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Mac and iPad users, take note! iBank4 (review) for Mac and iPad can be had for $10 off through July 15, 2013 to celebrate IGG Software’s first 10 years in business. You can also get instant $10 rebates on iBiz 4, iBiz Pro, iBiz 4 Client and iPaste in the IGG online store and the Mac App Store.

Interested in iBank 4, my favorite personal finance app for Mac? Download the 30-day free trial now so you have time to try it and decide if you want to buy the software before the discount expires. There’s a 90-day guarantee on direct purchases from the IGG web store and the sale price is $49.99. iBank 3 users can upgrade for $29.99.

A couple of my favorite iBank features are how it easily transfers data from Quicken for Mac or Windows, Quicken Essentials, MS Money, or other personal finance software, and it’s super-cool envelope budgeting features. Of course, it syncs with iPhone and iPad apps, currently $9.99 and $4.99 respectively.

iBank for iPad delivers the most powerful set of money management features available in an iOS app with budgets, investment tracking, transaction editing and automatic account updates from thousands of banks via the app’s Direct Access subscription service. Or, you can update by syncing with iBank 4 on your Mac desktop. iBank for iPad’s regular price is $14.99 and it’s been a top seller in the Mac App Store since it was released a year ago.

From IGG Software: iBiz 4 offers freelancers and independent contractors a broad set of tools for creating estimates and invoices, tracking jobs and clients, and managing time, rates and expenses. iBiz Professional delivers all of the same features along with networking and admin capabilities. iBiz Pro (including two client licenses) is regularly $99.99; iBiz 4 and iBiz 4 Client licenses are regularly $39.99.

• More Mac Personal Finance Software
• iBank 4 Review
• Best iOS Personal Finance Apps
• Top 10 Budgeting Software Picks

Image Courtesy iBUYPOWER

iBUYPOWER is one of several system integrators that builds systems from parts with very reasonable overhead costs to provide performance PCs to consumers that would rather not build their own PC but not necessarily go the prestige system route and their very high price tags. The Gamer Paladin D897 is one of their gaming systems that is built around the new Intel Haswell chip and uses their signature series Chimera case to give it a unique appearance. Does the system have the performance to match its exterior? Find out in my review of the iBUYPOWER Gamer Paladin D897 performance desktop.

• iBUYPOWER Gamer Paladin D897 Gaming Desktop Preview

Highlights in social medialand this week:

Introducing the “Pier to Pier” Boat Network

A startup called Boatbound is trying to do for boat rentals what sites like HomeAway and Airbnb do for home rentals–create a new marketplace where people can rent their boats directly to other people.

Boatbound rental network listings

Launched this week, Boatbound’s key innovation seems to be that it offers insurance to protect owners who list their boats for sale on the site from mishaps that may be caused by those who rent them. To rent anything on Boatbound, people must be certified to pilot a boat–or be willing to go through the $30 certification process offered through the rental service.
TechCrunch has a full profile of Boatbound.

Narcissist’s Nirvana: #FollowMe on Twitter

Twitter announced a new self-promotional tool this week that can automatically generate a demo video of material that a user has put on Twitter. What Twitter calls your “highlight reel” is a short video clip showing your most popular tweets, tweeted photos and most loyal followers on Twitter. In a blog post, Twitter said a company called Vizify generates the videos and sets them to music, which the user can edit after the sound track is added.

MySpace Released Free Music App

Myspace released a free streaming music app for iPhones this week, allowing users to program their own streaming radio station on the Internet or listen to streaming music programmed by well known artists and others. The new, free mobile Myspace app is similar to the desktop Web version of Myspace, which was redesigned six months ago as a social network focused on music. The mobile app release is timed to coincide with a major marketing push for the redesigned MySpace.com. Myspace mobile was the second big music release this week. First up was Apple’s preview of its forthcoming iTunes Radio, another Internet radio service that will compete against streaming services like Spotify and Pandora.

Image Courtesy Digital Storm

High end gaming desktop systems tend to focus heavily on having the best performance possible. Typically this involves a lot of components that generate a lot of heat when under load especially if they are overclocked. The easiest solution to deal with the heat problem is to increase the number of fans and the speed at which they turn. The downside is that this will generate a lot of ambient noise from the cooling of the PC which can be very distracting especially in some games. Digital Storm tried to offer a very high performance gaming system while also keeping the noise in check. Find out more on how they achieve this in my preview of the Digital Storm Slade Level 2 gaming desktop computer.

• Digital Storm Slade Level 2 Gaming Desktop Preview

Image Courtesy CyberpowerPC

CyberpowerPC has been producing their Gamer Infinity XLC system for some time now. With the release of Intel’s latest Haswell processors and NVIDIA’s GeForce 700 series graphics cards, they have updated the base configuration of this gaming desktop PC. The new base configuration comes in at $1439 which is very reasonable especially when priced against many of the other prestige brands on the market. So what does Cyberpower offer on this system and how does it stack up against some other similarly priced systems? Find out in my preview of the Cyberpower Gamer Infinity XLC gaming desktop computer system.

• Cyberpower 2013 Gamer Infinity XLC Gaming Desktop Preview

Mac enthusiasts have a new rendition of the iWork office suite to look forward to.

Apple’s upcoming iWork for iCloud Apps will be accessible via iOS-compatible browsers or their device desktop, thanks to integration with its iCloud online environment and similar to Microsoft’s Web Apps for SkyDrive or Google Docs/Apps for Google Drive. It’s about time!

Tom Nelson’s Software Deals for Mac

Anyone following iWork the last year or so has been hearing crickets, so this announcement at the recent WWDC 2013 (WorldWide Developers’ Conference) is exciting. As soon as this fall, users will be able to access the beta of the new iWork for iCloud apps for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

(c) Image Courtesy of Apple

Mac enthusiasts have a new rendition of the iWork office suite to look forward to.

Apple’s upcoming iWork for iCloud Apps will be accessible via iOS-compatible browsers or their device desktop, thanks to integration with its iCloud online environment and similar to Microsoft’s Web Apps for SkyDrive or Google Docs/Apps for Google Drive. It’s about time!

Tom Nelson’s Software Deals for Mac

Anyone following iWork the last year or so has been hearing crickets, so this announcement at the recent WWDC 2013 (WorldWide Developers’ Conference) is exciting. As soon as this fall, users will be able to access the beta of the new iWork for iCloud apps for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

(c) Image Courtesy of Apple

Apple showed off all the things at its WWDC developers conference today. I was surprised by Apple’s divergence from its cat-based OS X naming convention to using “Mavericks” for the next version, tickled pink by the MacBook Air Haswell updates, and, plainly, overwhelmed by all the other iCloud and iOS 7 updates. But one point Apple made today caught my eye and is significant for anyone who works on an iPad for, well, work: iWork in the iCloud.

iWork for iCloud, currently in beta, will let you open Apple’s versions of Microsoft Office software–Pages (Word), Keynote (PowerPoint), Numbers (Excel)–in any browser, on the Mac or PC (or, I’m guessing, Linux). Apple’s office suite is now truly a competitor to Microsoft Office Web Apps and Google Docs. And it will open Microsoft Office files as well.

In short, it’s like Google’s recent Microsoft Office market-share-grabbing play, Chrome Office Viewer, which opens MS Office files in Chrome and Google Docs.

The point is that everyone wants to be your office-suite-in-the-cloud, but Microsoft Office is still the standard. Between the Microsoft, Google, and Apple solutions, I think Microsoft still has the edge–but perhaps not for long.

In any case, having online, full editing access to your docs and spreadsheets (whichever office suite you choose) is a wonderful thing if you’re a web worker–especially if you use a tablet and a regular laptop/desktop for work.

A lot of new and exciting things are on the way for Apple users, and they were all revealed to us earlier today during the company’s massive annual WWDC keynote.

Tech enthusiasts were somewhat skeptical about what would be announced at today’s event, considering Google did so well at its annual I/O conference just a few weeks ago.

“Can’t innovate anymore, my ass,” said Apple Senior Vice President Phill Schiller during today’s keynote, in response to the critics.

Here are some the main web-based features announced today that will change and improve the way you access and interact on the Internet (using Apple products, of course).

Safari Browser Improvements

• Safari has fallen behind the user-preferred Google Chrome browser, but Apple is stepping up its game with a refreshed Safari interface, social browsing via shared links, a brand new sidebar featuring a reading list and a redesign for Top Sites.
• Apple users who eventually decide to upgrade to the coming OS X Mavericks will also get a new feature called App Naps — a nifty tool for helping you conserve power.

iOS 7 Revamp

• iWork for iCloud will let users work with any files for Pages. Numbers or Keynote right in the desktop or iOS browsers, as a way to take on Google Docs and Microsoft Office Web Apps.
• You’ll soon be able to swipe between any camera app when accessing the camera, like Instagram, Snapseed, the native camera app or anything else.
• AirDrop, Apple’s P2P file-sharing feature, will allow you to see a sharing sheet whenever you need to send a video, photo or other file with one or multiple friends nearby.
• Microsoft’s Bing search has been integrated into Siri, and users will be able to use it to control a range of things like Bluetooth, brightness, Twitter, Wikipedia, your car and much more.
• Apps that require updates will update automatically in iOS 7 without asking you for permission first.
• iOS 7 will be out later this fall.

iTunes Radio (iRadio)

• Apple is launching its very own music streaming service, called iTunes Radio, which will compete with services like Pandora/Spotify/Rdio and will come built directly into iTunes on both mobile and the desktop.
• It’s only launching in the U.S. to start and will be free for all users.
• A premium subscription option will be available to users who don’t want to see ads.
• With iRadio, users will be able to create their own playlists, share music on social media and have it all synched up across all Apple devices.

Other Cool Hardware and OS Stuff

If you want to know anything about the new Mac Pros or Macbook Airs or the new OS X Mavericks, I recommend checking out our Apple experts’ columns for Macs, iPods/iPhones and iPads.

I also really enjoyed the live coverage done by The Verge today. Their team is extraordinary, and they’ve got a whole bunch of in-depth articles and first looks at what was announced today all over their homepage.

Photo © Bloomberg via Getty Images

Image Courtesy Avatar USA

With the recent release of the 4th generation of Intel’s Core i processors, there is a slew of new high end desktop systems coming to market. Avatar was a company that formed fourteen years ago as VBox and has recently gone into a more mainstream market selling directly to consumers through its site and from big online retailers like NewEgg. The Avatar i7-4779 is their first gaming desktop to use the new processor and offers a very affordable price tag of around $1350. Find out more of what they have to offer in my preview of the Avatar Gaming i7-4779 gaming desktop PC.

• Avatar Gaming i7-4779 Gaming Desktop Preview