Steve Sande

<p>Here's your afteroon dose of tech and Apple news. We've got a pair of spiffy ads and an update to Skype for iPhone. Let's take a look, shall we?</p>

<p>It's time to save some of your hard-earned money with our Daily Deals, featuring exclusive deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales.</p>

<p>These are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. Please note that all app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so take advantage of the discounts while you can.</p>

<p>During a recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the Apple Watch will ship in April of 2015. While we wait, fantasizing about our lives as Dick Tracy, there are a few things we can do to reduce setup time once the device is in our hot little hands (or on your hot little wrists, as it were). Let's get started.</p>

<p>We've all been there -- you lineup for the perfect shot and someone or something gets in the way. Before you toss that image into the trash bin, you should take a few moments and see if you can fix it using an app like TouchRetouch.</p>

<p>One of our primary goals here at Apple World Today is to keep banner ads off of the site. We’ll have sponsors, Like this week’s premiere sponsor i4Software, and deal partners, but we’re going to do our best to keep those flashing, animated, annoying banner ads from staying away from our site. To do that, though, we need not only the help of the sponsors and deal partners, but YOU, the readers.</p>

<p>This week’s sponsor of Apple World Today — and the first full sponsor of this site — is <a target="_blank" href="http://i4software.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">i4software</a>, developers of a <a target="_blank" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/i4software/id376546133" rel="noopener noreferrer">number of quality apps</a> for iPhone and iPad.</p><p>As an added extra benefit to Apple World Today readers, if you are one of the first 50 readers to purchase the <a target="_blank" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app-bundle/photo-video-vip-bundle/id917544035?mt=8" rel="noopener noreferrer">Photo & Video Bundle</a> ($30.99) and send an email with your iTunes receipt to i4software, they’ll send back a nice little treat — a promo code good for a copy of <a target="_blank" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vizzywig-8xhd/id913424818?mt=8" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vizzywig 8xHD</a>! That’s a $49.99 value.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px"><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/28/alfred-for-mac-enhances-apples-finder/">Alfred for Mac</a> (free with optional <a href="http://www.alfredapp.com/powerpack/">"Powerpack"</a> purchase) is one of my favorite applications for one simple reason: usefulness. Alfred lets me launch apps, find files, control iTunes and so much more with simplicity and tremendous efficiency. </p><p>Now, Alfred's developers have released a companion app for the iPhone and iPad called <a href="http://www.alfredapp.com/remote/">Alfred Remote</a>($4.99, universal for iPhone and iPad). Essentially, it turns your device into a little command center, from which you can open software or folders on your Mac, fiddle with the preferences, control iTunes and more.</p><p>It's compelling...and a bit divisive. When Alfred Remote was introduced, a <a href="https://twitter.com/steve228uk/status/561319343267803138">few</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/drewcoxsa/status/561199443706269696">people</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jruels/status/561204652675309568">wondered</a>....<a href="https://twitter.com/ahockley/status/560647538684854272">why</a>? If you're sitting at your Mac, with your hands on your keyboard and mouse, why reach for your iPad or iPhone to do something like launch an app or open a folder? I've got an answer, which I'll share in this article. But first, a little history.</p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px">There was a common thread in the parade of articles reporting on the demise of our former place of employment -- tech blogging, as we once knew it, is dead and that other site that we once worked for was financially hamstrung from moving into the future by a corporation that didn't want to invest money in a "niche" market. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:14px">Welcome to Apple World Today. While this is a new website, the roots of it go back ten years to the founding of a site called The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW). That site grew out of Weblogs, Inc., which had a large stable of websites including Engadget, Joystiq, and Autoblog. Weblogs, Inc. was acquired in 2005 by Aol, which regrettably decided to discontinue some of the "smaller" websites this year. TUAW was down, but not out. </span></p>