1.99 (USD), or you can try out a free, ad supported “Lite” version for free.

Clever Twist
Coffee Spot 1.0
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Clever Twist is an interactive design studio specializing in iPhone application design and development. Owner / Creative Director, Jen Gordon and her team of development gurus bring a wealth of talent and expertise to the mobile space, keenly aware of the challenges and opportunities mobile devices bring from a usability, design and technology perspective. Copyright 2009 Clever Twist. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

To continue the tradition, XtraLean has invited a group of Mac-related websites to partake in its Father’s Day Sale again this year. Users can get a discount code from any one of the participating sites listed on XtraLean’s home page. Participating sites will receive 40% of each sale that is generated from their site.

ShutterBug is an easy to use website creation tool for Mac OS X that helps users create and publish stylish websites easily, quickly, and custom built to one’s specific and personalized needs. ImageWell is a lean, yet powerful image editor for Mac OS X that lets users quickly and easily edit, crop, resize, and send pictures and files to anyone, anywhere with one simple click of a button.

The latest version of ImageWell offers even more handy features such as batch resizing, batch watermarking, improved image filters, and much more. The latest version of ShutterBug adds a shopping cart feature, new special effects for photos, more image filters, plus many other new enhancements. Now until June 15th, both applications are available for 50% off the regular prices.

Both products can be tried for free. A registration number can be purchased for ImageWell for only $9.95 which will unlock the seven-day trial version. A registration number can be purchased for ShutterBug for only $19.95 which will unlock the Demo version and remove the ‘demo’ watermark from uploaded images. A coupon code for each product is required to purchase at the special price, which users can get from one of the participating “Mac Dads” listed on XtraLean’s home page. More offer details are available from XtraLean’s website.

ShutterBug requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or better and ImageWell requires Mac OS X 10.4 or better. Both products are Universal Binaries for Intel-based Mac and Power PC support. Both products support .Mac accounts, WebDAV hosts, FTP/SFTP, and Export to a Folder. In addition to these, ImageWell also supports SmugMug, Flickr, and ImageShack accounts. More information on ShutterBug and ImageWell is available from XtraLean’s website.

The special Father’s Day Sale prices are available only until June 21 at midnight Eastern Standard Time. To learn more about XtraLean’s Father’s Day Special, please visit XtraLean’s home page.

XtraLean Software
ShutterBug
ImageWell
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Download ImageWell

Founded in 2002, XtraLean Software is a small software developer for the Mac OS X platform with over a decade of experience in developing and marketing leading edge applications on the alternative platform. XtraLean is committed to creating affordable and innovative software for Mac OS X users by providing slim and useful alternatives that give users what they ask for.

ShiveringKittens is a game in which players arrange falling blocks to free animated kittens stuck in a Minnesota winter. The more ice blocks players connect, the more kittens they rescue and the more points they earn. With each kitten that players rescue, the satisfying ice crunch and plaintive meows of the freed kittens reward players for their efforts. For those players who want to amp up the challenge, ShiveringKittens comes in 10 increasingly difficult levels.

Tim Goggin, VP of GiantCrayon, said, “I want to thank everyone out there who helped us raise awareness of this great cause and this promotion. To the great people at the ASPCA, to everyone who tweeted about the promo, told their friend, mentioned it in their blog - thank you! It’s because of your help that, even in this tough economy, we were able to raise $1527.00 to help save animals.”

The fundraising promotion came as a result of merging a game designed for cat lovers with an organization that helped animals of all kinds. It was a seamless fit. Goggin concluded, “We’d love to work with the ASPCA again in the future. Everyone worked very hard to raise as much money as possible and it was an incredible experience.”

Minimum Requirements:
iPhone or iPod touch 2.1 or later

Pricing and Availability:
ShiveringKittens is available now for iPhone and iPod Touch on the iTunes App Store for $2.99 (USD).

ShiveringKittens
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GiantCrayon Games is a wholly owned subsidiary of Information Appliance Associates, makers of ground-breaking Macintosh sync tools. GiantCrayon Games produces unique casual games for fun and stimulation. All GiantCrayon brands and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of Information Appliance Associates. Macintosh and iPhone are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. For more information on ShiveringKittens, please visit their website.

T. Benjamin Larsen, Nor Eagle CEO, Creative Director and hand-model had this to say about the update: “We are always happy to abuse our customers. It seems the Monk’s venomous tongue is the most popular feature of the game so we figured bolstering his arsenal was something our customers would appreciate.”.

The candid manner in which the developers have presented the game seems to have won them a few admirers: “Spiffy Looking Ultimately Craptastic = Brilliant! And we love the fact that these folks can laugh at themselves and be honest about yet another lame rock paper scissors app…” writes KRAPPS.com

“We’re not in a position to make Zelda or Halo for the iPhone.” said Larsen. “Starting out small and being honest about our limitations is simply the right thing to do.”

Changes and additions in version 1.1:
* Additional insults added to the Insulting Monk’s repertoire
* Bug fixes
* Developer learnt how to spell ‘lose’
* Minor graphical changes
* New icon
* Compatible with iPhone OS 3.0

System Requirements:
iPhone and iPod Touch 2.2.1 or later

Pricing and Availability:
Ben’s somewhat spiffy-looking but ultimately craptastic rock-paper-scissors game(tm) is available for $0.99 (USD) from the iTunes App Store.

Nor Eagle
rock-paper-scissors 1.1
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KRAPPS-article

Nor Eagle is a Norwegian-based mutlimedia company founded in. Nor Eagle has made its name domestically producing Corporate Videos and animations and is for the most of the time equal to its founder T. Benjamin Larsen. Copyright 2009 Nor Eagle. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

“Storyist has helped thousands of writers take their project from initial idea to submission-ready manuscript,” said Steve Shepard, CEO of Storyist Software. “With Storyist 2, writers have even more tools to help bring their stories to life.”

Storyist 2 introduces a new “collage” mode in the storyboard, which makes it easy to visualize the relationships between various elements of a story. A streamlined interface supports full-screen mode, split views, and multiple windows. The upgrade also includes support for comments and bookmarks, a color-coding outliner, and an enhanced project manager. In all, Storyist 2 offers over two dozen new features.

System Requirements:
* Mac OS X v10.4.11 and higher

Pricing and Availability:
The download-only version is $59.00 (USD) and a download boxed set (CD printed manual) version is $79.00. Both are available through the company’s online store. For more information and for a free two-week trial of Storyist 2, please visit the Storyist website.

Storyist 2
Storyist Info
Direct Download Link
Purchase Link
Screenshot

Founded in 2003 by Silicon Valley veteran Steve Shepard, Storyist Software develops creative writing tools for Mac OS X that make the process of writing, editing, and publishing as simple as possible—but no simpler. Storyist is a registered trademark of Storyist Software LLC.

At Bokardo Design, Porter designs simple, usable interfaces for clients from startups to corporate giants. He also consults with companies suffering from severe cases of feature creep or those who merely need objective advice. His session takes place during An Event Apart Boston, June 22-23 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Porter wrote the book Designing for the Social Web and speaks regularly at web design conferences and events around the world. Since 2003, he has written the popular design blog bokardo.com, which is quite well known for making design issues either easy to understand or more complicated than ever.

“As designers we must remember that behavior comes first. Always. The quirky, the obscure, the vain, the annoying, the wonderful - we need to observe human behavior if we are to support it in design,” says Porter. “If people collect things, how can we support that? If people are vain, how does that effect the design?”

Porter points out that many successful social software products and services focus on the collection of social objects such as photos, bookmarks, friends, vampires. He believes this is no accident. People collect things as a natural matter of course, and software that supports the behavior will naturally be more successful.

Porter explains, “Specific behaviors like collecting or searching for status aren’t going away anytime soon. So instead of decrying such behavior, we need to embrace it! We need to figure out how it fits within the context of what we’re building. Sometimes it won’t. But we can’t dismiss it. If we are really serious about designing great software, then we have to give this type of behavior some thought, considering whether we should or whether we can damp it or amplify it.”

Join Jeffrey Zeldman and special speakers like Josh Porter at An Event Apart, where you will gain a deeper understanding of web standards and best practices, and be inspired by fresh ideas and creative new directions. An Event Apart delivers two days with the greatest minds and hottest talents in web design today. Speakers cover creating the right content and features for your audience, designing pages that are a pleasure to read and use, and beating browsers and web gadgets into submission. Both An Event Apart and its presenters are gung-ho about web design and development. Each speaker has made genuine contributions to the industry and each is a star.

An Event Apart takes place in Boston, June 22-23, Chicago, October 12-13, and finishes the year in San Francisco, December 7-8, 2009. These two-day events all take place in one room, one track, for a shared and concentrated learning experience multi-track events cannot deliver. To register for the conference, visit the website.

An Event Apart
An Event Apart Boston

From the makers of A List Apart, An Event Apart is an intensely educational two-day conference for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart is the conference you’ve been waiting for. Founded by web visionaries Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, and dedicated to the proposition that the creators of great web experiences deserve a great learning experience, An Event Apart brings together twelve of the leading minds in web design for two days of non-stop inspiration and enlightenment. An Event Apart receives support from A List Apart, Happy Cog, GoodBarry and Media Temple.

Developed by Fuel Games, Vans SK8: Pool Service allows players to step into the shoes of pro riders Bucky Lasek or Omar Hassan, choose their board and wheels, and session an abandoned pool in one of ten unique events. The game features a licensed soundtrack from artists such as Penuckle and Slowride, and makes use of both the accelerometer function and multi-touch interface of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Minimum Requirements:
iPhone and iPod touch 2.0 or later (Full 3.0 OS support)

Pricing and Availability:
Vans Sk8: Pool Service is currently available for $2.99 (USD) on the App Store, or as a free Lite version, giving iPhone and iPod touch users an excellent opportunity to check out one of the season’s most addictive titles. Find out more about the game and view screen shots at the official game website, or download now from the Apple App Store.

Vans SK8: Pool Service 1.1.1
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Game Trailer

Fuel Games is an independent game developer exploring the boundaries of mobile, console, online and PC game development. With studios in Los Angeles, Denver, and Ottawa, Fuel Games continues to invent new ways to engage gamers, wherever they’re found. Copyright 2009 Fuel Games. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

ReaddleDocs combines a network file server, web storage client, web browser, file manager and powerful document viewer within a single iPhone business application. It allows people to transfer documents to their devices over Wi-Fi and 3G in a number of ways, view them on the go, send by email and share with other iPhone users with ease.

Support for iWork ‘09 documents is the main addition of the ReaddleDocs 1.5 that overcomes one of the iPhone 2.x firmware major flaws. Individuals who use iPhone OS 2.x could view iWork ‘09 documents saved with preview while iPhone OS 3.0 users could read all iWork ‘09 documents without restrictions. Combined with ReaddleDocs’ ability to save email attachments, recently highlighted by Walt Mossberg in The Wall Street Journal, it makes ReaddleDocs 1.5 the best way to read iWork ‘09 attachments on the iPhone.

Another key ReaddleDocs 1.5 feature is uploading files and photos from iPhone to MobileMe iDisk or any other WebDAV compatible online file storage. It allows MobileMe subscribers to share their documents and images with friends and colleagues right from the iPhone.

“Viewing Work ‘09 documents and uploading files to iDisk are among the most requested features for document viewers in the App Store,” explains Alexander Tyagulsky, Readdle CMO. “Implementing these functions in ReaddleDocs makes it even more useful and valuable for our customers.”

Minimum Requirements:
iPhone or iPod touch 2.2.1 or later

Pricing and Availability:
ReaddleDocs is available for the special price of $4.99 (USD) exclusively on the App Store.

Readdle
ReaddleDocs 1.5
Download and Purchase
Screenshot
App Icon

Founded in 2007, Readdle aims to provide iPhone and iPod Touch users with high quality applications that are missing in a standard application set. Flagship offerings are ReaddleDocs - a complete document and file management solution for the iPhone and iPod Touch; Take A Note - a versatile note taking application with direct access to notes from a PC or Mac computer using Wi-Fi. Copyright 2007-2009 Readdle. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Renkara Media Group’s product line has grown from five language education applications available during last year’s App Store opening to over 190 applications today. With the April release of its Essentials by AccelaStudy products, Renkara Media Group has seen eleven of the AccelaStudy applications climb into the Top 100 Free Education Apps list with five applications in the Top 25.

“The last few months have been incredible. We’re very thankful to our fanatical customer base for their support and to Apple for creating such a powerful distribution channel for developers,” said Charles Sieg, president of Renkara Media Group. “With the new iPhone, the coming months promise to be even more exciting.”

AccelaStudy products are now available in 16 languages with additional languages planned for later this year. In addition to language education products, Renkara Media Group has also partnered with leading content providers such as Versaly Entertainment and Soundview Executive Book Summaries to deliver other unique and compelling content in the App Store.

Renkara Media Group
AccelaStudy

Renkara Media Group, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is a leading provider of education software for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Since the release of the iPhone SDK, it specializes in applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, particularly in the development of education, entertainment, business, and reference products. Apple, iPhone, and iPod Touch are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

This new version will appeal to professional and amateur interior designers but, also because of its superior and easy to use modeling and animation tools, it will also appeal to product designers who wish to model and present their designs in realistic looking settings. Furniture and appliance designers, office designers, shop fitters, stage set designers and many others will find this an invaluable tool for conceptual design.

The Edit Wall tool enables you to create room layouts by modifying existing models or drawing a rough layout of the correct shape and adjusting it for your exact requirements. The walls can be edited in any view 2D or 3D. The walls can be moved and their thickness, height and length adjusted. As the walls move they move adjoining walls with them in an intuitive way. Walls can also have alcoves created in them and can be joined and split as required.

This makes it easy to trace a room layout from a floor plan imported from MacDraft or any other CAD program and modify it to fit exactly over the plan. We have produced a tutorial showing how this can be done and feel that it offers MacDraft users an easy way to go from 2D plan to 3D model. Overall this makes Interiors Professional version 4.1 much easier to use than the previous version.

The modeling has also been greatly improved by adding a vertex editing tool which allows you to subdivide and split surface geometries and adjust elasticity then edit single or multiple vertices on the surface of objects enabling complex surface editing and therefore allowing you to create shapes that would have been virtually impossible in previous versions. Snapping points can also be added for easy alignment. There are two new cuboid tools, one with chamfered edges and one with rounded edges. The size of the chamfer or radius can be set before drawing the cuboid which gives you the ability to create commonly used objects with more realistic edges with much less work.

Microspot Interiors Professional is a 3D interior design, modeling and animation program that allows you to quickly visualize interiors and create animations which can be recorded as movies and viewed by anyone with QuickTime. Interiors makes it simple to draw walls and then add furniture and accessories from the library of almost 2000 items or import 3DS or Google SketchUp 6 files which are readily available from many 3rd parties.

These items can be resized and the colors and textures customized. With a comprehensive list of 3D modeling tools it is possible to create any furniture item or accessory yourself if you cannot find what you need. Finally you can add lighting and render with shadows and reflections to create realistic 3D scenes which you can use to create stunning pictures, posters and animations for use in presentations and proposals.

System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.4. or above
* Macintosh with G5 or Intel processor with 1GB RAM and 1GB free disk space

Pricing and Availability:
Microspot Interiors Professional is available from the Microspot web store. For more information or to buy it or try it go to the Microspot web site. Microspot Interiors Professional has a retail price of $249.00 USD (£149.00 or 199.00 Euro). Registered users of Interiors Professional 4.0 can upgrade for $55.00 (£29.00 or 42.50 Euro). Registered users of the standard Interiors may upgrade for $112.50 (£69.00 or 99.00 Euro) at the Microspot web store. Enquiries about this press release or requests for review software should be made to Robert Coulling.

Microspot U.S
Microspot Interiors Professional
Trial Version Link (Full)
Trial Version Link (Limited Library) SMALL
Purchase Microspot Interiors
Screenshot

About Microspot. Founded in 1964, Microspot develops and markets applications for 3D modeling and animation, interior design, 2D drawing and drafting, image editing, and media management as well as printer drivers. Microspot Worldwide Headquarters: Microspot Limited, Concorde House, 10-12 London Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 8QA, UK Tel: 44 (0) 1622 687771; Fax 44 (0) 1622 690801.