Provides: Photo editing, manipulation and sharing
Format: DVD or digital download
Developer: Adobe Systems, Inc.
Minimum System Requirements: Multicore Intel processor, Mac OS X v10.4.11, 512MB RAM, 64MB VRAM, 1GB available hard disk space, DVD drive, QuickTime 7 (for multimedia features), Internet connection for Internet-based services
Processor Compatibility: Multicore Intel only
Price: $99.99 (currently $79.99 with rebate)
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 8.0

Photoshop is work. It’s fun work, quite often, but it’s work nonetheless. There’s a lot to know, more to learn (and relearn), and plenty of trial and error. Quite honestly, I wouldn’t have it any way; I love the program, and I love watching its capabilities grow as my skills grow. But quite often, it’s overkill. And for the many Mac users who out there who have never used it, it’s quite intimidating (and, of course, too expensive).

Thus, Adobe has been bringing us Photoshop Elements. This is a friendlier image manipulation program. Cheaper. You don’t get nearly the amount of power and control you get with Photoshop, but you do get enough to have some fun and produce some very cool images. With this iteration, Adobe has not only added some great new editing tools, by also improved the way you organize and share your photos, as well.

It starts off poorly, however, with no active support for iPhoto. In order to import your iPhoto library (or portions of it) to Elements, you have to drag the photos out of iPhoto to your hard drive, or dig into the archaic iPhoto folder hierarchy from within Elements. It’s a pain, but it’s what you’ve got. The hidden benefit is that your iPhoto images remain unharmed, as all Elements 8 work will be done on the duplicates.

Cumbersome as it is, though, it’s worth it. Because Elements offers some great tools that are fairly simple to use once you get the hang of them. For instance, you can recompose your photos without harming key elements. Let me explain visually. In the original photo below, I have a picture of me and my kids, but we’re fairly separated.

Let’s say I want to put this in a portrait frame, not horizontal. Recomposing allows the user to alter the orientation by simply dragging the frame, keeping the important elements without distorting them, and merging the rest. Sometimes, dragging is enough. More often than not, however, it’s better to tell it what to keep and what to lose. You can see below that I’ve painted over what I want with green what I don’t want with red.

Then, I dragged from right to left, and watched my son and daughter magically slide closer to me, while those in the background disappeared…sort of.

It’s not a perfect science, so there will be some practice involved (note the trails over my left shoulder, and the heads directly behind me didn’t disappear). But the fact that you can complete procedures such as this on software so inexpensive is very, very cool.

Elements 8 gives you other powerful tools as well, such as photo-merge, which allows you take multiple images at various exposures to get a perfectly lit image. The image below from Adobe’s samples shows a before and after.

You can control which elements to carry into your final product, so it would’ve been quite simple to highlight the girl without brightening the fence behind her, for example.

The same basic tool and procedure can be used to remove unwanted elements from an image. Take the same shot multiple times to sample various elements and clean up the background. The image below from Adobe’s samples also shows a before and after, although there were a total of about five images used to produce the clean image on the right.

You certainly would want a tripod to make sure the photos are as similar as possible, but it need not be perfect. Photoshop will make some pretty good blending guesses, and you can guide it along, as well.

Not all of the features in Elements 8 are quite so drastic. Many are simply traditional Photoshop filters to touch up or add interesting effects to your photos. You can correct red eye and brighten teeth with a simple click, or you can add some pop to your photos, as with the samples below.

This picture was taken with my iPhone, so the lighting was not the best and the image was a bit blurry. By running it through the “Poster Edges” filter, I’ve given it a more striking look that hides the deficiencies of the source image.

There’s far more to Elements 8 than I can cover in this review, and you can read about the new features, see video demos (that I recommend you watch so you can see how easy all of this is to learn, if not perform) and compare product versions at Adobe’s website. Many features are purely for fun, but others are there specifically to make your photos look better: bluer skies, more striking black-and-whites, etc. I do, however, want to quickly cover image sharing, as Adobe has gone out of their way in Elements 8 to make sure you can show off your work.

Of course, you can print your images, but you can also create photo books, collages and scrapbook pages, make a PDF slideshow, publish them to a web gallery, share them via iPhone, and more. And as if to spite Apple (the inability to communicate with iWeb and iPhoto apparently wasn’t enough), you can create CD/DVD jackets and labels. Take that, Apple! Adobe actually wants to burn discs!

My only complaint with Elements 8 is that the included Getting Started guide is useless. It mentions only a couple features, and provides no detail on any of them (the last 13 pages of the guide are literally blank). You’re going to need a third-party manual for Elements 8, but should be able to rely on the online video tutorials in the meantime. This is fairly common these days, yes, but considering many Mac users are used to the intuitive interface and capabilities of iPhoto, Adobe is shooting itself in the foot by not providing a smoother transition to Elements 8.

Regardless, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 is a great program that provides some amazing capabilities. It’ll be a bit frustrating at first when your results aren’t as impressive as those in the samples, but with some practice and the acceptance that every image will require a slightly different approach, you’ll be surprised by what you’re able to accomplish. Just don’t tell anyone how easy it was. This is your chance to use “Photoshop” as a verb, and I suggest you do it.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

This week, Google announced an official version of Google Chrome, a result of the Chromium project, at the Web 2.0 Summit in California. What that means is that outside of nightly developer builds, this version—build 4.0.223.8—is the first official release build of the software. While the Windows version has been official and crushing it for quite some time now, Google certainly took their time on the Mac side. However, if you plan on trying out Chrome for Mac, I would definitely say it’s worth the wait, as I have been using it for quite some time now on my machine even in the earlier builds.

Some of the most interesting features for Chrome lie in the simplistic and minimalistic interface. As you would expect, the normal navigational buttons are near the top of the screen with the address bar. However, unlike most browsers, Chrome places the tabs above the address bar and bookmarks bar instead of below it. To me, this doesn’t really alter how I use the software much, but it is sort of a refreshing change. Furthermore, the way Chrome handles tabs is really great. For instance, you can drag and drop tabs into new windows or from one window to another simply by moving them with the mouse.

Another interface aspect of the Chrome browser is the themes that can be applied. All you need to do is go to the theme page and install one straight from there in order to get a fresh new look. While I haven’t looked through all the themes, though, I have stuck with the default one, as it works very well with the look and feel of my Mac.

As far as features go, there are some things I like about Chrome other than the speed. For one, it will show you the actual URL of a link along the bottom when you hover over it, which is nice. Furthermore, it has a top sites feature much like that of Safari. All this said, there are still some issues that exist with the software. For instance, sometimes I’ll have to revert to Safari to get Java based components of sites, such as Facebook’s photo uploader.

Either way, I strongly suggest you try this piece of software out. It can be downloaded at google.com.

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Remember about a month ago when the team over at Dropbox submitted their iPhone application to Apple for review for the App Store? Yea, we know it’s been a while. Well that application has now been accepted and is available as a free download through the App Store! You can get it via their website or straight through iTunes. The application allows you to download Dropbox files locally to your iPhone, view them over the internet, and sync files.

Well, as any geek would, I have already downloaded and checked out the application, and my first impressions are great. The application is extremely simple and quick and does exactly what you would expect. You can easily browse your files over the internet using the iPhone’s style of navigation. Furthermore, if you want to save a file for quick viewing offline later, you are able to favorite it very easily. It does have support for emailing links to files and viewing PDFs, too, which is nice. I highly suggest you check it out if you are a Dropbox user!

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Adobe earlier today announced Photoshop Elements 8. Normally, when you see the word Photoshop followed by something, it means a dumbed down version. Obviously, Photoshop Elements is not aimed at the professional Photoshop crowd, but I had the opportunity to see a press conference on Photoshop Elements 8 on Monday, and trust me…there’s nothing dumb about it.

Photoshop Elements 8 wants to position itself not only as your software for adding effects to your photos, but also for managing them. You can customize your workspace for easier access to your photos and videos, and tag them for a variety of search options. And like iPhoto, switching from a thumbnail to the full photo is now as simple as a click of the mouse.

The new enhancement features, however, are what will garner all of the attention. Common touch-ups such as creating bluer skies and whitening teeth have been taken care of with one-step shortcuts. Users can now also take two pictures of the same object—with the flash on and the flash off—and have Photoshop Elements 8 automatically combine the two to provide both hightlight and shadow detail. This is a trick professional photographers and users of Photoshop have been doing for a while now, and that power is now part of Elements 8.

Even more impressive is the new Photomerge feature, which takes a look at multiple shots of the same object, and removes unwanted elements. For example, having a hard time getting a photo of a building without passersby getting in the way? Simply take multiple shots on a tripod, open them all up in Photoshop Elements, and draw a line through the items you don’t want. Photoshop will then take that “clean” area from another shot, and overwrite the unwanted element. No more time-consuming rubber stamping, a simple brush stroke will do it (provided you have the multiple shots).

Adobe also showed off the ability to recompose images to any size by removing space between your subjects. Their demo was of a group of kids swimming, but the kids were too far apart. Recomposing the image in Elements 8, you can simply drag the edge of the image closer to the other, and the software will blend the elements that can be tossed out, while retaining the parts you want to keep. Of course, this always looks easy in the demo, and the presenters were quick to point that out, but they have included the ability for you to tell Elements 8 which portions of the image should be retained and which can be sacrificed, so that important pieces don’t get distorted or chopped up.

When you’re done, your images can be shared in web galleries with animated templates, or turned into photo books, scrapbook pages, and more.

Photoshop Elements 8 has a projected release date of fall 2009, and will retail for $99.99. Preorders are only $79.99 after mail in rebate. Learn more at Adobe’s website, and check back with us for our full review.

Product [Photoshop Elements 8]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Looks like Snow Leopard is an alpha male, at least when it comes to the RTF document format. If you use a word processor that saves to RTF by default, you’ll notice quite quickly that Snow Leopard is going to take control of all of your files, forcing them to open in TextEdit. In other words, double clicking your Nisus Writer documents or any file tagged .rtf is going to launch TextEdit, not the program you used to create the file. Thankfully, there is a workaround, and chances are you already know how to do it.

In fact, I’ll let the good folks at Nisus explain what’s going on, and how to fix it. The following is from their Nisus Newsletter, released earlier this morning:

The native file format in both Nisus Writer Express and Pro is RTF (rich text format). This format is shared by many other applications, including TextEdit and Apple Mail. It has been this way since the inception of OS X. We chose this format because it is supported by just about any word processor out there. Prior to Snow Leopard, files that were created in Nisus Writer Express or Pro would always reopen in the originating application.

However, Apple has changed this behavior in 10.6. All RTF files, regardless of where they were created, will open in a single application. By default the Finder is configured to use TextEdit… However, this behavior can be changed in a few easy steps.

In the Finder, single click a Nisus Writer RTF file.  Choose the menu File > Get Info.  Under “Open with” choose Nisus Writer.  Click the “Change All” button. All RTF files will now be opened by Nisus Writer.

Of course, you’ll want to change that to your word processor of choice, but I don’t see why it’s not Nisus Writer already.

Via [Nisus Newsletter]

Products [Snow Leopard] and [Nisus Writer Pro]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

With Snow Leopard set to release this Friday, August 28th, many Apple fans are excited to both try it out and get some space back on their hard drive. Also, if you’re like me, you don’t really care that it doesn’t include any great, new features as long as it promises to be as stable and fast as Apple promises. However, one thing that would be extremely interesting to see at any point in time is Apple-developed antivirus built into the operating system. And that’s the rumor, according to Intego’s Mac Security Blog.

While it would certainly be a good idea for Apple to get ahead of the game and include this in their core operating system, I don’t think we will see it just yet. Not just because there isn’t a terrible need for it, but because this news popped out of nowhere two days before the software’s release. There was no mention of this anywhere in the developer builds that were released, and nothing was leaked about it until now. Not only that, but we haven’t seen any news of Apple hiring security experts to come in and help with this type of thing (although I’m sure they already have some).

While I wouldn’t mind seeing it, I’m taking this one with a grain of salt. How about you?

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Stream and record internet radio
Format: Download
Developer: Gaga Factory
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5+, 1GB RAM, Internet connection
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $29.99
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 1.0.2

Getting sick of your iTunes library in it’s current state? You have a few options. You could buy more CDs or MP3s, or you could download whatever you want, but that’s bad, so don’t. Another option you might find appealing, depending on your personal preferences, is internet radio. Radio Gaga brings free, quality internet radio to your Mac plus more.

Yes, you can listen to internet radio with iTunes, but can you record the songs?  I think not.  You can with Radio Gaga.  Not only does it offer you a beautiful interface, it also provides a relatively convenient way of recording the audio content you’re listening to directly inside the app at full quality.  And not only that, you can actually record more than one stream of content at a time.  It will record as many radio stations at once as your bandwidth can handle.  Content is recorded in MP3 format and is tagged appropriately.

The application comes with over 10,000 radio stations ready for you to listen to, separated out into genres.  Of course, this is a bit deceiving, as these vary in quality, and the counting method is a bit suspect.  But still, you can listen to tons of radio stations from all over the world, and add more if you like.  Just remember, not all radio stations broadcast 24/7, and they aren’t all at 256kbps.

There are a number of ways you can record stations using Radio Gaga.  You can simply record what you’re listening to at any time, but this is likely not optimal since you probably won’t have the beginning of the song or audio content using this method.  You can also set up a schedule to record a specific channel at a specific time.  This is great if you have a particular radio program or time slot you enjoy.  And finally, you can set Radio Gaga to record specific songs (content) from specific stations.  It’s like searching and waiting, and the key is that you have to know which channel the song you want will be playing on.  If you know this much, you’re set.

The program performs very well overall, provided you enjoy the radio experience.  If you don’t like radio, then this app won’t change you, unless you really really need free and legal songs.  I wish there was a better way to record specific songs by searching over a number of stations at once automatically, but I honestly can’t think of an easy way for them to implement such a feature, so I won’t hold it against them.  Even when restricted to you knowing which station might soon play the song you want, the feature is pretty cool.  Recorded content quality is directly proportional to the quality of the stream, so WYSIWYG.  Like radio?  Then you’ll love Radio Gaga.  Else, probably not.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Access to social network Twitter from Mac desktop
Developer: Atebits LLC
Minimum System Requirements: G4, G5 or Intel Mac, Mac OS X 10.5
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: Free (with ads) or $14.95 ($19.95 from May 4th, 2009)
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 1.0.1

Tweetie for Mac was officially released earlier this week, and it has turned out to be just as popular as the iPhone version. There are currently two versions available for the app: ad supported or not. However, the ads in the free version can be turned off. When it comes to Twitter clients, Tweetie is as feature packed as it comes; from @replies to direct messages and search, it has it all.

When you first launch the app, you sign in with your account (and multiple accounts are supported). Then, you are greeted with a beautiful interface that makes tweeting even more entertaining.  Along the left hand column you see the tabs for each section of your Twitter profile, as well as your user image. The tweets are beautifully embedded with easy links to reply to a tweet or check out the user’s profile. Basically, it does everything you would expect your basic Twitter client to do (heck, you even use Cmd-Enter to send a tweet to avoid all those mistakenly published tweets. The things that make it special are its great interface as well as what I will discuss next.

Two of the coolest features the developer included are the ability to see images inline and shorten URLs on the go. If you see an image from TwitPic, Twitgoo, yFrog, or Posterous and click on it, it will open in a appropriate sized HUD window instead of launching your browser. Also, when tweeting, you can simply drag an image to the update box and have it automatically uploaded to your service. Furthermore, you can also shorten links within the update box and never having to go to the actual website. The current sites include bit.ly, is.gd, TinyURL, tr.im, and DiggBar.

There is definitely some work that can be done on Tweetie. Currently, some of the most requested features have been the ability to set the refresh rate and see how many API calls are left.  Also, users would like to be able to easily delete their tweets from within the Tweetie interface. Atebites, the developer, is currently working on some of these, and I’m sure he will have an update pretty soon. That said, the app is better than any other Twitter app I have used on the Mac so far, so I will be sticking with it for a while. It’s clean, it’s Cocoa, and it works.

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Audio/video editing, burning, sharing
Format: Download or DVD
Developer: Roxio
Minimum System Requirements: G4, G5, or Intel processor (G5 or Intel required for encoding/viewing HD content); Mac OS X v10.5; CD, DVD or Blu-Ray recordable drive; QuickTime v7; 800MB free disk space (15GB free temporary free disk space during usage); Internet connection for some functionality; high-def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in for HD video authoring
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $99 ($149 Pro version)
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 10.0.1

Sometimes when I observe the desperate struggle for relevance, it makes me sad. How can you watch a recent Madonna video, the latest Jim Carrey movie, or anything having to do with the Microsoft Zune and not be sympathetic to their plight? Don’t we all eventually come to fear that our time in the sun has past? (Or, in the case of the Zune, that we never even got to see the sun?) The answer to that, is no, because not everyone has trouble staying relevant. Case in point, Roxio, with their update to Toast 10 Titanium.

Video

Toast originally made a name for itself as CD-ROM burning software back in the mid-90s. For a while, that’s all it did, but the folks at Adaptec (and now Roxio) have always understood that computer technology/media is constantly changing, and they’ve been there every step of the way. In fact, they’re often a few steps ahead. For example, Steve Jobs and Apple may still be terrified of the big, bad, Blu-ray monster, but Roxio is not. Toast 10 Titanium has the ability to copy and burn information to Blu-ray discs, while Toast 10 Titanium Pro adds the ability to burn HD video to Blu-ray via the High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in ($19.99, included free with Toast 10 Titanium Pro).

I wasn’t able to test the Blu-ray functionality because I don’t a Blu-ray drive on my Mac, but I can say that Toast 10 did just fine with HD video content pulled in through my cable line, and burned some nice DVDs, menus and all.

But of course, Toast is no longer just about burning CDs and DVDs. It can now import DVDs, provided they’re not encrypted or copy protected, so you can back them up or format them for other devices. You get some basic functionality here, such as the ability to import specific chapters and audio tracks, but it’s too bare-bones to please those who do this regularly. You’re likely to still need programs such as Handbrake for serious DVD ripping, but it’s good to have the functionality built into Toast for basic jobs.

Once you’ve got your videos, you can export them to numerous media devices, with pre-formats for the iPhone, Apple TV, Sony PlayStation 3 and PSP, BlackBerry, Palm Treo, and more. For further manipulation or sharing online, you can also export video to DV, HDV, MPEG-4, H.264 and QuickTime. It’s all very easy to do, although Roxio should consider making the output device selector more than just a tiny gear icon on the bottom of the window. Also, as with DVD ripping, higher level controls would be welcome for those who know what they’re doing.

TiVO users can benefit from the ability to stream videos directly from Toast to their TiVO devices. I don’t have TiVO, so I couldn’t test this. I was, however, able to stream my videos directly to my iPhone, which was great. With the Roxio Streamer app, TiVO and (in my case) EyeTV recordings can be streamed directly from your computer to your iPhone, so you can watch movies/shows without taking up your iPhone’s drive space. This is somewhat tricky, as setting it up/connecting is oddly confusing, and you of course have to have your host computer on and awake. It’d be great if the Roxio Streamer had the ability to awake your Mac remotely, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In addition, you obviously need a WiFi connection for this to work. So, although it’s not completely practical yet, it is pretty cool when the conditions are met.

The final video portion I want to cover is the new ability to import and archive your home recordings. Toast 10 can accept video straight from your camcorder or VCR and burn them right to DVD for archival purposes. When one DVD fills up, you’re prompted for another. Catalogs with photo thumbnails are created as you go, so you can search for specific video segments without actually having the DVD in your computer. This is fantastic not only for archiving video, but for your iPhone images as well. I tend to back up my photos yearly to clear up the space on my hard drive, and Toast 10’s cataloging capabilities make it much easier to find the photos I want after they’ve been archived.

Audio

Remember burning CDs? So does Roxio. Toast has always been a significantly better option than iTunes, offering functionality that iTunes lacks (such as the most basic but necessary ability to individually set track audio levels). The problem has always been that iTunes purchased music could never be burned with anything but iTunes. Now that Apple is pushing towards DRM-free downloads, Toast becomes a better option. The traditional functionality (such as the ability to import/fix vinyl recordings, create crossfades, tag your music, burn MP3 discs, etc.) remains, and has been supplemented with the ability capture and tag Internet audio, or pretty much anything playing on your computer. Toast will automatically capture it, split the audio into tracks (surprisingly accurate, here; it only made mistakes where I expected it to), and even identify the tracks.

Using audio fingerprinting, The CD SpinDoctor component of Toast 10 can identify your unknown tracks and assign the proper tags: artist, title, genre, etc. In short, you can record music directly from Pandora, for example, and have it properly split, tagged and dumped into iTunes. I was impressed with what it was able to identify and properly tag, as only my more obscure indie and J-Rock tracks went unclassified.

The last new audio feature I’ll cover is the ability to convert audiobook CDs for playback on your iPod or iPhone, complete with individual chapters and pause/resume support. Again, I have no audio books in my collection, so I was unable to test this.

Oh, and I would also like to point out that Roxio has done a good job with the entire user interface. One of my complaints about Toast 9 was that the interface appeared blurry and dark. Toast 10 is a bit sharper and cleaner, although some text in the interface would clip or overlap when cycling through options, and the animations are not necessary.

Pro Apps

For $50 more, Toast 10 Titanium Pro comes with extra software that can enhance your media creation/formatting. I can’t imagine users will get a decent amount of use out of all of these apps, but using just a couple of them regularly will justify the additional cost. Each of these programs deserves its own review, so I won’t go into detail on them here. However, here’s what you get for the $149 pro version (in addition to the previously mentioned High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in):

SonicFire Pro
Create your own copyright-free music on the fly. You select the tempo, pitch and mood, then adjust the length and arrangement to fit your movie. It’s a decent option for those looking to burn DVDs free of music licensing issues, but the tracks do end up feeling quite generic.

SoundSoap
Remove unwanted audio/noise from your recordings. You use the software to isolate a small section of the unwanted sound (such as camera hum or wind), then the program will will go through the entire audio file to pull out the offending noise. Some audio degradation will occur, but you can fine tune your settings to adjust the balance between the loss of bad and good audio. It can’t work miracles on bad audio, but it’s a good start.

FotoMagico
This is simply a fantastic application all around. It sort of combines the presentation functionality of Keynote with the slideshow capabilities of iPhoto, but increases the functionality of each to create a program that’s better than both in every way. It, alone, is worth the extra cost of Toast 10 Titanium Pro.

LightZone
I’m not entirely sure why this one’s here. It can correct or add effects to your photos for more dramatic slideshows, but the results are subjective (photos are more dynamic, but can look less natural). Those who care about this sort of thing will use PhotoShop or another program that offers better control. Those who don’t care are likely not interested in using LightZone. That said, it does a decent job, as long as you’re not too picky.

One thing to consider about these bonus apps, too, is that they’re not actually a part of Toast, as is CD SpinDoctor. Roxio gives you the serial numbers, but updates will be at the control of the individual developers, and that includes update pricing.

Regular or Pro? Doesn’t Matter.

Overall, I feel this is the best Toast update since they merged Toast and Jam into one program. The new video capabilities are outstanding, not only making Toast more useful to a larger number of users, but also indicating that the good folks at Roxio are well aware of the current usage trends, and are working hard to stay on top of them. If you’ve been putting off upgrading your previous version of Toast, stop. If you’ve never used Toast, start. This is the version for which you’ve been waiting. The digital hub Steve Jobs spoke of a few years back has grown well beyond Apple’s control (indeed, they seem to fear it, now), and Roxio’s Toast 10 Titanium manages to keep it all within reach.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Electronic document backup
Format: Box
Developer: NeatCo
Minimum System Requirements: 512MB RAM, Mac OS X v10.4.11, USB port
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: 229.95
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 2.0.4

Until the day when all transactions and receipts are electronic, you might want to consider a method other than physical files and folders for your receipts and important documents. That is exactly what NeatReceipts is for. It will scan your receipts, business cards and other important documents, making electronic copies. It will even extract data from these—such as names, numbers, addresses totals, etc. And best of all, you can recycle your receipts after they have been scanned in.

The NeatReceipts package contains the two things you really need: a scanner (though you can purchase the software separately if you have a supported scanner already) and the software, called NeatWorks. The scanner is very small and portable. It works by feeding paper over its sensor, which allows you to have a much smaller device than a regular bed-style scanner. You do sacrifice a bit of image quality for this, but you should know that this is for documents and the like, not high quality scannings. If this isn’t good enough for you, they have a much bigger scanner coming soon that auto feeds documents, perfect for book pirates (I’m kidding).

That said, it actually does a very good job scanning.  All you have to do is insert the paper that you want to scan (scanside down) into the scanner’s feeding slot.  It knows when there’s something there, so it will actually grab the paper.  Then just hit scan on the scanner, in the program, or with the shortcut keys.  It scans at about the same speed as a regular desktop scanner; nothing amazing, but it’s not slow, either.  Now, it will do its OCR (Optical Character Recognition) thing, and, a majority of the time, will populate most of the pertinent fields with accurate information.  It recognizes and records items such as name, company, phone numbers (sorted by type), email addresses, physical addresses, totals, taxes, tips etc.

[Side Note. You don’t actually have to scan a document to get it into NeatWorks. You can also import PDFs and images, or export from any other application from the print dialogue. Just click the Export to PDF drop down box in the bottom left and select one of the NeatWorks options.]

Now, you have a record of whatever it is that you scanned in. But before you toss that original, you’ll want to check a few things.  First, double click the record to open the inpector.  This is where you can edit the scanned image and correct any errors in information.  The image can be rotated by increments of 90 degrees, cropped, and/or converted to black and white (if you scanned it in with full color).  You can even hover your mouse over the image to see highlighted areas that correspond to recognized text.  You’ll notice that it doesn’t get every line of text, nor does it recognize everything 100% of the time.  I’d say it’s closer to 75% of the time, which is a good place to start.

Documents can be filed into Collections and Smart Collections.  Smart Collections are just like Smart Playlists in iTunes, while Collections are just folders.  It would probably be a good idea to develop a good sorting method with numerous folders.  Sadly, you can’t yet make collections inside of other collections, so they don’t function exactly like folders.  I’d really like to see this change, since it makes sense to sort all receipts by year and month.  To remedy this, you can edit a single Smart Collection for a specific month every time you want to look up that month.  It’s not the most elegant solution, but it works.

Documents can be exported into PDFs, CSVs or Quicken files very quickly.  This means you can track personal expenses with Quicken or make expense reports for a business trip easily with a PDF.

If the document you scanned is actually a business card, then you have one extra feature.  After you’ve finished cleaning up the record in NeatReceipts, you can drag it to a special folder on the sidebar called Address Book. I bet you can’t guess what this does.  Yup, it exports the data as an entry in your Address Book, complete with the image(s).  I wish there was a more automated process for doing this.  The reason I say this is because contacts are not automatically synced with the Address Book, which sometimes makes sense.  But there currently isn’t a way to update a field in NeatWorks and have those changes applied to the Address Book, nor the other way around.  I imagine this will be fixed in a later update to NeatWorks.

The only real features missing in NeatWorks are what I’m going to call next step features.  It already scans and keeps records of your documents phenomenally.  What the software needs is the next step.  You can tell they are already thinking about this since it has Address Book and export features built in.  I’d like to see not only my previous syncing idea, but more features related to budgeting.  If you’re going to scan all of your receipts into this, then why not have them sorted and totaled by month?  It doesn’t have to be the most sophisticated piece of budgeting software, but basic functionality would be awesome.

You probably can’t go completely paperless with your life just yet, but NeatReceipts can at least help. It’s a great product for keeping digital records of all documents, both physical and digital. The software could use some updates, but it’s far from crippled. It does exactly what it’s supposed to: keep records of your documents. The improvements I’d like to see deal with the next step (what you do with those records?), and I have faith they won’t leave their users hanging.  They have a PC version as well, which has more features than the Mac version, so don’t be surprised if the Mac version continues to see updates.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple currently ships a ton of full-fledged programs with Mac OS X. Safari, Mail, iChat, Address Book, and iCal are all great examples. As the operating system paradigm shifts, though, I think Apple could be the one to pull these apps all together into one really useful application that many people would rarely ever leave.

First, let’s talk about why this won’t work well on OS X as is. It mostly has to do with the Dock, and Dock badges for notification. Currently, you can tell you have new Mail because the Mail icon gets a badge. You can tell there’s a new chat message because iChat shows a badge. If all these apps were rolled into one, how would you know which functionality was asking for your attention? As OS X moves in the direction OS X touch has already taken, where the line between operating system and application is much more blurred, a notifications bar, housing small icons much like the menu bar, would be a great place for these notifications to show up.

The reason I even considered this idea is because Apple has a keen focus on keeping apps integrated. Promotional materials frequently reference the “seamless integration” of applications. But even then there are flaws, because they are separate applications, after all. Having all the functionalities as one application means they really do all work together as one. This type of application is one place where I could see Safari’s tabbed title bar working. The large tabs would be for the different functionalities, and within, there would be smaller tabs a la Safari 3 for different mail messages, websites, chats, etc. Safari would be the main focus, with iChat in a sidebar. Mail would be largely the same as it is currently, but mailing links and videos, etc would all be right there. A new section would be an RSS reader, replacing the oddly duplicate RSS readers that both Mail and Safari currently sport. All the different “programs” would be built smartly so as to be always on, but never seen if they aren’t needed (and also not wasting resources.)

At first glance, this seems like a rather unnecessary step, but it really does make sense. As computer users, we spend most of our time on the internet. To have email, instant messaging, RSS feeds, etc. all in the scope of one application means that there won’t be the clutter and confusion of switching between a whole bunch of separate applications; it will all be available in the same window. Done right, it could be a great productivity enhancer, and I think Apple would be the company to do it right.

Would this work for you? Why or why not? Sound off in the comments below!

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Do you have a great idea for a movie, but don’t know how to turn it into a screenplay that makes any sense? Well, that’s never stopped those fellows who make the Saw movies, and now it doesn’t need to stop you, either, thanks to Mariner’s Contour screenplay structure software.

Contour is a proven story development system that streamlines the process of turning your movie ideas from first glimmer to full outline. Using the Contour story development system created by Emmy Award-nominated Jeffrey Alan Schechter, you will learn how to use the same character-based structure that nearly all the blockbuster movies use to create solid stories that hold together from Fade In to Fade Out.

No idea who Jeffrey Alan Schechter is? Me neither, but I looked him up in IMDB and saw that he wrote Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-Lot...sooooooo, he must be really good for anyone to take him seriously with that on his resume, right?

Plus, Mariner has a history of releasing fantastic software for writers, including the Mariner Writer word processor, Montage screenwriting program (with which Contour will integrate after a forthcoming update is released), and StoryMill novel writing program. They’ve also recently launched the WritersPub social network site to build a community of writers around their software. Mariner is one of those rare companies who actually seem to take interest in what their customers are doing with their software, and Contour covers yet another part of the writing process.

Some of Contour’s features include:

• Flesh out a main character and codify their motivations and behaviors.
• Quickly recognize archetypes which protagonists journey through in all the top movies.
• Go from concept to bulletproof outline in less time than ever before.
• Learn a flexible yet exact plot point and beat structure that works for all genres.
• Seamlessly transfer a concept into popular screenplay writing software such as Montage.
• Develop a compelling logline.

Now, if they could just release “Guaranteed Agent Finder,” we’d be all set.

Product [Contour]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Product: Screen capture, image editing/sharing software
Developer: Global Delight Technologies
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.5.2, iPhoto v6.0.1 (for exporting captured/ annotated images)
Price: $39.99
Availability Now
Version Reviewed: 1.01

Voila is a Mac OS X application that makes taking screen shots a cake walk. What sets this apart from other software in its class are the several editing features that are part of the suite. One of the features you notice when you first launch the application is that Voila is integrated with Mail and iPhoto. You can send your screenshots to anyone in just a few clicks, and the same goes for importing/exporting to iPhoto. In the same area, you will also find a View Options button that allows you to set the display as you see fit. There are three options available. Another nice feature is the ability to zoom in and out on the screen shot itself, which allows you to do some really nice editing. It’s not as powerful as Photoshop, but for screen capture software it can zoom in quite close, allowing you to get quite detailed.

Now, let’s talk about the screenshots themselves. You have the option to take a shot of the entire desktop, or you can manually select the area that you would like captured. There is also an option for you to capture a menu, although I have tried to use it several times and have yet to get it to do what I want it to do. The menu option uses a complex key combination, and is just a pain in the “you know what” to use.

The layout, once you have captured your shot, is very is to understand. Although there is a lot going on, the screen does not feel too crowded.

Now, the cool stuff. There is a Tools tab for editing that allows you to do a wealth of editing to your screen shot. You can add arrows to point to anything you want. You can use a paint brush effect that reminds me a lot of Microsoft Paint (bad reference, I know, but true nonetheless). You also have a paint option that will auto fill an area with a color that you select. A spray can, lines, test bubbles, and a cool little stamp are some of the other tools available to you.

There is a second editing tab labeled Effects. Edges, skew, filter, adjust, and crop are your features here. You can do a great deal of cool things with these editing tools, more than you’re likely to want to do with a screenshot. You can even import photos into the application and mess around with them, too. Nice.

But that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t more tools available to you. I had the opportunity to speak with Global Delight about this, and they mentioned that new features are coming, along with usability changes as suggested by Voila users. The first of these should show up within four to six weeks, and will include additional methods of sharing, enhanced annotations and effects, bug fixes, and an improved user experience. They’re also considering a Tiger version.

They also offered a special discount to Appletell readers:

We would like to offer 25% discount on Voila to Appletell readers. Please mention this coupon code: “appletell”. This coupon is active till 28th Feb.

If you need to take screenshots often or need to annotate any photo you have, then I recommend Voila hands down. This is a great application with a lot of easy-to-use features.

Full Story » | Written by Anthony Parkinson for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Skype and home office phone functionality via handset, speakerphone and bluetooth headset
Developer: Plantronics
Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4, 512MB RAM
Processor Compatibility: Intel or PowerPC
Price: $279.95
Availability: Now

The Calisto Pro is the phone that does everything. It’s a cordless home handset/speakerphone with a bluetooth headset. If that wasn’t unique enough, it not only connects to your POTS (plain old telephone system) it also connects to your Mac via USB. But is it worth $279.95?

The phone itself has a lot of technology built in. It’s cordless, it comes with its own bluetooth headset, and it has a speakerphone built in, too. Its battery life is quoted at 8 hours, but the charging station is so darn fun that I have yet to let it run out of battery. The wireless portion is DECT 6.0, meaning you can walk up to 300 feet away and still have it work. I didn’t walk that far away in my tests, but you definitely won’t have any problems inside of your house and likely around it. DECT 6.0 also means that it’s WiFi friendly, so there shouldn’t be any interference there. I know I didn’t find any. The only feature that’s really missing from an all-in-one phone unit like this is an answering machine. But these days, everyone has voicemail, so maybe it’s not that needed.

Ok, so you’re saying to yourself, why do I care? This is Appletell after all, not Homephonetell. The Calisto Pro can now connect to your Mac for phone book info and Skype use. The way it works is you install the Calisto Pro software and launch the application. Then you launch Skype. Calls must be started by Skype, as they currently cannot be initiated by the handset alone. This means you either have to receive a call, or place a call with your mouse. You can, of course, end the call from the handset or headset.

Once the call has been placed, the sound quality is great. In fact, Skype will automatically recognize the device and route your calls to it. I especially liked using the speakerphone option, as it keeps the audio from Skype separate from the audio coming out of your computer. Seeing as Skype is the only easy service supported as of now, you’ll definitely need to be a Skype junky to want this phone system.

As an added bonus of the software, you can also sync your Address Book to the phone. This is a feature that every phone should have, as it saves you a ton of time. The phone can store up to 200 contacts with 3 phone numbers a piece. This feature is not enough to justify the phone system by itself, but it is awesome.

I have two main problems with this device.  First, the software. It’s not that it doesn’t work, because it does work, very well in fact. I just really wish there was some other way of doing this. I have too many applications running on my computer as it is, so I really wish that it didn’t have to be another icon sitting in my dock taking up space. Maybe it could be converted into a preference pane. That way, it would run in the background all the time without any need for distracting icons.

I also wish it easily supported other applications. If you’re going to be compatible with the Mac, then why can’t I use it easily with iChat? It’s possible, but not fun. You essentially have to select the Calisto Pro as the speaker and mic inside of iChat’s preferences. Then in the Calisto Pro software, you need to turn the handset’s mic and speaker on constantly. This will drain the battery, so you’re advised to only turn it on when you’re about to have a voice chat. Needless to say, it’s a bit more painful than it needs to be.

Secondly, the headset. It’s very large. This means you shouldn’t move your head much, as the headset will move around on your ear. The reason it’s so big is so that the noise canceling mic can be placed closer to your mouth. This is less of a problem, since the handset will pair with any standard bluetooth headset. But the whole point of this system is to not need anything else. One phone, one headset, one charger.

Overall, the phone is great. It’s clearly a high quality product. I do wish the headset was smaller, but you can use a different one if it bothers you. Or, you could just use the handset, or the speakerphone. You really have a lot of options. I also wish the software ran in the background, with some extra functionality. This is also fixable, since it’s a software issue. The Mac software is relatively new, so I’m betting it will be improved. The PC software definitely has a lot more features, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of those features make their way to the Mac in the near future. Ultimately, it comes down to one thing on this product. If you spend a lot of time talking on Skype, then this is for you. If you don’t, then it’s not. Simple as that.

I’m going to give the Calisto Pro a 3 out of 5 because the software doesn’t justify the price. For $279.95, this phone and its software should work flawlessly.  For the phone, that’s true, but the software needs improvement. While the Address Book features and Skype functionality are both great, it’s not enough. I’d like the software to be more behind the scenes instead of having an extra program running at all times. And it needs to easily support more services, especially iChat. But still, this is a great piece of hardware, so I’m interested to see if the software catches up.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Ask almost anyone who attended the Macworld keynote this year what they thought of it and you probably won’t get a very great response. With no Steve Jobs, the keynote was almost bound to not be as great as the past few years. However, not only did Phil take the place of Steve, but there weren’t any outstanding new product announcements.  The only real hardware announcement was the new 17” MacBook Pro. So, do we have a right to be angry with Apple for a “mediocre” keynote? I don’t think so at all. Read on to find out why.

You would be correct in saying that Apple didn’t release anything all that groundbreaking at this keynote, as with the iPhone and such from past years. However, you can’t really blame them. The economy isn’t all that great right now, and people aren’t as willing to spend money. Apple realizes this, and, in my opinion, is extremely able to coast on some of the amazing products they currently have. By not announcing a new product, they can spend more time and money developing and improving their current ones, something everyone can appreciate.

And can you really say there weren’t any great announcements? The innovation that was brought forward in the new iLife ‘09 software was outstanding. Think about it. Both Places and Faces in the new iPhoto take advantage of two things that people love to do with their photos. And to have this built in to $79 software is a great feat, if you ask me. Not only that, but iPhoto now takes advantage of Flickr and Facebook, two of the most popular photo sites. It doesn’t stop there, though. iMovie ‘09 offers some groundbreaking image stabilization algorithms that will make editing video even more fun and easy. And people are complaining there wasn’t anything great?

In my opinion, we Apple fanboys have been spoiled in the last couple years with great new announcements to spend our money on. This year, we should be just as happy. Although there is no new iPhone or Mac Mini, the software we use everyday on these machines has been greatly improved.  That’s just as important as the hardware can be.

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

For those of you who haven’t been living under a rock this past week, you’re aware of Apple’s new and improved iPhoto application that will come out with iLife ‘09 later this month. This update, which requires Leopard 10.5.6 or higher, brings a couple of exciting features such as Places and Faces (which are a nice addition to Events from the last version). These updates, as well as some other ones, will bring a lot more functionality to iPhoto, and I am really looking forward to this software. What exactly should you expect to see with this new software? Other than some improved editing features, there are some other major updates. Read on to find out.

New Features

Places: One of the hot new trends in the photography world is geo-tagging photos with the coordinates where they were taken. Some cameras now even come with GPS installed in them to help with this process. With the new iPhoto, you cannot only take advantage of this data that is embedded in your images, but iPhoto will automatically see it and show where it is on a nice graphical map. If you don’t have a GPS enabled camera or add on device, you can tag the photos yourself using a city name, address, or any other location. Apple describes this new feature as such:

Places automatically imports photo location data from a GPS-enabled camera or any iPhone or you can manually assign a location to any photo, group of photos or event. Once iPhoto knows where photos were taken, you can easily explore them with a simple search or an interactive map.

Faces: This new feature finds and scans human faces on imported photos based on face recognition technology. Once it scans a few examples of the same face with some helps from the user, it will automatically find the rest of the photos in the library that contain that face. If it is unsure, there is a process that allows users to confirm or deny whether or not the specific face in question does appear in that photo. With all of these scanned photos, iPhoto ‘09 creates new albums based on the people who appear in the photo to make it even easier to find them in your album. Here is Apple’s description:

iPhoto automatically scans photos to detect people’s faces and when you assign a name to any face iPhoto will automatically find more pictures of that person. The library can be searched by name or browsed using the new Faces View.

Online Sharing: If you use Flickr or Facebook at all, then you’re going to love the new iPhoto, which comes with integration with both of these. For Flickr, you can simply upload images straight from iPhoto now instead of having to use the web client or another piece of third party software such as Flickr Uploadr. Furthermore, the geo-tagging on these pictures will also be imported into Flickr. However, the Facebook part of this feature is more exciting. With the new Faces feature, uploaded images to Facebook automatically are tagged according to the Faces you have tagged in iPhoto. If anyone adds a tag to the photos you upload, they can automatically be synced back down to your local library, which can save a ton of time. Apple has this to say:

iPhoto ’09 lets you easily publish photos to Facebook or Flickr. Photos published to Facebook include assigned names, and name tags added on Facebook sync back to iPhoto.

Themed Slideshows: With six built in themes, making slideshows in iPhoto ‘09 is even simpler than before. These themes automatically use Classic, Shatter, Snapshots, Scrapbook, Ken Burns, and Sliding Panels transitions. And with the new Faces technology, iPhoto will also find faces in the image and make sure they remain in the viewable portion of the photo no matter where it fades or slides to, which is pretty awesome. On top of this, a filmstrip on the bottom lets users easily navigate between photos. Apple says:

You can also share photos by creating a themed slideshow to play on your Mac, iPhone or iPod, or create a beautiful travel book, complete with customized maps of your journey.

What to Expect

With all of these new features, iPhoto ‘09 will not be one to disappoint. With new competition from Picasa, these updates will help to keep iPhoto on top. The features I am most looking forward to are the Flickr and Facebook integration, as they will save me endless amounts of time of switching between applications and such. I have always found the older iPhoto to be a little feature lacking, but now I am thinking more and more about making it my main photo application. How about you?

Product [iPhoto ‘09] Via [Apple PR]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

If you’ve been looking for that perfect competitor for iPhoto and don’t want to lay down all of your money for Aperture or PhotoShop, you’ll be delighted to hear that Google has released a public beta of Picasa for your Mac. Up until this point, Google’s online photo application was only available on Macs through a browser and iPhoto plugin. Now, the same features and editing capabilities that have been on Windows and Linux for years are now ready for your Mac.

With this release, Google says that:

Picasa for Mac looks and works much like Picasa on other platforms, and offers trademark Picasa features — such as non-destructive editing, and the ability to keep track of photos anywhere on your hard drive, then automatically account for new images as you add them.

Picasa will run on any Intel based Mac running Mac OS X v10.4 or later with at least 100MB available for the download. Although I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, there are plenty of people I know who seem to be pretty excited about its release. If it’s anywhere as popular on a Mac as Chrome was for the Windows and Linux machines, then I can see it becoming quite a successful product for Google.

Via [The Google Blog] Product [Picasa]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

When it comes to using iCal, one of the biggest issues from many users was all of the not so pleasant work-arounds they had to go through to sync their iCal calendar with Google Calendar so they could get it anywhere, or vice versa. That is no longer an issue. A recent application introduction for Google Calendars now fully supports the CalDAV protocol, which will allow integration between these two scheduling applications. Some of the tasks you can complete include syncing the two scheduling programs, operating offline, and answering invitations from other users.

This is currently available through an open source download via Google Code under the name of Calaboration.  It only works in Mac OS X Leopard because the CalDAV protocol was introduced in that version of Apple’s operating system. That said, it looks like a nice solution to the syncing problem. It’s always nice to see open source developers taking problems into their own hands and spending their own time to create software that will help us, the end users, out.

Product [Calaboration]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

FluidTunes is a new application from Majic Jungle Software that aims to make browsing your music even more fun than with your multi-touch trackpad. Using the built-in iSight camera that comes on almost every Mac shipped, this application watches and then acts upon your gestures in what appears to be a very efficient manner, according to the video. It has its own interface that allows you to browse your music in a cover flow like fashion, as well as play and pause it. Although it may not be the easiest way to change the song while you’re at work, it will sure be great to show off to all your friends.

FluidTunes is a Universal Binary, meaning it will run on both PowerPC and Intel based Macs. Better yet, it is only a 0.7MB download and is 100% free, so there is no reason for you to not try this out as long as you run Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Majic Jungle Software also makes iSight Screensavers and DuckDuckDuck 2.0. There appears to be a solo developer behind all of this coding, so hopefully updates and support keep coming for these apps!

Product [FluidTunes]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Infusions of Grandeur has announced Giftory 3.0, an update to their gift buying and tracking utility for Mac OS X. This handy little Macintosh program helps you keep track of gift giving and receiving for multiple people, on multiple occasions, over a period of years. And, of course, it will soon offer iPhone integration (pending Apple approval) so you can stay on top of your list while out in the crowds on Black Friday.

An excellent idea for parents managing the shopping lists of their children, or for those attending many parties and gift exchanges amongst friends, Giftory allows you to set up a group of people and create lists of gifts exchanged between them, as well as sort and prioritize the gifts in a variety of ways. You can keep track of all sorts of gift exchanges, and, perhaps more importantly, plan and budget for gifts that have yet to be purchased.

Of course, Giftory isn’t relegated to just Christmas. Users may easily set budgets for different occasions (such as that inevitable month where it seems you’re attending more niece/nephew birthday parties than you have nieces and nephews) as well as set spending limits for individual people. Giftory will faithfully maintain each gift’s associations and information, such as where it was purchased, how much it cost and where it is hidden. This feature makes Giftory particularly suited for those looking to get all of their shopping done by Black Friday.

Version 3.0 offers a number of new and/or enhanced features, including:

• Budgeting
• Online shopping integration with Amazon, eBay and Yahoo Shopping
• Support for creating wish lists
• Integration with .Mac/MobileMe
• A free iPhone app that lets anyone read published wish lists from .Mac/MobileMe accounts
• Ability to sort people into different groups
• Improved purchased and unpurchased gift price totaling
• Drag-n-Drop customization of gift lists
• Full Undo/Redo support
• Improved customizable multiple person view for side-by-side comparisons

Giftory integrated nicely with a few online retailers—Yahoo Shopping, eBay and Amazon—so users may search for gifts and initiate purchases directly from the application. You can also Giftory to create wish lists that can be published to your computer or to a MobileMe (.Mac) account. A free iPhone app is available, pending release on the iTunes App Store, that lets any iPhone user view the wish list of any Giftory user who has published their wish list to their MobileMe (.Mac) account.

Another thing to consider is that Giftory could make a good early gift for your grandparents or other relatives and friends who have to manage a large shopping list each year. Give it to them on Thanksgiving, and they’re set for the rest of the season.

Minimum Requirements:

• Mac OS X Version 10.4 or later
• Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel
• 7.4 MB Hard Drive space
• MobileMe (.Mac) account (required for online publication of wish lists, iPhone integration)
• Internet connection (required for online shopping, online publication of wish lists, iPhone integration)

Giftory 3.0 is immediately available for only $19.95 (USD). Except for saving files, Giftory works as an unrestricted demo until such time as it is unlocked with a purchased registration code.

Product [Giftory]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Nisus Software has announced the release of Nisus Writer Pro 1.2. This latest version of their critically acclaimed (and my personal favorite) word processor adds a completely new file importer that improves file translations, especially for the .doc format. Additionally, export as Word file format (.doc) and the Open Document (.odt) format has been added. The Table of Contents feature also has a few new options: tab/backtab can be used to promote or demote TOC levels, and TOC entries can be rearranged by drag and drop within the navigator pane.

Other new features include automatically updating time stamps, Flesch and Kincaid reading ease scores, additional backup options, a Macroize menu, and editable document properties (author, company, copyright, etc.). There have also been additions to the Nisus Macro Language. A host of bug fixes and other enhancements have also been included.

Of these updates, I’m most curious to try out the new Word translations. In my review of Nisus Writer Pro v1.0.3 over at Applelinks, I wrote:

For (better or) worse, pretty much all word processors competing with Word have to support Word in order to make any sort of dent in the market. By default, Nisus Writer Pro saves files as RTFs, which Word can read. Nisus goes one better, however, by allowing you to save your files directly as Word docs. There will still be some discrepancies when opening your Nisus files in Word, depending upon the complexity of the layout, but they’re kept to a minimum. This problem is more apparent when opening Word docs in Nisus Writer Pro. Text documents with simple formatting are no problem, and I found that Nisus Writer Pro gave me cleaner, easier to format documents than even Apple’s Pages program. However, there’s pretty much no such thing as a simple Word document anymore, and Nisus did tend to choke to Word files with heavy graphics and “church secretary” layouts. I occasionally opened a graphic-heavy Word doc in Nisus only to have the graphics not show up at all.

Oh, but how’s this for irony? This new .docx format of Microsoft’s that not even Word can open? Nisus opens it just fine. We had a client send us a .docx PC file that my boss couldn’t open with Microsoft Word on his PC. I opened the document without trouble in Nisus Writer Pro, saved it to Word, and handed it off to my boss.

If this update addresses the issues with Word compatibility, I’ll update that review and post it here at Appletell.

In the meantime, the full list of features and fixes in Nisus Writer Pro 1.2 can be read at the Nisus Writer Pro release notes page. All of these new features add to an already rich feature set that includes an intuitive interface, multilingual text support, easy to use style system, non-contiguous selection, full screen mode, and a native file format (RTF) that almost any word processor can read.

Nisus Writer Pro 1.2 is available now for $79.00 ($45.00 upgrade). A three license Family Pack is also available for $99.00. Versions on CD are available for an additional $10.00 plus shipping. A printed manual is also available for $25.00 plus shipping.

This release is a free update to current license holders of Nisus Writer Pro.

Nisus Writer Pro 1.2 is a universal binary and requires Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) or later. A 15 day demo is available.

Product [Nisus Writer Pro]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Although I’m not personally a fan of photo cards, this isn’t because I’m against the idea. It’s because the photos generally have that phony, staged feel of shopping mall photography centers, and because they’re just too expensive to bother with when I’m already overloaded with gift purchases (especially considering most photo centers require a minimum purchase). Thankfully, HappyHolidays! makes it easy to create personalized photo cards, perfect for sending to family and friends for any occasion. With HappyHolidays!, users can take any digital photo and add a background and a personal message to build a customized photo card. The software makes it easy to vary each card, so you can customize them for each recipient.

Unlike the type of pre-designed cards you order from photo centers, HappyHolidays! is not limited to a set number of characters or lines for personalized messages. It works just like a word processor, offering much more freedom to lay out the text of the message. And, you can personalize messages in any language supported by Mac OS X.

HappyHolidays! allows users to easily e-mail a photo card using Apple’s Mail application by converting it into a jpeg file and attaching it to a new Mail message. At any time, users may print their photo cards on their own color printer at home. No worries if you don’t have a decent printer; you can save your cards as hi-res jpegs and print them at your local photo center as normal prints.

Feature Highlights:

• Supports 4"x6” and 5"x7” card sizes
• Easy photo card creation
• Control the appearance and style of Photo Cards
• Personalize the message in different languages
• Print hi-res JPEG file as a normal print at any photo center
• Print Photo Card on any photo printer
• E-mail Photo Card to family and friends
• Save money printing as normal prints over pre-designed photo cards

Minimum Requirements:

• Mac OS X Version 10.4 or later (Leopard compatible)
• Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel
• 42.2 MB Hard Drive space

HappyHolidays! 2.10 is priced at only $10.00 (USD). A full-featured demo is available for download. The unregistered application is limited in that all saved images will include a watermark. More information about HappyHolidays!, along with an online tutorial, is available at the 24x7digital website.

Product [HappyHollidays!]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

One of the biggest complaints people still offer about the iPhone is its lack of photo sharing capabilities. Phones much cheaper and more antiquated than the iPhone have been allowing users to take photos and send them to people quickly and easily for some time now, so why not the iPhone? Well, now it can, kind of, thanks to Memeo Photo from Memeo, Inc., who has also just announced Mac Memeo Share. These programs let individuals share high-resolution pictures and videos directly to the computer desktops of friends and family from a Mac or iPhone. They join the PC version of Memeo Share, enabling consumers to now share pictures across multiple platforms using the program. But there is one important drawback.

MemeoPhoto enables iPhone owners to instantly share photos when on-the-go. After downloading the product from the iPhone App Store, users can take pictures and immediately send them to their Sharing Circles. MemeoPhoto users also instantly and automatically receive photos that others share with them.

In other words, people who receive the images will be able to easily download them to their gallery, provided they also have MemeoPhoto installed on their iPhone. But the functionality doesn’t end with the iPhone:

Memeo Share makes sharing full-quality photos and videos with friends and family easy by offering a better alternative to using email. With the product, consumers no longer have to resize pictures or send them one at a time. Memeo Share also allows individuals to simply share videos, as it seamlessly distributes content behind-the-scenes through user-created Sharing Circles. Additionally, Mac Memeo Share integrates with iPhoto, allowing users to share and receive photos directly from and to the application.

Mac Memeo Share is compatible with Mac OS X 10.4.8 and above and is available immediately in free “Standard” and paid “Premium” versions. The standard version comes with 1GB of online storage space, and the premium version provides unlimited storage for $4.95 a month. MemeoPhoto for iPhone is a free download from the App Store.

Products [MemeoPhoto and Mac Memeo Share]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

PocketMac is at it again with yet the release of another very useful application geared towards the Mac operating system. iCalScreenSaver does exactly what the name implies, it turns your screen saver into an informative calendar so that you will never miss another appointment again. It is available now for a slim $9.95.

This app comes in four different themes in which to watch your events fly by: Sunset, Blue-Grey, Tangerine and Green. Also, the user can easily choose the events or calendars they want the app to show, which is a nice addition. Along with that, there is a feature that allows you to keep your private events off of the screen saver so that curious passers-by can’t see your private dates if you don’t want them to. If you ask me, this is a very clever way to make use of the screen saver that we so often see when returning to our machines. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Product [iCalScreenSaver]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Boxee is a new application for the Mac that is much like Front Row, only better—in theory. It is an open source effort, meaning that plug-ins can be added and it can be modified by others besides the developers. It is currently in a private alpha stage, and I just so happen to be a private alpha member, and I figured I should bring a preview to you.

When Boxee launches, even if there is only one account present, you are greeted with a screen where you can choose between accounts. Using a keyboard, mouse (if enabled) or a remote, you choose the account you want to log in to. The account doesn’t dictate the media you can access; rather, it dictates your “recommendations” and “friend activity”—one place where Boxee sets itself far apart from Front Row.

Whenever your friends watch or listen to something, unless they have dictated it a private source, it will show up on your home screen. Recommendations are based upon what your friends listen to or watch, and also what you like. Likewise, whenever you listen to or watch something, it will show up for your friends, unless you dictate it as a private source. This is fairly easy to do, but not readily obvious, an issue that plagues Boxee.

In my article about making AppleTV (and Front Row) better, my number one request was to integrate streaming TV from sources such as Hulu and ABC.com. While Boxee has not gotten there (due to the Flash containers used by Hulu shows), it is much closer than Apple, and Boxee developers have expressed interest in adding Hulu support. However, I am still more inclined to use Front Row over Boxee on my forthcoming home entertainment setup, and it’s because of the UI.

The Front Row user interface could not be made any simpler. On the flip side, the Boxee interface has no room to cram anything else in, and is rather unintuitive. As seen in the above screenshot, Boxee has some inexplicable design choices. Here in the Music section, the option to choose internet sources is grouped along with the choice of “My Sources” and all of my album artists. Having all the options is both intimidating and completely un-hierarchical. Common sense would dictate that I should choose between Internet and My Sources, then choose by Artist. One last issue is that changing view settings is easy, but tedious, and view settings must be changed per the individual menus, of which there seem to be infinitely many.

Overall, for an alpha build, Boxee is really great and has great potential. It is, however, a ways off from becoming my choice for a Home Entertainment hub.

Boxee is available for Mac and Linux. You can sign up for the private beta at boxee.tv.

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

A number of years back (or even more recently), you might have heard of XBMC (XBox Media Center). XBMC was a way for XBox owners to mod their units into a fully capable media center. That project has continued to progress, and has moved on since its XBox roots. While XBMC is still available, there is an interesting offshoot based on it’s code called Boxee and it’s making its way to a Mac near you soon.

Why soon? Well, that’s because Boxee is still in Alpha, so there are still some wrinkles to iron out here. But that’s not to say it’s not already shaping up to be an awesome application. More on this Alpha business later…

So what is Boxee? It’s like Front Row, with more options and a social aspect. The Boxee team calls it a “social media center.” It can play most of your movies, music, and pictures, as long as they aren’t shackled down with DRM. And, with 30 video codecs, Boxee can handle just about all of your media sitting on your hard drive.

But it isn’t limited to your hard drive. Boxee is great for browsing online media. There are RSS feeds built into the player that can provide you with hours of entertainment. Some examples are the Onion News Network, Ask A Ninja, Wine Library TV, CNN, etc. On top of that, you can enter your friends into Boxee. So, you can send and receive recommendations, and check out what your friends have recently watched. Best of all, if one of your friends watches a great movie, like 300, Boxee will attempt to find legal sources for you to watch related content. Things like previews or clips available on the net. It works for songs too. Boxee tries to find YouTube videos for songs your friends have listened too. And it all happens from completely legal sources. Awesome!

The interface is built to be used by a remote. While the developers consider the mouse to be the wrong interface for this program, you can enable it in the settings. That said, every function is accessible from the remote. They did this purposefully, so that, for example, you could connect a Mac Mini to your living room TV and control the whole media experience from the comfort of your couch with your Apple Remote.

Now, since it’s still in Alpha, there are some bumps in the road. For instance, when you play a video but decide to browse for more videos via the menu, it’s hard to get back to the video playing. The current video continues to play in the background, which is a beautiful feature on its own, but it seems there aren’t enough buttons on the Apple remote to get back to the current video. The only solution I could find was to enable mouse controls, and click on the video playing. I’ve also had some issues with the way controlling playback works. You have to click the play/pause button once to bring up the playback controls, and then again to actually pause a video. These are very minor problems that I’m sure will be cleared up, and honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t found a ton more, considering this is still in Alpha.

What’s really cool about the developers of Boxee is that they want to release this program to the Mac and Linux communities first. They feel the pain that Mac users experience when everything comes out for Windows first and is ported over to the Mac. Not so, this time. It’s ironic, considering the original project, XBMC, started on a Microsoft product.

Overall, I find Boxee to be an awesome application, but it won’t be replacing Front Row for me anytime soon. I love knowing which podcasts in iTunes I haven’t watched yet. Still, I think Boxee is for a different purpose. I love browsing for online media with its interface.

Now, about this Alpha business. It’s a closed Alpha, so you have to get an invite to try this app out. And I’m of the belief that you have to try a program out to really see what it’s like. You could sit here all day and read what I have to say about this great app, but it’s just not the same as trying it. Good news for you, I have some invites. The first 20 commenters to this article that express a desire to get in on the Boxee action will get invited. Just don’t forget to fill in the e-mail box. And don’t be surprised if the app hangs, crashes, or has some bugs. It’s Alpha after all.

Product [Boxee]

[Author’s Note: I want to make it clear that Boxee is actually a flavor of XBMC, as pointed out in the comments by XBMCfanboy. XBMC has branched off into a few other programs, and actually, XBMC is still available as well. So, if Boxee doesn’t get you excited, maybe one of the others will.]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Today the subject of backing up your computer is hot again. We’ve always known that if our information is important to us, we need to somehow find a way to make it safe and available for recover in case something goes wrong. After all, accidents happen.

Backing up, like so many other important tasks, has been one of those “I know I have to do it, but I’ll do it tomorrow” activities that we haven’t been able to include in our daily habits. 

Some of us have been using every kind of method to backup our computer’s information. From the floppy disk through to dual layer DVDs, the industry always had some option for home users. If you’re part of an organization, maybe your data resides on a huge corporate hard disk, or even the magnetic tape drive of a few years ago.

Nowadays with the dropping price of the external hard disks and flash memory in general, the topic is in again, and many companies are bombarding the market with interesting proposals in order to make us reach that wanted status of “responsible user.”

One of those proposals is MozyHome for Mac. Mozy—an EMC Company—offers the Mac community the possibility to easily back up each computer’s information with just a few steps, and at a low price.

Once you’ve signed up for an account at Mozy’s home page, the steps to start backing up are very easy to follow:

• Download and install the software (version 1.0 for Mac users).
• Select files to be backed up (with a very sleek and “sexy” interface).
• Let MozyHome for Mac do the rest.

Some of the features of this attractive service are:

• Backing up of documents no matter if they’re open or closed.
• 128-bit SSL encryption (as any bank will do to protect communications).
• 448-bit blowfish encryption for files.
• Automatic scheduled back up.
• Change detection on files.
• Incremental backup (just like Apple’s own Time Machine).

MozyHome requires Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5. As metnioned, a MozyPro for Mac is being developed for corporative clients. If you’re looking for a backup option outside of you home or office, this one is worthy of consideration.

Product [MozyHome for Mac]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

If you’re one of those Mac users who wanted some how to control your finances, personal or business, and tried without success to bond with some software to do that, then you should take a look at what I’ve found to be the key to success in the road of controlling personal finances.

Quicken:Mac from Intuit, is one of the best applications out there for the task. It’s a powerful tool designed for and by Mac users. I’ve tried to use it several times before (since my days on Windows), but I have never been able to stick with it long enough to gain control of my finances.

After several failed attempts with the application, I’ve now found a key factor to success that I’d like to share with all of you who, like me, haven’t lost faith yet and are willing to try a few more times to gain the battle against routine, and overwhelming detailed financial applications.

Every single time I installed a brand new version of Quicken, my enthusiasm could not reach higher in the sky. I had an indescribable amount of energy, and I seriously wanted to make it work. I’ve already thought about all the categories I wanted to record, I had every account number and details of all my credit cards by my side. I even had some old receipts to introduce in the system right away. I just could not wait to start.

The problem for me (and for most us, I could guess) was that I couldn’t keep that initial rush of enthusiasm for more than a few weeks. At the beginning of the process, it was easy for me to record every single expense I had. The application consumed a big part of my day. At the beginning, that was fine with me, but that’s a rhythm that could not be kept in the long term.

I had set so many categories in order to track every single dollar spent, that I now had to record even the change in my pocket. That was the consequence of the initial session of configuration where I was as excited as a kid at Christmas, and I put down everything I could think of. This, my friends, is the most common mistake of all and it’s also the main cause of failure when using any personal finances application.

I could not say why this time I was able to indentify and correct the problem, but now that the key factor was out, I could do something to fix it. I’ve been using Quicken for months now, and it’s not a big part of my routine. On the contrary, it’s a simple habit scheduled at the end of the day. I could summarize my experience of bittersweet years with Quicken in these few but important success tips:

• Set up a simple initial configuration of your financial environment. Just add the main accounts you want to track (including credit cards). If your needs grow with time, the software will allow you to do so in a heartbeat. Avoid setting the cash account if you can. This will help you simplify a lot the record of daily transactions.
• Gather just the main categories to track. Focus on the main flow of money that you want to monitor. Use high-level categories when possible to decrease the level of detail that will eventually become tedious to record on daily basis.
• Record in daily basis. Don’t let too many days go by without sitting with the software. To make it a daily habit is the best way to guarantee the continuity.
• Use scheduled transactions. Set up as many routine transactions as possible. You can save a few movements if you tell Quicken to automatically execute those recurrent transactions that you will have to record every week or month.
• Make the effort. Finally, just make the effort to transform the application into an everyday tool for you. Nothing that benefits you will come without some cost. Like a diet or the dental flush, if you are consistent enough to fit it into your life, you’ll be just collecting the benefits in the future to come..

If you have your own tips for sticking with Quicken or any other program, share them in the comments.

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

David Pogue, a popular Apple product reviewer for the NY Times, has officially released his review of Apple’s new MobileMe. Compared to .Mac, Pogue comes right out and states that MobileMe “...has a much clearer mission that solves a much clearer problem.” Although Pogue agrees that the initial launch of this product was a disaster, he says, “Once everything’s ready, the magic is impressive.” He goes on to detail just how MobileMe works, what it does for users, and how it has found “...a silver lining in the cloud.”

Pogue, being on top of the latest technology, is aware that products similar to MobileMe are available.  However, he states that “...none have the integration, polish and automation of Apple’s offering.” Despite his glowing review, he does point out some hitches. He is mostly disappointed by the time it takes for changes to appear on your computer—15 minutes. Apple is aware of this, though, and is not pushing their “push” campaign as much until this problem is fixed. They’ve also offered a free 30 day MobileMe extension to existing MobileMe and .Mac subscribers.

Head over to the NY Times to read the full review.

Via [NY Times]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Emmy award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced the release of Comic Boom, a comic creation application designed for the young. Generating a four-panel comic strip, Comic Boom enables users to create comics very quickly and share them on a blog or web site, and to save them as PDF or JPEG files.

Unlimited drawing placement allows everything from understanding text positioning and panel composition to fully printable “comic-page” strips.

The built-in clip art collection allows anyone to build panels in seconds. Add bubbles, captions and colors, then publish, print and share.

Comic Boom retails at $19.99 US and is available in electronic format only. Comic Boom runs on Windows Vista and XP, as well as Mac OS X v10.4 and v10.5.

Product [Comic Boom]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Looking for a deal this summer? Indie Mac Software has what you need. From July 7th until the 15th, you can get 20% off select software by using the coupon code of DF2008. The companies involved in this deal include Azure Talon, Lucerne Systems, M Cubed Software, Wonder Warp Software, and You Software. These five companies are offering a total of nine different applications for you to choose from, so head on over to the site and help them out.

Azure Talon
Exces - Using the strong AES encryption standard, this application allows you to quickly and easily protect your data.

Lucerne Systems
Horizon - Sporting a calender based interface, this software is the “...easiest way to manage your finances.”

M Cubed Software
Code Collector Pro - This software allows you to easily store and share code snippets and is integrated with codecollector.net.
Minim - If you podcast or create music, this is for you. It simply organizes all of your audio and keeps track of the metadata.

Wonder Warp Software
ShoveBox - This application allows you to keep track of all those images, text snippets, and URLs that you don’t have time to deal with but want to look at later.
SimpleChord - This “part tool and part toy” application allows you to look up chords and create your own progressions.

You Software
You Control - This application allows you to easily create menus to extend your Mac’s usability.
You Control: Desktops - Working sort of like Spaces, this application simply gives your more room by creating a virtual desktop.
You Control: Fonts - Keep track of your fonts with this simple WYSIWYG font menu.

Products [Indie Mac Software]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Limit Point Software’s MenuMinder, which allows you to “...create quick, simple alert, email and SMS Text Message (mobile phone) reminders using the system-wide menu that can be accessed from any application,” has been updated to version 1.5.1. To get this $10 application that works with Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, simply download it and get to work.  Here are some main features:

• Quick, simple reminders from the menu bar.
• Hot keys for creating new reminders quickly.
• Email reminders or send reminders as text messages to your mobile phone.

Head on over to their site for a how to use tutorial as well as some nice screenshots. If you like this app, be sure to check out the other 12 applications from Limit Point Software.

Product [MenuMinder]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Berbie Software’s Trailrunner application has been updated to version 1.7, and now supports the Nike+ SportBand as well as nikeplus.com. This means runners can now display their Nike running data in Trailrunner and analyze their performance with Trailrunner’s built in tools. Another major update to this version is improved GPS support for optimized course merging and a better overall workout history chart.  For those of you with heart rate monitors, you will also see improved support.

Trailrunner “...is route planning software for all kinds of long distance sports, like running, biking, hiking, inline-skating, skiing and more…” and comes with a ton of features. With this app, you can easily calculate a route of any distance, then have the directions exported to your iPod. Once your run is done, Trailrunner offers many features to help you analyze your performance. You can manage your goals, add personal notes, and publish your results with .Mac. If running is your thing, be sure to check Trailrunner out.

Product [Trailrunner]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Real Networks and Viacom’s Rhapsody will be launching a $50 million MP3 downloads business to challenge iTunes’ 70% market share, Reuters is reporting.

Digital music seller Rhapsody is launching a $50 million marketing assault on Apple’s iTunes, offering songs online and via partners including Yahoo Inc and Verizon Wireless, Rhapsody said on Monday.

The songs will be sold in MP3 format, which means users of the Rhapsody service will be able to play them on iPods.

Before now, Rhapsody, jointly owned by Real Networks, Inc. and Viacom Inc.‘s MTV Networks, had focused on a subscription service, allowing unlimited song streaming for $13 to $15 a month, rather than selling downloads.

But Rhapsody Vice President Neil Smith said the fact the service has not been compatible with Apple Inc.‘s top-selling iPod digital player has limited Rhapsody’s reach.

“We’re no longer competing with the iPod,” Smith said. “We’re embracing it.”

Rhapsody also will be the music store back-end to MTV’s music Web sites and iLike, one of the most widely used music applications on social networking site Facebook.

Rhapsody is not the first business to try to compete with iTunes’ dominance in online music sales.

Rhapsody is the latest player to challenge iTunes’s 70 percent-plus market share of U.S. digital music sales.

Last month, digital music service Napster Inc launched an MP3 store. Both Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc. launched stores last year.

None of the new stores has made much of a dent on Apple’s lead. Early this year, iTunes became the biggest music retailer in the United States. It has sold more than 5 billion songs since it launched in 2003.

Via [MSNBC]

Full Story » | Written by Michael Goonan for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Got Game Entertainment LLC has announced a North American retail publishing deal for MindHabits for both Mac and PC. Based on more than a decade of research and findings by Dr. Mark Baldwin of McGill University in Montreal, MindHabits “...presents simple and fun challenges that can help you maintain a more positive state of mind, resulting in reduced stress, boosted self-confidence, reduced exam anxiety, improved work performance, and even a better golf game.”

You know, those are the exact same reasons I play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. I’m just sayin…

“We hear so much about the negative impact of games, but here is scientific proof that games can also have the very real ability to create a positive impact,” said Got Game Entertainment President Howard Horowitz.

MindHabits for PC and Mac features scientifically designed training challenges, as well as measurement tools, to help you gain and maintain a more positive frame of mind. In one challenge, for example, you must find the smiling faces in a crowd of frowns, which studies have shown can help train your mind to react to positive information. Similarly, word challenges associate certain concepts with your own personal words, reinforcing positive personal associations and activating positive patterns of thought.

Sounds kind of freaky to me, but cool. I tend to be one of those frowns in the crowd, so maybe this game will turn all that around and make me a more pleasant person. According to a decade of research, it could. MindHabits has shown:

• People can actually train themselves to develop positive mental habits using specially designed games such as MindHabits
• Playing can help reduce the stress hormone cortisol by up to 17%
• Benefits can be gained from playing in just five minutes a day

Well, that’s certainly one benefit of Quake Wars; there’s no benefit to playing that for just five minutes a day.

As 1st Prize Winner in the Great Canadian Videogame Competition across all categories, MindHabits also clearly proves its gaming chops. MindHabits for Mac and PC features:

• 200 levels of game play in 4 core games
• Daily tracking of results and measurement of progress over time
• Customizable male/female only option
• Over 1,500 face images in higher levels
• Game play adaptable to player skill level
• Ability to customize for age, neighborhood, and facial characteristics
• Science lab that explains how and why MindHabits works

Customized neighborhood? Are they going to have my neighbor’s little yappy dog barking incessantly in the right speaker? How’s that supposed to reduce stress?

Scheduled for release August 2008, MindHabits will include double the number of levels and game playing time previously available in the online version. MindHabits will retail at $19.99 (USD), and is not yet rated by the ESRB. I guess the final rating will be determined by your mind’s habits. Scary.

Regardless of the rating, I’m really looking forward to checking this game out. I’m a regular user of Brain Age 2 on the DS, and this could prove just as entertaining and useful…or, it could brainwash me into a life of alien servitude. I guess we’ll find out come August.

Product [MindHabits]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

AQUARIUS Software has released a new version of Playwatch, a popular iTunes controller and information ticker for the menu bar on the Mac. Version 1.2.0, “...offers exciting new features, Portuguese language and bug fixes.” One new feature is that the main HUD window for the applications interface now has two new appearances, as well as a new button to switch between them. Also, you are now able play tracks simply by clicking on them, and the currently playing track stands out with a “Bloom and Blur” effect. On top of all this, the animations have been improved.

This application requires Mac OS X v10.5 or higher (10.5.2 recommended) and can work on both PPC and Intel based Macs. You can download it and enjoy a free 30 day trial, but it will cost you $13.20 to register. If you are upgrading, you will get a reduced price for bigger updates, as well as free minor updates. If you are looking for a new way to interact with your music, check this out and report back here to let us know if you like it.

Product [Playwatch]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

RingtoneFeeder is trying out a new way of distributing music, and they are calling it Dynamic Albums. Using Geoff Smith’s “Ones and 0s” album as the first go at this, RingtoneFeeder will give you certain items at the purchase of the product in the form of an iTunes podcast feed. Then, every two weeks or so for 12 months after the initial purchase, RingtoneFeed will throw extra material into the feed for you, thereby adding value to the product after the time of purchase.  This extra material will consist of “...karaoke versions, videos, access to exclusive USTREAM shows, exclusive tracks, ringtones etc.”

This will start mid July, 2008, and you can expect around 26 updates for the album. You can check out RingtoneFeeder’s site for more information about this new idea, as well as a nicely put together FAQ if you still have questions.

Still, this gets better. All of the tracks will be “...in mp3 format encoded with a bitrate of 256 kbit/s, and all the songs are DRM free.” If you like the idea, head on over to their site and take part in it/

Product [Dynamic Albums]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

DEVONtechnologies, LLC has opened the grace period for free upgrades to DEVONthink 2.0, and offers all editions of DEVONthink, as well as DEVONnote, for 25 percent off exclusively for two days. DEVONthink is designed to manage and keep in order all those disparate pieces of information so important to your work or studies. As you become more experienced with DEVONthink and its easy, intuitive interface you will quickly find more exciting ways of using your data.

Starting July 1st, 2008, everyone who buys licenses for DEVONthink Personal, Pro, Pro Office, or DEVONnote will be eligible for free upgrades to version 2.0 when it is released later this year. A regularly updated thread on the progress on version 2.0 can be found in the DEVONtechnologies user forum.

“With the opening of the grace period, we now welcome all new users with a free ticket for the upcoming version 2.0,” said Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann, president of DEVONtechnologies. “And for everyone who has been reluctant to jump on the DEVONthink bandwagon with version 2.0 on the horizon, we will add another incentive: On July 1st and 2nd, we will give 25 percent on all editions of DEVONthink as well as DEVONnote.”

All editions of DEVONthink require Mac OS X 10.4 or later and can be downloaded from DEVON Technologies website. They can be test-driven for free for 150 hours of non-continuous runtime before they need to be properly licensed.

Product [DEVONthink 2.0]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The first stage of the .Mac revamp is underway as some users are noticing that their .Mac addresses are now also working with MobileMe.  To get your MobileMe e-mail address, simply take your existing e-mail address with @mac.com and change it to @me.com.  For example, “myemail@mac.com” would now be “myemail@me.com.” However, your .Mac address will still work for a while to make sure you don’t miss any e-mails.

Apple announced MobileMe at this year’s WWDC as an updated .Mac service. It’s beautiful online interface is what you would expect from a desktop application, but it is accessible from any computer, anywhere. Dubbed “exchange for the rest of us,” it will keep all of your calendars, contacts, e-mails, and other personal information up to date in the cloud. It’s going to be great.

Via [Macrumors]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Cynical Peak Software has announced that Rivet, an application that will help you stream your digital life (music, photos, movies) from Mac OS X to your Windows Xbox 360, has been released as version 1.1, bringing better media browsing support while fixing stability issues. More specifically, it makes media updating on your computer more CPU friendly and transcoded images more hard drive friendly. It supports a slew of formats, including AAC, MP3, WMA, H.264, DIVX, AVI, WMV, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, RAW, TIFF, PSD, and PDF, and costs $18.95.

One of my favorite features of this application would have to be the organization aspect. According to the description, Rivet makes sure that, “[e]very movie or photo folder that you share is exactly replicated on your Xbox 360.” You are then able to “[o]rganize them into subfolders by TV show, genre, or whatever you want. The entire folder structure will be there. No more scrolling through a huge, flat list.”

Sounds pretty great to me, I might even buy this myself to make use of that 360 I have lying around. Let’s just hope this streaming doesn’t give it the red ring of death...I can’t handle any more of those.

Product [Rivet]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »