Slowly but surely, Retina-enabled apps for the new MacBook Pro are starting to hit the market -- and that trickle should grow into a flood as the summer turns into fall.
Last month's launch of the MacBook Pro with Retina display initially caught third-party software developers flat-footed; their apps weren't ready for the laptop computers new high-resolution display. (Apple, of course, was first out the door with Retina-ready upgrades of iPhoto Aperture ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice )and Final Cut Pro X.) But now developers are beginning to catch up with the new screen.
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Updated titles that have been released in the month since the Retina MacBook Pro was unveiled include popular productivity apps such as Reeder (Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice), Sparrow (Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mic ), and Twitteriffic. We've also seen a handful of Retina-ized games from vendors such as Aspyr -- including titles from the popular Call of Duty and Star Wars franchises. (See below for a more complete sampling of updated apps.)
And more are on the way. Macworld contacted two dozen app developers this week to check the status of the updating efforts. Most said they were on the verge of releasing Retina-enabled updates for their softwarebut companies with multiple titles said those upgrades would be rolling out slowly over the next few months.
It takes time
"Being a small company we can't devote the resources to update everything all at once," said John Champlin, a spokesman for Ambrosia, "So we are prioritizing our product line up and have begun updating what we can, as quick as we can." Champlin says there will be an upgrade of the company's Snapz Pro X screen-capture software in the very near future.
Champlins comments were echoed by other developers, most of whom declined to give a firm date for launching higher-resolution apps.
