GrindSmart Magazine has partnered up with some of the people who run ShareDen.com to announce our latest GIVEAWAY! We’re going to giveaway a 16GB Wi-Fi 3G iPad to One lucky winner on May 1st 2010.

Our only requirements is that you comment and subscribe to GrindSmart Magazine and that’s it! One lucky winner will be chosen on March May 1st 2010 in absolute random order!

YOU CAN ONLY POST ONE COMMENT PER SUBSCRIBER. IF YOU HAVE ENTERED MORE THAN ONE COMMENT TO THIS GIVEAWAY, THEY WERE ALL DELETED AND YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENTER ANY OTHER CONTEST.

The iPad comes with a crystal clear 9.5 inch screen with a 1024-by-768-pixel resolution that was designed for browsing and reading eBooks. It also weighs 1.5 ounces, is .05 inch thick, and comes with a built-in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive. This is where the price splits, since the basic 16GB iPad starts at $499. Even though it resembles that of the iPhone, we can assure you that the iPad is much more. Here’s why. The larger screen size will allow you to view applications with a lot more freedom, and you’re able to websites as you would on a laptop with minimal restrictions. The onscreen keyboard is extremely easy to type on, and resembles that of a laptop in terms of size. Whereas the iPhone’s keypad is sometimes difficult to work around.

A large part of the controversy surrounding the iPad has to do with the fact that it’s not running OS X or anything similar to that. It seems to be operating out of an iPhone-like OS except it’s more advanced. The applications are streamlined from the Apple App Store right to the iPad and it’s capable of running almost every applications that already works on the iPhone as well. However, the apps will be resized to fit the full screen resolution or scaled down to resemble the iPhone’s screen.

With the iPad you’re able to sync it with iTunes and when it comes to wireless connectivity, there are two different versions that are available. One relies upon WiFi-entirely, and the other can is free to roam the web with 3G connectivity. The difference is mostly in price, you don’t need a contract, and it will be shipped unlocked so that you’re able to use it with other carriers (besides AT&T). Unlimited data plans for AT&T start at $29.99/month.

Disclaimer

We are providing one GrindSmart Magazine feed subscriber who comments a completely free 16GB Wi-Fi 3G iPad plus shipping. The winner will be contacted with the email provided when they comment for shipping arrangements. GrindSmart is not an affiliate of AT&T and we will not set-up any sort of connectivity plan with any mobile carrier. It is the winner’s responsibility to provide their iPad Internet connectivity if desired.

If you’re a web developer who’s using a Mac, then chances are you’ve come across at least one the popular development tools for a Mac. There’s nothing wrong with preferring a Mac for web development or everyday needs, especially since you’re right in the middle of a world open to countless quality applications that simplify a web developers life, and many are Mac exclusive. This is not to say that you can’t develop stunning graphics and websites using another Operating System, but with Mac applications, you can reap the benefits of their amazing user interfaces.

Below we’ve compiled a list of 18 Essential Apps for Web Development on a Mac. Hope you enjoy! Please remember to subscribe to our feed and leave us a comment with your thoughts!

BBEdit

BBEdit is another full-featured text editor that is very similar to Textmate in terms of features. The BBEdit product page even has a section for web developers to see the benefits of BBEdit. For those Mac users who think BBEdit is better than Textmate, it’s usually because BBEdit is a Cocoa application, and TextMate is a Unix application. Without getting into the nitty-gritty between the two editors, the main differences between the two applications are 1) look-and-feel and 2) price. BBEdit is a steep $125, more than double the price of TextMate.

MAMP

MAMP is a quick and painless way to set up Macintosh, Apache, MySQL and PHP in the same environment. What used to be a tedious process now literally takes just a few seconds between downloading MAMP and installing the software. Instantly you’ve got a fully-functional web testing environment for your PHP applications. It also comes locked and loaded with PHP extensions like Zend, and you can specify different cacheing types like APC, eAccelerator or XCache.

You can apparently use MAMP to run a Rails environment as well.

Apanta

Aptana to the list. Aptana is a programming environment for languages like PHP, Rails, Java, Ajax, Javascript and others. The software also comes with optional plugins like Adobe AIR and an iPhone environment. Apanta is free to use for everyone.

Cyberduck

Cyberduck is an incredibly user friendly FTP client that’s provided for free and licensed under GPL. It can be used in many different settings, like FTP, SFTP, WebDAV and Amazon S3 straight out of the box. Cyberduck also integrates seamlessly with essential Mac functionality, like Bonjour, iDisk, Growl, AppleScript, Spotlight and even Quick Look to instantly see the guts of the file with a tap of the spacebar.

My favorite aspect of Cyberduck (aside from the free-ness), is the fact that it integrates easily with many text editors like Textmate. As an added bonus, Cyberduck also allows you to use Quicksilver to access your FTP bookmarks. Very handy.

Transmit

If Cyberduck is a cadillac of FTP clients, than Panic’s Transmit is a Rolls-Royce. It offers almost all of the same functionality as Cyberduck, but adds a little more robustness for advanced user. For example, you can edit any remote file (even a picture or graphic) in any software using Transmit.

The only downside to Transmit is that it costs $29.95, whereas Cyberduck is free.

cssedit

cssedit is a CSS editor with a fantastic user interface. It has the look and feel of a Mac application, which makes the experience of editing CSS much more enjoyable. It has nice built in features like being able to extract stylesheets and learn from other other websites, an inline visual editor, and you can even edit css inside of ajax.

cssedit will cost you almost $43, but if you’re a sucker for beautiful interfaces, this software might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Coda

If you’re building a site from scratch, it’s nice to have a program like Coda where you can manage all the files and FTP functionality from within one program. Built by Panic, the same guys who develop Transmit, Coda is a one-stop solution for web developer. Within code you can manage files, ftp to a server, preview the code, use a css editor (like cssedit), and even use Terminal all from within Coda. And if that weren’t enough, they’ve thrown in a copy of The Programmer’s Desk Reference from within the software.

Changes

Changes is a nifty application that lets you visually browse changes to your code base. Instead of having to use a subversion to manage your code base (though Changes works with svn and other repository software), you can use Changes. This is great for sites that have multiple developers working on them and want to make sure their code is up to date. You can use your favorite text editor like Textmate or BBEdit to edit files.

Colloquy

IRC is an old skool method of chatting online, and has been the method of choice for programmers and developers to communicate. Many major projects like Wordpress use IRC to provide support for their open source projects.

Colloquy is an extremely helpful IRC client for the Mac. It’s open source, allows for plugins and styles, and even has an iphone interface. Robust, elegant and powerful.

SubEthaEdit

SubEthaEdit is a collaborative text editor for the Mac. You can use the software as a text editor, note-taker and for co-writing text. It integrates with Bonjour, iChat and Mail, but isn’t limited to those integrations. SubEthaEdit also has a fairly robust editing syntax for many different languages. So really, this is a swiss-army tool for developers that work in a collaborative environment that share code often. It’s not free (around $54), but SubEthaEdit could be well worth the price given its usefulness.

Terminal

The built-in Terminal is a great place to start when working with the command line. There’s a great guide to learning Terminal, but essentially Terminal is a bare-bones tool that allows you to do just about… anything. I’d recommend you read the tutorial for a better explanation (as it’s outside the scope of this article). I’d also recommend snagging the Quicksilver plugin for Terminal to help speed your usage.

iTerm

If you’re looking for a way to ease the pain of using the command line and Terminal, try iTerm. iTerm is a “Terminal emulation program” that adds a bit more functionality and user friendliness to Terminal. It offers features like multiple tabs, bonjour support, bookmarks, and much more.

phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is the kindly old grandfather of database management scripts. Not necessarily hip to an attractive user interface, phpMyAdmin still has the skills to pay the bills. You can manage your databases locally using this stable script. It ships with MAMP, so installation is a breeze. If you’re not MAMP, then you’ll have to configure PHP to run on your Mac, which is a much more involved process. Still, phpMyAdmin is a tried and tested solution for managing databases with a UI.

CocoaMySQL

CocalMySQL is a database tool developed specifically for Mac with Cocoa. It has the elegant look and feel of a true Mac application, and is laden with features. CocoaMySQL is much easier than phpMyAdmin on almost all fronts; it’s easier to setup, has a much more intuitive interface, and runs more like a Mac program. The software is also licensed under the free GPL license.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver is a launcher tool that does so much more for developers. If you’re wanting to save time and keyboard strokes, consider giving Quicksilver reign over your computer. For more information as to what Quicksilver is, check out Lifehacker’s introduction to the Mac launcher.

The real beauty of Quicksilver lies in the countless plugins with software that many web developers already use.

Xcode

Xcode is Apple’s development package. This gi-normous 900mb download adds tons upon tons of system mojo that you’ll probably have to eventually install to your system that you’ll probably use down the line. Many serious development software like SVN and the like use dependancies that Xcode takes care of. Xcode is free for the taking.

Isolator

While Isolator isn’t a crucial application for developers, it’s quite handy for blocking out distractions while you’re getting work done. Isolator is a free program that blocks out everything but the single application you’re working on. This gives a distraction-free environment for writing, programming, or whatever else needs your attention. Just tap the keyboard command cmd + shift + I (or use the toolbar menu) to start/stop Isolator.

Spaces

Spaces is a handy built-in application for Leopard users. It allows you to set up virtual “spaces” for different screens on your computer. This is helpful for developers because you can separate your work flow into different panes. For example, you could have ftp and terminal open in one space, Textmate in another, Firefox in the third and Gimp or Photoshop in the fourth. It’s easy to toggle between the spaces using the command ctrl + arrow, or you can use ctrl + the number of the space you want to switch to.

Greetings lovely readers! Today is the beginning of the ultimate FREE giveaway for designers! Three lucky winners will receive either a MacBook Pro (15-inch), a Coda or Expresso License. Our only requirements is that you comment and subscribe to GrindSmart Magazine and that’s it! 3 lucky winners will be chosen on February 20th in absolute random order! Here are the specs:

MacBook Pro

The 15″ MacBook Pro features new LED backlighting, the first for a laptop display this large. The MacBook Pro display can be had with an anti-glare coating or a glossy option. The latest MacBook Pro uses nVidia’s new GeForce 8600M GT graphics controller (GPU). Based on an entirely new architecture, this laptop version of the 8600 chipset should out-perform the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 used in the previous MacBook Pro, but our test results were inconsistent. The 8600 series also include an H.264 decoder, but we don’t know if Mac OS X takes advantage of this.

• excellent display color, brightness and clarity; won’t fade over time.
• 2 GB of memory standard
• excellent keyboard and trackpad
• good expandability (FireWire 800, Express/34, 30″ Display support)
• very good battery life

Coda

This one-window Web design app has all the tools you need for creating great Web sites. Collaboration tools let you seamlessly work together with others, and an integrated FTP sidebar– using the power of Panic’s Transmit–helps you get your site updated quickly. Hand coding experts will like the full-featured CSS and text editors, with tools that are always only a click away. Time savers like the Clips feature make frequently used code handy and convenient. We particularly like the powerful Find and Replace tools which let you drag-and-drop global changes to your code. If you’re searching for a reasonably priced Web design tool for Mac, Coda has plenty of handy tools to help you get your site up and running quickly.

Expresso

Now, Espresso delivers something better than a caffeine boost: a web editor with style. Espresso is not a bunch of apps thrown together. Instead, we looked at the needs of web developers and streamlined their workflow into one gorgeous, focused app. Fast and powerful editing, sleek projects, live preview, awesome publishing and extensive synchronization tools.

Please Note: Results will be given on February 20th and winners will be randomly chosen using Random.Org services. Good Luck!