Dropbox invites
Using Dropbox is a easy way to keep documents, photo's or any other file across multiple computers or share them with friends.
Rather than trying to explain all it can do I suggest you watch this short clip.....
I've got 10 invites available to the private beta, so if your interested just Contact Me and i'll pass on a invite to the first 10.
BannerZest
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BannerZest
Enliven your website or blogs in seconds and
at low cost with BannerZest.
It's the fastest and easiest way to add punch and
movement to your still images online, and get the
professional-looking slideshows.
Integration with all major web site editors is a
snap !
The Flash-based animations require zero
understanding of Flash.
In fact you don't even need to own Flash.
Everything has been pre-integrated into BannerZest,
allowing you to be up and running- or rather,
scrolling, popping and rolling!- in no time.
All you have to do is select, drag and drop the
images you want into a designated area.
Then choose among BannerZest's menu of creative
pre-set animated themes, click and you're done!
It's that simple.
So Professional
BannerZest creates slideshows and animated banners
that give your website or blog a business-like,
professional appearance while improving
functionality.
It allows you to reorder the displayed photos, and
to assign a link to each picture.
Most important, because it is so easy to use,
BannerZest saves you all kinds of time- and
therefore money.
You don't get more professional than that!
Easy web integration
BannerZest talks to all the leading website and
blog editors.
So whether you are using Apple iWeb, RapidWeaver,
Dreamweaver, Freeway or any other tool, BannerZest
allows you to get your banners online easily.
Uploading work via FTP or to your .Mac account is
fully supported from within BannerZest.
To integrate a banner on a page you simply paste a
code snippet that BannerZest has automatically
prepared for you.
Nothing could be easier
What's more, your upload settings are saved with
your document, so if you need to change your
banner, you just have to hit the upload button
again and BannerZest replaces the old files with
the new ones.
Your site will reflect the change without any
modification to your HTML.
iMedia Browser
Do you
like the media browser that Apple includes in some
of its applications, but wish you could use it from
any application? Now you can.
Download
the
free Karelia iMedia Browser and use it whenever
and wherever you need to access your library of
photos, music, videos, and bookmarks. (Requires
Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" or 10.5 "Leopard.")
Handy features include:
- Browse Photos: iPhoto library, Aperture library, Pictures folder, and other predefined folders.
- Browse Music: iTunes library, GarageBand songs, Music folder, etc.
- Browse Movies: iTunes and iPhoto libraries, Movies folder, etc.
- Browse Links: Bookmarks from Safari, Firefox, OmniWeb, etc.
- Drag and drop any folder into the source list to add to your library.
- Available from the Dock or the Menu Bar, via application preferences.
- Flip window over to control toolbar and caption preferences.
- Available in English, French, Danish. (The iMedia window itself is also available in German, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese.)
Happy Birthday MacReviewCast.
MacUpdate promo
Included in the latest offering are:
Hazel
Art Text
MenuCalendarClock
Leap
storyMill
Typinator
DVDRemaster Pro
Sound studio
BannerZest
Parallels desktop
And just added as a bonus for the first 3500 early adopters is WhatSize.
I'm impressed with this bundle. A top class set of applications, the last three app's are waiting to be unlocked and will be done as the amount of bundles that are sold rises.
MacHeist
I thought I'd update you on the latest MacHeist bundle.
Included in the latest offering are:
Awaken
Cha-Ching
CoverSutra
DEVONthink Personal
iClip
Overflow
Wallet
WriteRoom
XSlimmer
Enigmo
Bugdom 2
Nanosaur 2
It's up to people to decide if they think the whole issue surrounding MacHeist is good or bad.
For me personally, i've got a whole load of app's that I would never of bought otherwise.
Some I will use, others I will not, but some of these developers will get money from me in the future that otherwise they wouldn’t have if not for the MacHeist bundle.
Wallpaper
They are of various different sizes, feel free to download any you'd like to use.
I'd like to thank the creators of the images, I no longer know where I got the individual wallpapers from so thanks to all of you.
Wallpaper
ITV Catchup
www.itv.com/CatchUp is the TV catchup service from the UK TV station ITV.
It's a online version of their TV channels, you can catchup on the last 30 days of programs or watch Live.
There's a few games to have a go at.
A TV Guide to browse.
5 channels to choose from, ITV1, ITV2, ITV3,ITV4 and CITV the childrens channel.
including News, Sport, Soaps, Drama, Entertainment, Lifestyle............
It's free to register and view (in the UK anyway) give it a try if your outside the UK and let me know if it works OK for you.
Amazon Album Art Widget
The Amazon Album Art widget makes filling in the gaps in your iTunes album art collection a breeze.
Search for album art from Amazon's comprehensive catalogue,
then import it into iTunes with the click of a button.
Download from Widget Foundry
Blurb
Blurb maybe a nice alternative to Apples own Photo books.
You start with a 34MB Application download, Blurb BookSmart.
From the moment BookSmart is launched it guides you through the process of building your photo book, or you have the option to get stuck right in.
Choose your book style.
Choices include:
Portfolio.
Photo book.
Wedding.
Guestbook.
Cookbook.
Yearbook.
Journal.
Text & photos.
Text only.
Poetry.
Blog to book.
Blank / Custom.
That's just for starters, or you can build any book you want with the Wing it option.
Here I've chosen the default Wedding layout. BookSmart has over 70 different layouts to choose from.
Then it's on to the Photo import, this is where blurb really shines.
Allowing you to import from your Computer, Flickr, SmugMug.com, Picasa web albums or even getting your friends to contribute pictures for you to add.
Once you've added your photo's it's time to customize your book if you'd like to.
First of all it the cover, with options like:
Customizable dust jacket, back flap, back cover, front cover, and front flap.
Choose a different cover design.
Decide what text you want.
Anytime you want to change your cover, just drag another photo onto it.
Add design effects:
Change background's.
Page layout.
Change your text font and styles.
Add borders to your pictures, resize or zoom.
Finish and publish.
Once you press the Order Book button, you can have as many copies of your book as you like shipped directly to friends, family, and fans.
Your book is private until you say otherwise.
Want to announce your book to friends and family, or sell your book in the Blurb Bookstore?
Pricing:
Starting at $12.95 for a 40 page standard square 7x7in softcover book, rising to $64.95 for a 440 page book.
Options for hardcover and landscape books as well as large format books.
If you like what you've seen and want to learn more of download BookSmart visit Blurb
Some thoughts !!!
On the plus side...
Lots of features, it's ideal for someone who wants to put something other than Photo's into a book.
Adding Photo's from the web.
PC and Mac compatible.
Low cost and lots of custom options.
On the minus side...
Interface not as intuitive as Apple Photo book.
No import from pro app's.
Again because I think it's such a big issue, it's just so much easier to do if you go for the Apple Photo book option.
Time Capsule
My apple Time Capsule arrived just over a week ago now, about the 8th of March.
I decided to go for the 500 GB model instead of the 1 TB as I figured by the time the 500 GB was full, the price of 1 TB HDD would have fallen quite a bit, and from what i've seen on some blog post's it's quite easy to replace the Time capsule HDD yourself.
What can I say about the packaging apart from Apple impressed me again.
Once opened you find the Time Capsule, a few user manuals in a variety of languages and a disc containing a new version of the Airport software for Time Capsule.
What you won't find however is a network cable. I don't know why, maybe Apple think whatever size cable they put in the box won't be the right size, or maybe it's just a way for them to save a money. Whatever the reason please just be aware if you don't have a spare network cable in a box somewhere in your house your going to have to go buy one.
I took a few un-boxing pictures while I went through everything, I think it's just something you have to do nowadays with Apple products, then prepared to set Time Capsule up for the first time.
I'll explain the positioning of my Time Capsule quickly, it will become apparent why I do this later on.
I have a Plasma TV mounted on the wall in my living room, with a small door in the corner allowing me excess behind it to get to all the plugs and wiring etc. I've installed a few shelves, back there where I have my Linksys WAG 54 G router.
I've placed my Time Capsule and a few external HDD's connected via a Kingston 7 port USB hub. It's a bit crowded, but everything is out of sight and no one gets to see the pile of cable that could easily be mistaken for spaghetti.
Once i'd got the Time Capsule in place it was time for the setup.
I installed the disc with the new Airport software on it, that was straight forward as you'd expect, then plugged in the Time Capsule.
The setup via Airport Utility was straight forward and took less than 10 minutes. I chose the manual setup, enabled WPA encryption etc.
Once this was done I was ready for my first backup. This didn't go according to plan, I got the preparing message in a little box for about 30 minutes.
After trying it again with the same results I decided to do the auto setup option, this took very little time and once I opened Time Machine preferences and chose the disk for the backup, it started straight away with no problems.
Earlier on in the day I had moved my itunes library to an external HDD via FW800, once I verified it was OK I deleted it from my MBP, I also chose not to back up any movie files and a few other things, to help reduce the size of my first Time Capsule backup.
I was left with about 46 GB of files to back up using Time Capsule. Once I set Time Machine away doing the back up, it was apparent it was going to take a while.
In total it took just over 8 hrs to backup the 46 GB. As I mentioned earlier, because of the placement of the Time Capsule I was expecting a slow transfer speeds, and I got it.
I did move my MBP closer to the Time Capsule and did see a improvement in the transfer speeds.The speeds I got were about 3.5 mb/s and when I moved it closer to the Time Capsule this improved to about 7.0 mb/s.
Overall I'm very happy with Time Capsule. I'm now able to move about the house again freely with my MBP, no more tied to the desk with multiple HDD's attached to it.
Apple have now released Time Machine and Airport Updates v1.0 which improves compatibility for Time Machine and Time Capsule.
From what has been said on a few of the blog sites, it's also enabled Time Machine backup's to external HDD's attached to Airport Extreme's, although as of yet Apple have not officially said this.
Pathos Software
I came across Pathos Software, they've got some nice app's.
They've been developing for the Mac since 1987.
Check out Photo Express, a nice photo app that can resize, add watermarks, text and more for only €5.
And Covers, which will search, download and print your CD and DVD covers for you.
Evernote invitations.
Surfbits Mac ReviewCast have 1000 private Beta invitations to EverNote available through their website.
Just go to Surfbits and click the Evernote image in this week's show and you've a chance of getting a private Beta invite.
SURFBITS MAC REVIEWCAST
Apple TV
It still hasn't got enough features to justify the cost yet in my opinion. Dont get me wrong, I think it's a wonderful device, looks good and has a host of features i'd like, but none that I need.
With the recent blog posts about Apples latest patent filing concerning the a DVR feature it suddenly gets a lot more exciting.
Add that to the rumor of talks with Sony on the addition of Blu-Ray players to to Apple computers.....
Well lets just say that an Apple TV with the inclusion of a DVR and a Blu-Ray drive would mean I would have to buy one.
If it turns out to be more than a rumor and one day apple releases such a product then I think they would truly have a device capable of taking a large chunk of the DVR market, combined with the Blu-Ray player and the features now available with Apple TV it would be a truly amazing device.
Oh well, we'll just wait and see.........................
Skitch add twitter support
Skitch have added Twitter support...
Well this means that you can now send any pictures you take on your iPhone, or Blackberry, Nokia or any other device via Gmail, hotmail, Apple mail or Outlook.
Just sign into your Skitch account and enable the Twitter and mail features.
That's it all you need is a device that is capable of sending an image via email.
Oh, Not forgetting a Skitch account and a Twitter account.
