Showdown: Desktop Weather Apps
Ah, the weather. For many of us, the fascination of what the weather will be like today, tomorrow, or next week can drive our entire day. For this reason, there are dozens of weather websites and a handful of weather widgets out there. But what about those of us that want weather information right on our desktop at all times, even without having to pull up Safari or Dashboard? Today I present for your reading pleasure a showdown of desktop weather applications. Read on…
MarsEdit: Blogging From Your Desktop
MarsEdit is a weblog editor for Mac OS X that makes weblog writing like writing email – with spell-checking, drafts, multiple windows, and even AppleScript support. It works with most blogging services, including Blogger, Wordpress, TypePad, Movable Type, and others. Technorati, and the pinging of many popular blog search engines is also built in. MarsEdit’s live preview and templating system let you view your writing just as it will appear when published. Its text filtering system includes built-in support for many emerging technologies, such as Markdown, SmartyPants, and Textile.
How To: Organize Your Desktop, Dock, and Bookmarks
OK, I’ll admit it, I use my desktop as a file storage area from time to time. Disorganization of your desktop, dock, bookmarks, and more can cause clutter and confusion. With a disorganized Mac, valuable time is wasted on finding files, apps, and more. Today I’m going to show you how to organize several parts of your Mac to make life on the desktop a bit easier.
Apple Releases Airport Base Station Update
If you own an Airport Extreme Base Station, the old AEBS, or Airport Express Base Station, Apple just rolled out 2007-001 compatibility updates and general fixes for the following applications:
- Airport Utility
- Airport Admin Utility for Graphite and Snow Base Stations.
- Airport Disk Utility
- Airport Disk Agent
It’s about time Apple made this move since many owners of the new Airport Extreme Base Station (802.11n), including myself, have been unhappy with some of the connection problems and administrative issues. It’s important to note that this download does not update the actual firmware on the AEBS’ unit, it simply upgrades the aforementioned applications residing in your Mac. As always, make sure you backup your Mac first before getting the update, just in case. You can get the 12.7mb update either by running software update or straight from Apple.
WriteRoom: Distraction-Free Writing
Life is full of distractions. Whether it’s birds chirping outdoors, your dog constantly barking at the neighbor’s cat, or your desktop filled with way too many windows open. Believe it or not, most people who write stories, blog posts, and news articles are often distracted with panels, menu bars, Instant Messages etc. Many programs like Mircosoft Word and even Apple’s Pages can have distracting qualities. There’s no need to worry. Hog Bay Software has found a cure and it’s called WriteRoom.
Disk Images: Create Virtual Disk Images in OS X
Most games these days want you to have a disk in your computer to play. One reason is this keeps people from giving a copy of the game to their friends. This can become a pain and a major annoyance on long trips or anywhere where you can’t reach your disk, and you have a case of Call of Duty fever.
Facebook iPhoto Plugin
I don’t know about you guys, but I usually hate social networks like myspace or xanga, but facebook is an exception. It’s well designed and a great way to keep in touch with friends. A big part of facebook are pictures; everyone who uses facebook can easily tell you that facebook is loaded with pictures from vacations or times out with friends.
Speaking from personal experience, whenever I would have to upload pictures to facebook, I would have to choose them in iPhoto, dump them onto my desktop and then proceed to upload them via facebooks built in Java uploader, which is not a fun experience.
Boot Camp 1.2: Aero and Aqua in Perfect Harmony
An update to Apple’s Boot Camp software was issued today to OS X users. Boot Camp is a free partitioner and set of drivers that allows Mac users to run Windows as well as OS X on the same drive. Boot Camp was introduced early last year and is going to be a feature in Apple’s upcoming OS X 10.5 release, Leopard. Boot Camp 1.2 includes many fixes and features, making Windows on the Mac a bit easier.
ChocoFlop: CoreImage Photo Editing
ChocoFlop is an image manipulation program based entirely on Apple’s CoreImage technology which takes advantages of the processing power in your GPU (graphics card). It’s a very lightweight program and has the ability to apply filters in real time, with no long term damaging effect to your respective image. Chocoflop takes advantage of CoreImage’s built in support for many file formats, as well as layers, masks, selections and paint tools. It even features the ability to filter high-resolution HDR images at 128 bits per pixel. It is built to have no learning curve for Photoshop users and features many of the more obscure abilities of CoreImage, such as rich text layers.
How To: Export Your Videos to Your Apple TV
Apple has recently shipped their latest product, The Apple TV. This device allows you to play your iTunes and iPhoto content on your television without the hassle of wires and cables. Simply sync the media like you would with an iPod or stream the media off of your computer. The video content on the iTunes Store is near DVD quality with amazing detail and sound, and the format of the video is 640 by 480, which is fine and barley noticeable when comparing the two. One of the great features of the Apple TV is it’s ability to play 1280 by 720 videos which is also known as 720p. 720p is one of the many high definition formats available for playing on today’s modern TVs. This format is very clear and looks stunning on your TV. Here’s a way to export your videos using QuickTime Pro so that you can play them on your Apple TV in crystal Clear 720p format.
