More than three months after releasing software for Windows-users to send documents to a Kindle, Amazon has now released the Mac version. Announced on Tuesday afternoon, the "Send to Kindle for Mac" application allows Mac users to wirelessly send personal documents to their Kindles via drag-and-drop in the Dock or within the app itself. Users can also send documents to the Kindle by printing from any Mac application.

As we wrote in January when the Windows version was released, each Kindle already comes with its own e-mail address so users can send files to themselves. (There's also an Instapaper mechanism for sending documents to Kindle.) The desktop software aims to make that process easier, however, by eliminating the need to involve an e-mail client (especially convoluted in the case of printing from an app, which would involve printing to PDF and then sending that PDF to your Kindle). Users don't have to be sending documents to a hardware Kindle either—files can be sent to a Kindle app on a mobile device, too (such as the iPad or an Android phone).

According to Amazon, users can also use the Mac software to archive documents in your Kindle library for download later if you don't want those files to show up and take up space on your device right away. "Your last page read along with bookmarks, notes, and highlights are automatically synchronized for your documents (with the exception of PDFs) across your Kindle devices and Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Android," the company said in a statement.




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Welcome to 2012! If you're a consumer, you're likely getting ready for another year full of new products, drama, and intrigue from the tech world. If you're a journalist, you're cowering in fear of the upcoming CES trade show. And if you're a Mac or iOS developer—well, as always, you're wishing for bigger and better things out of Apple and its community.

While the iOS and Mac App Stores exploded in popularity in 2011, there's still plenty of room for improvement on the developer side. When we spoke with a number of iOS and Mac developers about their wish list for 2012, they didn't hesitate to let us know about changes they would like to see.






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Fans of Red Sweater Software's blog publishing tool MarsEdit got a surprise Tuesday morning with the release of MarsEdit 3. The most significant update to the software is the addition of a rich text editor, though those who fiddle with the HTML for their blog posts got an updated syntax highlighter. A new media manager rounds out this solid update, one that the company hopes will attract new users and get old ones writing again. 

According to Red Sweater founder and developer Daniel Jalkut, some of the features in MarsEdit 3 have been in the works for roughly 2.5 years—basically since MarsEdit 2 was released. Many of the enhancements in the new version respond to long-standing requests from users, Jalkut told Ars, particularly rich text editing. "Most of the [blog] Web interfaces and desktop competitors have a rich mode but, until now, MarsEdit has focused exclusively on HTML/markdown source," Jalkut said.





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Bento is the consumer version of popular database software FileMaker Pro. The new iPad version of the software joins the Mac version, currently at version 3, as well as the iPhone version in the growing stable of Bento implementations. At $4.99, the iPad application is 10 percent of the price of its desktop sibling, but the desktop software isn't necessary in order to make use of it.

Creating a database from scratch in Bento for iPad is simple thanks to the 25 different templates included with the software. These templates are made for people who are looking to track things like recipes, expenses, customers, and inventory. Each template can be edited to meet the needs of a specific user and can be helpful starting points. For those who want to start from scratch, there is also an option to start from a blank slate.





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