Many people think of an HDR image as more of an artsy type of photograph, but in reality HDR imaging has very practical uses. It allows you to reproduce the range of tones that our eyes can see, but no camera can capture in a single image. The process of creating an HDR image involves combining multiple images of the same scene at different EV settings; but enough of what HDR imaging is, and onto how Photomatix handles it.

Upon opening Photomatix Pro, you are greeted with a Workflow shortcuts window. This window has four buttons for getting started with your image, and a tutorial button for when you need help. For the purposes of this review, I am going to select Generate HDR Image.

Clicking this button brings up a dialog where Photomatix asks you to select the images you want to combine. You can see the three images that I am going to use below. In Aperture, I took a RAW photo of a bolt of lightning, and, using the exposure adjustment, made two additional images to process.

Once you have located your images, clicking OK will send you to the next step. Here you have a few options when deciding how Photomatix will create your HDR image. The defaults have worked fine for me so far, but your results may vary. Click OK once again, and Photomatix will go to work.

The initial result once Photomatix is done is very lackluster. You must process the image using tone mapping in order to make the image something worth looking at.

This is where things can become confusing. Photomatix has an array of options and sliders to adjust your image. The manual provides an explanation of what each slider does to your image, so it is recommended that you read each blurb before adjusting. Once you have a handle on how each option changes your image, you can begin tweaking to reach the desired effect.

Overall, Photomatix Pro is very good at what it does. Though the interface may be a little bland, it is still easy to navigate. While some may be intimidated by the many buttons and sliders present at any moment on screen, a quick skim of the manual will get you up to speed.

Though the price may be an issue for many, HDR soft also has academic pricing available, and one license is valid for both the Mac and Windows versions.

You can pick up Photomatix Pro for $99 from HDR soft.

I then set out to find a Mac application that would allow me to make an attempt at cleaning some of these tracks up. After a little bit of searching, I found a company by the name of Bias Inc., that made an application called SoundSoap which was right up my alley.

SoundSoap doesn't have a normal OS X interface. The tools for cleaning up your audio are still cleanly laid out and simple to find. Everything you need is right there in front of you; SoundSoap has no preferences pane. To get started, you can drag a sound file onto SoundSoap's dock icon, onto its window, or find it in the Finder with Command+O.

Once you have a file loaded into SoundSoap, it is very simple to begin removing noise. Pressing the play button at the bottom of the window will play your file “as-is, and changes are reflected as you change the settings. SoundSoap has 9 different settings that you can alter to try and get your file sounding as clean as possible.

The feature that really makes SoundSoap a great application is the “Learn Noise button. The “Learn Noise button lets SoundSoap automatically set the Noise Tuner and Noise Reduction knobs to what it believes will get rid of the noise in the file.

When manually finding settings for the Noise Tuner and Noise Reduction knobs, it is good to understand what is actually happening when you turn them. Now I am no sound engineer, so I think it's best if I let SoundSoap's manual do the talking here:

The Noise Tuner knob is essentially a threshold control, and is responsible for determining what is considered to be noise, and what is considered to be the desired audio signal. For example, turning the Noise Tuner knob all the way to the left (counter-clockwise), means setting a very low threshold value. With a very low threshold value, all audio content with an amplitude above this threshold is considered to be part of the desired audio signal that we wish to preserve. On the other hand, setting a higher threshold value with the Noise Tuner means that any of the audio content with an amplitude lower than the threshold level will be eliminated.

There is a little more explanation of the Noise Tuner in SoundSoap's manual, but this is all you really need to know to get started.

The Noise Reduction knob does exactly what you'd think it would do. Turning it to the right increases the amount of noise reduction being applied, and vice versa. It's important to first find a comfortable setting with the Noise Tuner first, before setting the Noise Reduction. According to the manual though, if you use the Learn Noise feature, it usually isn't necessary to alter the Noise Reduction setting.

The little window at the top of SoundSoap's window isn't a setting, but rather a helpful indicator. It is referred to as the “Wash Window, and gives you a visual representation of how the noise reduction process is going. Blue lines represent the audio you want, and red lines represent the noise you are trying to get rid of. The line in the center of the window is the point at which noise reduction is applied. The darker the red or blue line once it has passed the line in the middle of the window, the stronger the representation.

The click and crackle slider controls the click and crackle thresholds simultaneously. Moving the slider upward removes more and more crackles and clicks. As a general rule, you want to use the lowest possible setting you can manage on this slider to get rid of the noise.

The last slider on SoundSoap's interface is the Enhance slider. Basically, this slider enhances frequencies and tone of degraded media. It is best to leave this slider until you have finished setting all other sliders and knobs. Just like the Click and Crackle slider, the Enhance slider works independent of other controls.

The next few controls in SoundSoap are buttons rather than sliders. The Preserve Voice button filters out any frequencies that are outside the range of human voice. Remove Rumble targets very low frequencies (around 40Hz) which is commonly found in recordings of vinyl records, where the very low frequency noise of the turntable motor can be transferred through the turntable's needle.

Finally, there are two settings with radio buttons: Broadband and Remove Hum. Broadband lets you choose whether broadband noise reduction is on or in “Noise Only mode. When you have “on selected, SoundSoap will process your file according to current broadband tool settings. When you are in “Noise Only mode, SoundSoap only outputs the noise you are trying to reduce, which can be a useful setting to see how effective a setting is in reducing the noise. The louder the noise is in this mode, the more drastic the change you will hear when you go back to “on or “off. With Remove Hum, you can set hum removal to either “50 Hz, “60Hz, or “off.

Once you are happy with how your file sounds, clicking “apply will apply your settings to your whole file. Then, you just have to click “File>Save As… to save your document. When saving you can choose your format (MPEG 4, AIFF, WAVE, SDII) and other settings displayed in the screenshot below.

In the end, I was quite pleased with the results that SoundSoap produced. After only a few minutes of tweaking, almost all of the noise that was affecting my files was gone once I ran the file through SoundSoap. SoundSoap also can remove noise from video files, it is not just limited to audio.

SoundSoap is also more than just a stand-alone application. It is also a plug-in for most AU, RTAS/AS, and VST host applications on Mac OS X or WinXP (including GarageBand, BIAS Peak, Apple Logic, MOTU Digital Performer, Digidesign’s Pro Tools, and more). For more serious audiophiles, Peak Pro includes SoundSoap LE (same as SoundSoap, excluding additional host compatibility) and can be an ideal tool for stereo recording, editing, cleaning, mastering, and delivery.

SoundSoap 2 retails for $129 from Bias Inc., though is available through some resellers for $99. $129 (or $99) may seem expensive for an application, but to get something like this done professionally could potentially cost much more.

Today, I have put together a list of 4 little applications that will help to kill your productivity (like you even need help with that, right?). They have no productive value, but definitely can get addicting, or are great when you have a little time to kill.

The first application that I want to bring to your attention is BallDroppings. I first learned about this game a while ago from a post on MacUser. Basically, little white balls drop from the top of your screen (you can alter the place where they drop from) and you draw lines that the balls bounce off of. The balls make a noise when they hit a line.

You can alter a bunch of variables in the game, like air friction, gravity, pitch of the ball bounce, and also how fast they come out of the feeder. I've wasted many hours playing around in this game, and I expect there are many more to come. BallDroppings is (of course) freeware, and you can download it here.

The next application, Bullet, is one of those applications you break out when you are really bored. At its core, it is an application that takes over your mouse, and makes bullet holes wherever you click. You can set whether to fade the bullets out after each shot, overlay a bulls-eye on your screen, and it even has auto-fire!

Bullet is an application that gets old fast, but whenever you just get that “put holes in my desktop feeling, Bullet is there to help. It is also good when you want to confuse your coworkers and family by leaving it running on their computer. The developers no longer seem to have Bullet listed on their site, but you can download it from the Mac Softpedia.

iStache is an application for everyone. 17 years old and still no stubble? Ever wonder what your grandmother would look with a full beard? With iStache, you no longer have to wonder. Once you have a picture you want to “Stache-ify, you just need to select a style and get staching! A slider lets you choose the size of your stache or beard, and a drop-down menu lets you choose from 12 styles (everything from the “Hitler, to the “English Gentleman.

The last application, Enigma Simulator, really impressed me. It is well polished, and quite neat once you learn the history behind it. Enigma Simulator is a computer simulated Enigma Machine, which is a machine that Nazi-Germany used back during WWI and WWII to encrypt and decrypt messages.

To use the Enigma Simulator, You first have to select your settings. In the screenshot, I set the three letters at the top of the screen to “M-A-C. Holding down Command-3 opens the Schreibmax, which keeps track of the keys you press. I typed “macapper which outputted our encrypted text, “PMPDUHME. After resetting the dials back to “M-A-C, I typed “PMPDUHME, which then decrypted back to “MACAPPER.

Enigma Simulator is complete with sound effects, and German text. To learn more about the Enigma Machine, check out the wikipedia article. You can download Enigma Simulator from Terry Long's website, which also has an FAQ about this application, and examples.

That about does it for this weeks edition of Freeware Friday, if all goes well, another roundup of freeware apps should be posted next Friday. If you don’t think you can wait until next week for your freeware fix, make sure you take a look at “The Great Mac OS Freeware List.”

When you first open DVDRemaster Pro, you have to choose a source. DVDRemaster Pro comes with an application called FairMount, that allows you to mount DVDs like Disk Images.

Once you have chosen a source, you must decide what mode you are going to burn in. There are three modes in DVDRemaster Pro: Remaster, Export and Extract.

Remaster lets you re-compress the DVD onto your hard drive, that can simply be stored, or later re-burned. You can choose to re-compress the entire DVD, or just the main feature. First you have to select a Recompression Module, and you can choose a target size to try and keep the file size under.

Export is the mode that I expect most people to use this application for. You can choose from 7 formats to export for, including iPod, Apple TV, MP4 and Quicktime. There are a number of presets included in DVDRemaster Pro for this mode, and you can easily create your own in the “Configure dialog. Once you have chosen your format and preset, you can go through the files on the disc and choose which files you want to export. You can also have the result automatically imported into iTunes once it is done, and choose whether you want the subtitles of a particular file.

Finally, DVDRemaster's third mode is Extract. Extract lets you take the raw stream off the DVD for use in another application, such as VLC.

In the end, DVDRemaster produced great results, and made it easy to get files quickily from DVD to iPod. It took DVDRemaster Pro 5 minutes, 59 seconds to rip a 26 minute episode of FRIENDS, where it took Handbrake 18 minutes, 24 seconds to rip the same episode, at the same settings. This test was in no way scientific, but rather just a quick test to compare burn times.

DVDRemaster Pro is a little on the expensive side at $49.99 ($39.99 for standard version) when there are tools like Hanbrake available, but it depends on whether you are willing to pay for the convenience of time.

Just remember that you should not rip DVDs that you do not have ownership of. If I understand correctly, it is illegal in the US to rip a DVD if you circumvent the encryption or protection in the process. Please correct me if I am wrong.

There are 6 apps that are a part of the AppStoreGems site right now, from 5 developers. The apps are as follows:

1. Sketches
2. Where To?
3. Groceries
4. FileMagnet
5. Kineo
6. Pennies

Each developer is donating their revenue to a different charity, from the following list:

• Prevent Cancer Foundation
• UNICEF
• Oxfam International
• Teach for America
• American Humane

John Casasanta posted a blog post to the taptaptap website detailing this event, and the AppStoreGems website. Personally, I think it is great when developers get together and hold an event like this. The developers get exposure for their application, and charities benefit in the process.

If you are familiar with the GTD concept by David Allen, you will feel right at home with OmniFocus. If you're not, OmniFocus has a few included actions that will help you get acquainted.

When you first open OmniFocus, you are greeted with the actions that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Before we get into using OmniFocus though, I would like to talk a bit about the philosophy behind this app.

First off, OmniFocus’ methodology was based off of David Allen’s popular GTD book Getting Things Done though if you are not familiar with the book, it will not hinder you from understanding this application. The three concepts that you need to know when beginning to use OmniFocus are:

1. Action: something you can physically do in one step.
2. Project: any task that takes more than one physical action. In other words, a goal that requires more than one action to reach.
3. Context: physical requirement for an action (e.g. place, object, activity, person).

OmniFocus is set up to follow a 3-step process: Capture, Organize, Do. It is recommended that you first perform a “brain dump” and allow OmniFocus to capture all of your current tasks in the Inbox. Once you have added all of the things you want to do, you can organize them, and then (hopefully) do those tasks.

Alright, so now onto the meat of this post, which will be focused on how to use OmniFocus. If you go into the Inbox, you will be greeted with a blank screen, as there hasn’t been any items entered into OmniFocus yet. Clicking on the “Add Action” button will get you started with a new action. Tapping “enter” while an action is selected will create a new action below the active one; tapping “tab” will cycle horizontally through the options available for each action (Project, Context etc.). You can add actions on the fly (when you aren’t in OmniFocus) buy holding “ctrl+option+Space,” which will bring up the quick entry window.

For each action, there is much more information that you can optionally add to your actions like a start date, due date, repeat the action etc.

Once you have a list of actions going, it is time to organize them. Any actions that require more than one step should be made into projects. You can create a project by dragging an action into your library, or by clicking the “+” in the bottom-left corner of the window. Just like with actions, you can use the Inspector to add more information about your project to OmniFocus, such as status, start date, due date etc.

In terms of viewing your project, clicking on it’s name in the sidebar will show all of the actions associated with it. Clicking on “Focus” in the toolbar will hide all other projects except for the one currently selected. You can choose whether the tasks need to be done sequentially, or non-sequentially in the inspector, or by clicking on the arrows in the project’s name at the top of the window. You can re-order actions by dragging and dropping them. Clicking “View” in the toolbar drops down a little bar that allows you to filter your actions based on certain criteria. Once you have your actions organized into projects, you need to assign contexts to them.

Contexts, like I said before, are the physical requirements for actions. In other words, the category in which the action falls (e.g. Errands, Mac, Phone). OmniFocus comes with a few contexts already, and it is simple to add your own. To add a context to an action, click in the column to the right of its title, and type the name of the context. Contexts you already have entered will show up as you type (demonstrated in the screenshot above), making it quick to find the context you are looking for. Once you’ve assigned contexts to your actions, you can really begin to take advantage of what OmniFocus has to offer.

In the top-left corner of the window, under the close/minimize buttons, there are mode buttons. You can choose to have the window display in “Planning” or “Context” mode. Going into context mode allows you to view all of the actions for a certain context. For example, if you are sitting with your Mac and have access to the internet, you can see all of your actions that are under the “Mac: Online” context, or if you are going to run some errands, you can see all of the actions that you tagged as such.

In the “Context” mode you can also re-arrange your contexts, according to your preferences. You can group contexts together by dragging their names onto each other, which allows you to see multiple, related contexts at once.

When you want to check an item off your list, you just click in the checkbox to the left of the action; clicking “Clean Up” will remove all completed items from the project. If you ever want to see your completed items again, clicking “Perspectives>All Items” in the menubar will show you just that. To learn more about Perspectives, I suggest you watch this video by the OmniGroup.

Basically, once you get a hand of OmniFocus’ workflow, you can refine it to fit your needs. For many, a simple to-do app like Anxiety or Apple’s iCal is plenty for day to day tasks; but for those who need a more powerful application to manage all of their activities, OmniFocus does a great job of balancing ease-of-use with the GTD concept.

Choosing a GTD application can be a daunting task, as everyone has a different way they like to manage their to-do list, which means that every application will feel different to each individual. I suggest giving all the competition a test-drive before deciding which one is right for you.

OmniFocus is $79.95 (educational and family discounts available) from the OmniGroup.

At WWDC this past June, Timeline 3D was awarded runner up in “Best Mac OS X Leopard Application at the Apple Design Awards ceremony. This should give you an idea of the quality of Timeline 3D. It is very similar to the 2D version, except for a few key differences (one of which I'm sure you have picked out).

When you first open up Timeline, it asks you to pick the “look for your project. There are 7 pre-designed templates available for you to choose from, which you can edit to your hearts content. Below the template chooser is a list of applications that you can import events from. You can import from iCal, Address Book, iPhoto, RSS Feeds and more. For example, I chose to import events from System Profiler, which gave me a timeline of all the updates I have installed since I bought my MacBook Pro back in February. You can also import from a few applications that don't come pre-installed on your computer, like Aperture and Skitch.

Once you have chosen your theme, and then whether or not you will be using a blank timeline, or import events, it is time to start editing. Timeline has a three-tabbed sidebar on the right, and a toolbar at the top. All of this applications functionality is contained within those two parts of the interface.

The first tab is labled “Visual Design, and is where you can tweak the look of your timeline. From here, you can change the font used in your timeline, the color scheme, what the date line title looks like, and whether or not the selected event has a descender (the line connecting the event to the timeline).

The next tab, labeled “Dates, lets you adjust the formatting of the dates on your timeline. You have quite a bit of control of how they are displayed, with multiple formating options, as well as the option to manually set the row date format (the dates that run along the bottom of your timeline), or have Timeline 3D adjust their formatting automatically.

The last tab of the Settings sidebar is labeled “Printing, and lets you set up your options for when you want to print your timeline. You can set up the page size, document margins, and the minimum amount of pages you would like Timeline 3D to try and fit your timeline on (the default is 1).

The toolbar is where you begin adding/removing your events. After clicking the “Add button to add an event to your timeline, you have to enter in some information about it. Of course you have the necessary information that is needed like the name of the event, and the date it started on, but you can also add an end date, notes, an image and a link associated with the event. Clicking an event after you have finished filling out its information, will let you remove it, edit it, and change the font.

Timeline 3D has 3 main views. First, there is the Screen View. Screen View lets you scroll through your timeline, and add/remove events on the fly. Next there is Bulk Edit, which shows you a list of all your events. This makes it easy to add additional information to many events at once, like notes, images etc. Finally, you have Preview view, which breaks up the timeline so you can see how it will look when printed out.

Next, is the feature that gives Timeline 3D its name. Clicking on 3D in the toolbar will show your timeline full screen. You can use the arrow keys to cycle through your events, and pressing space-bar will invoke all of Timeline's 3D good-ness. From the 3D view you can cycle through your timeline just like in the 2D view. For an explanation for the idea behind why 3D is so great for presenting a timeline, check out this video from the developer, Adam Behringer. You can see a quick example of what the 3D view looks like below.

.

Timeline lets you search your timeline from the toolbar, by highlighting the event that matches your search query. Timeline also has a media browser for you to choose photos from your Mac to be included in your project.

Besides the 3D presenting view, all of the features I have mentioned so far are available in both the 2D and 3D edition of Timeline. The other feature that is 3D edition only is Timeline's exporting options. In the 3D edition, you can export to your iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, 1080P HD and even Keynote (with a separate slide for each event). The 2D edition lets you export to PDF as well as send your timeline in an email.

In the end, I can certainly see why Timeline 3D was runner up for “Best Mac OS X Leopard Application.” It allows you to create/customize timelines that are interactive, sleek and well-organized; simple, yet powerful. There are a few videos of Timeline in action on Bee Documents website, so you can see a few examples of what it is capable of.

Timeline 3D from Bee Documents is $65, while the standard (2D) edition is $40. There is a free trial available which lets you do everything except for print/export your timelines.

Of course, with the Give Good Food to your Mac promo, the build-your-own-bundle idea is nothing new. The selection of apps for the Mac Mix Promo though, makes it worth looking at. A list of the participating applications and details after the jump.

The idea of the Mac Mix Promo is the same as Give Good Food to your Mac. The more applications you add to your “mix. the greater the discount you will receive. If you add 1 app, you get 10%, 3 – 30%, 5 – 40%, 7 – 50%, 9 – 60%, and finally 12 apps gets you a 75% discount. Many people have found so far that it is more cost effective to add 12 apps (including some of the cheaper ones), which nets you the greatest discount. A portion of the money you spend will also go to help the trees.

The line up for this promotion is as follows:

Parallels – $79.99
iBank – $59.99
iBiz – $49.99
Process – $39.00
Yep – $34.00
MacGourmet – $24.95
Linkinus – $20.00
Leech – $15.36
Xylescope – $19.95
Kavatunes – $35.00
Flux – $69.00
Forklift – $29.95
Picturesque – $34.95
DrawIt – $42.00
Photon – $69.00
YourView – $29.99
HoudahGeo – $42.66
AlterEgo – $30.00
Witch – $15.36
HoudahSpot – $25.60
Steel – $9.00
ShoveBox – $24.95
TextExpander – $29.95
AppShelf – $6.90
Wacky Mini Golf – $27.00
Islands Mini Golf – $21.00
Comic Book Lover – $24.95
iConquer – $25.00

There are 28 applications in total, spanning 5 categories. There should be a few apps in there for everyone. If you just bought a Mac and are looking to fill it up with some software, or you have been holding out on purchasing one of these titles, then now is probably as good a time as ever to buy. According to the Mac Mix website, one lucky person within the first 500 buyers will win a free super bundle (all 28 apps) and there is also an award winning “mystery app being given out to the first 500 buyers.

Mac Mix Promo

Note: Mac Mix Promo is advertising its bundle in our sidebar, though this post was written before I even knew it was there.

Usually, to create a mind map on my Mac, I open up Pages, go into “Page Layout and join text boxes and pictures together with lines. This method works fine for simple mind maps, but re-arranging boxes is a pain, and it can get difficult to add a little style to the page without making it a mess. OmniGraffle, from the OmniGroup, however, is an application focused on creating diagrams, process charts and more.

When you first open OmniGraffle, you are greeted with the template chooser. If you have ever used any of Apple's iWork applications, the template chooser looks very similar to that. OmniGraffle comes with 16 templates, and you can find more online.

The aspect of OmniGraffle that really makes it useable for many different purposes though, is the stencils. Stencils are the objects that you drag into and manipulate in OmniGraffle projects. There are many stencils included with OmniGraffle, from boxes to clouds, maps, and even circuit engineering objects. There is a website recently featured on the OmniGroup's website called Graffletopia (which you can now search from OmniGraffle), which has a database of user-submitted stencils, which help to expand OmniGraffle's functionality even more.

The interface can be a little daunting at first, but just like OmniOutliner, the majority of the options for OmniGraffle are inside of a multi-paned inspector. Similar to OmniOutliner, there is a Style pane and a Document pane, as well as a Canvas and Properties pane.

The Style pane lets you change everything from the fill of a shape/line, to shadow, and how text looks. The amount of customization is quite extensive, so no two diagrams will ever have to look the same. You can set a background image for a shape, or even the whole canvas.

The Properties pane is where the more technical aspects of your diagram are altered. You can set where a shape will sit on the X/Y axis of your canvas, and it's exact width and height. You can decide where a shapes magnets will be (where a line will automatically join onto the shape), and even add actions (like opening a file, or focusing on a point in your diagram) when a shape is clicked in Presentation mode.

The Canvas pane lets you set up your canvas (funny how that works eh?). You can set the canvas size, grid, alignment and even how the diagram will act when set to automatically lay itself out. One feature which I found nice in this pane was the “Selection sub-pane. This lets you select all the occurrences of an object in your diagram at once, which makes it easy to style all of them at once, or change something about them.

The Document pane is quite simple, allowing you to add metadata to your file (Authors, Copyright, Description etc.), and a few options for when you save your file.

Similar to how Pages '08 has a format bar under the toolbar, OmniGraffle has what the OmniGroup refer to as a “mini inspector. This bar gives you access to the most used commands in OmniGraffle, so you don't always have to go into the inspector to edit something.

You have lots of options for lines, from straight lines to curved lines, and OmniGraffle now supports Bezier lines, so you can curve to your hearts content.

Now, in terms of the professional version, it has features and options that I won't even pretend to understand, which leads me to believe that for the average user, the standard version will more than suffice. The standard version of OmniGraffle comes in at $99.95, and the professional version weighs in at $199.95.

As I mentioned earlier, OmniGraffle has a Presentation mode, though only in the professional version. Going into View>Start Presentation shows your canvas fullscreen. Hovering over an element (Lines, shapes etc.), will highlight it, and clicking on an element will activate any actions you have assigned to them in the Properties pane.

If all you would ever need a mind-mapping application for is the occasional text chart, OmniGraffle can be over-kill, and not cost effective for most. If you just want a simple application for brainstorming or making a simple text chart, I recommend MindNode (freeware). It has a simple interface which makes it easy to create mind-maps.

In the end, OmniGraffle's use spans far beyond just creating flow charts or mind-maps. Some people use OmniGraffle to lay out the structure for a website, and some even use it to lay out designs for yards and rooms!

If you you do a lot of work where creating diagrams etc. is essential, then the price of OmniGraffle is certainly justifiable, as it makes it simple to get your ideas from your brain to your computer. The stencils available help to convey the message of your diagram in a way that is visually appealing, and easy to understand. There are a few video tutorials done by ScreenCastsOnline of OmniGraffle on the OmniGroup’s website, though they have not yet been updated to reflect the newest version of OmniGraffle. You can purchase either version of OmniGraffle (which is now Leopard-only) from the OmniGroup's store.

Browsing through this month's MacLife issue, I saw that the cover story was “The 30 Best Mac Apps You've Never Heard Of. Going through the list, most have been featured here on MacApper, though the one I want to focus on today, ThisService, was only mentioned in passing. ThisService is an application that lets you take scripts (whether it be written in AppleScript, Ruby, Perl etc.), and turn them into services accessible from the Services menu.

Now, in itself, this application may not seem that useful. How useful this application becomes to you really depends on the scripts you write, or the ones you find online. I know that many people would find it useful to be able to hit a keyboard shortcut in any application and have a script run instantly on whatever they are working on.

To create your service, all you need to do is give it a name, find the file that contains your script, specify the type (Acts on input, Produces output or Filter [both]), and then decide if you want to add a keyboard shortcut or not. Once you click “Create Service, your service gets put in Library/Services, and you can instantly access it from any application.

Clicking “Pack Up Service will give you options to zip up your service for distribution. The example I used made use of the Word Count AppleScript written by John Gruber of Daring Fireball.

Overall, I wish I knew AppleScript, or another Unix scripting language, as I am sure there are endless uses for this application. There are some services available for download on Waffle Software's site, if you would like to take a look. This application is donationware.

A few days ago, while browsing through the MacHeist Forums, there was some talk about an application called “Scribbles. A quick Google search turned me to Atebits Software, where I downloaded Scribbles. This application has a simple interface and makes good use of Leopard's CoreAnimation technology.

When you open up Scribbles for the first time, you will notice that the interface is very clean. The default brush, brush size, and brush color can be set in the preferences, so you can always start off with your favorites.

Clicking the button in the bottom-left corner brings up a palate that allows you to change your brush. In the screenshot below, from left to right, the brushes are as follows: Rainbow, Goo, Calligraphy, Charcoal, Bristles, Flat Hard, Flat Medium, Flat Soft, and and the last line was made by the flat hard brush and then gone over with the shading brush.

The next button over is for selecting the brush color. Clicking on the circle will bring up a color picking overlay, which looks similar to Apple's color wheel. Just click and drag your mouse to select the color, and then the right side is for shade.

The slider along the bottom of the window is for brush size. Drag to the right to make it bigger, and to the left to make it smaller.

The last button (in the bottom right corner), opens up the layers overlay, which is something you don't usually expect to find in a simple application like this one. From this view, you can add and remove layers, and change their opacity. You can scroll through layers by moving your mouse up and down, and the active layer is outlined in blue. This implementation of navigating layers feels like a sideways cover-flow, which is a nice touch. The application takes a very visual approach to UI, negating the use for inspectors and floating palates.

The top-right corner is where the canvas navigation resides. The first button lets you go back to the brush tool if you have another selected. The button with the arrows takes a clever approach to manipulating the layer. Clicking and dragging inside the inner-most circle allows you to move the layer, dragging in the second circle lets you rotate the layer, and the third circle lets you zoom the layer in and out. Clicking and dragging outside of the circles also lets you move the layer around. The hand tool lets you move all the layers at once, and the magnifying glass tool lets you zoom all the layers at once.

The View menu also had a few surprises for me. Scribbles lets you draw full screen, which is awesome for an application like this. Scribbles has an “infinite canvas, meaning that there are no set boundaries for your drawing. You can pan and zoom endlessly. Scribbles offers a “Tracing Paper view, where the background goes transparent and you can trace whatever is under the Scribbles window. Lastly, you can also have a grid overlaid on the page foreground.

When exporting your finished masterpiece, you have a few options. Scribbles supports exporting to 7 file formats, such as PNG, TIFF, BMP and GIF. If you would like to share your creation with the rest of the world, you can upload it to the Scribbles Gallery free of charge. There are some neat pictures there; I recommend you take a look.

Overall, I was impressed with Scribbles, as I didn't really think very much of it when I first opened it. The use of CoreAnimation throughout the interface makes everything smooth and a joy to use. Some may be turned off by Scribbles apparent lack of features, but my impression of this application is “less is more. It does one job, and it does it well.

With such an array of graphics applications available, you have many more to choose from if Scribbles isn't for you. If you do decide that Scribbles is up your alley, you can purchase a license for $19.95 from Atebits Software.

The main window of OmniOutliner is quite minimal, opting to have many of the formatting control etc., in an inspector. This makes for a very clean and distraction free window with only 5 buttons (7 in the pro version). The inspector has 5 parts to it, Appearance, Row, Column, Document and Style Attributes, each with it's own options for editing an element of your outline.

The Appearance pane lets you style everything to do with your outline's text, like color, font, weight, shadow, border etc.

The Row pane lets you change the formatting of your rows. You can change the numbering of each row, the indentations of each row and it's children, and more.

Adding a column to your outline will let you see some of the more complex features of OmniOutliner. Once you have a column, you can configure it in the Column pane. You can choose whether your column will hold a Checkbox, Date, Duration, Pop-up, Number or Rich Text. Once you have chosen a type, you can choose how to format it. For example, if you choose “Number for the type, you can format it as “9,999.99, 9999.99, $9999 etc. Each type has it's own settings. Finally, you can choose to have a summary of an item's children displayed in the top of the column (in the screenshot above you can see that all of the prices of the applications are summarized in the parent item).

The Document pane allows you to style pretty much everything else about your outline that isn't text. You can choose to have alternate rows a different color (to make your outline easier to read), add horizontal/vertical grid lines, and add metadata (copyright, version, authors, keywords etc.).

The final pane in the inspector is the Style Attributes pane. This pane shows the different styles that are being applied to the current selection. You can revert to the defaults by clicking the little “x beside each style.

Besides text, OmniOutliner also lets you embed other media, like photos, audio files, and video. When dragging media in, you can choose to have the file directly within the outline, or have it aliased. If you plan on sending your outline around, you should keep the files within the outline, but if not, you can keep the file size of your outline down by having OmniOutliner just refer to the file on your hard drive.

When printing, you can customize the different elements that will show, so only the information that you want will be printed.

OmniOutliner comes in two flavors, a standard version and a pro version. The pro version allows you to record notes into your outline, clip items (through the Services menu) from other applications, create multiple document templates, as well as other small enhancements. Unlike some other companies who offer pro versions of their apps, the standard version of OmniOutliner does not feel limiting to me without the features that the pro version offers. If you can see yourself using the pro version, it costs $69.95, as opposed to $39.95 for the standard version, which you can purchase from their store.

At version 3.6.5, OmniOutliner is quite refined, making it a very useable application. For some people, this sort of application might be overkill, as you can make an outline in a simple text-editor, but there is no denying that OmniOutliner certainly makes it easy to create simple or complex outlines. The OmniGroup has some great tutorials by Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline on their website if you would like to see OmniOutliner in action.

The winners were:
Simon
Phillz
John Wells

The winners have been notified.

Thanks you for your comments, and stay tuned for future giveaways.

Since v3.6 (the last version, reviewed by myself on MacApper), RapidWeaver has undergone a major Leopard overhaul (as a free upgrade) to improve on everything from interface to publishing.

The first major upgrade to RapidWeaver was it's interface. As I said in the introduction, it has been completely overhauled, and re-thoughtout. You will now find a toolbar at the top of the RapidWeaver window with access to all of the most-used actions. This includes things like adding a page, publishing, and page info/setup. The Edit window also has a format bar at the bottom with quick access to things like bolding text, aligning, adding lists, and links.

The next section of RapidWeaver that got an overhaul was the option panes. The Site Setup floating pane was dropped in favor of a drop down pane, and also now includes a spot for you to add a Google Analytics tracking code. The Page Inspector has been cleaned up, and the buttons have now been super-sized for easy navigation. For each page there are 4 panes that always stay the same (General, Sidebar, Header and Styles), and the last button is where you can change options specific to each page’s type.

The Media Inspector now has it's own button in the toolbar. The Media Inspector lets you do basic image edits like adding a border, rotating, cropping, filename, dimensions and adding an alt tag. The Snippets window now has a button in the toolbar and now sports a look similar to the To-Do list application Anxiety.

In terms of publishing RapidWeaver has went through some big changes. When you click the “Publish button, you can choose to publish via FTP or .Mac, and also more advanced options like SFTP. When you have filled out your information, clicking publish will have your files scroll past the screen in a coverflow-esque view as they are uploaded. When the upload is finished, RapidWeaver plays the same chime iTunes does when it is finished burning a disc, and if you have Growl installed, you will receive a notification. The next time you make changes, you just have to click the Publish button and your changes will be published. You no longer have to go through the publishing setup window again to publish changes.

RapidWeaver save files can now be quick-looked in the Finder, so you can see a full preview of your site without having to open RapidWeaver. RapidWeaver also has a full manual, so learning to use all of RapidWeaver's features is now no longer a guessing game.

For the most part, this update was mostly interface updates, and implementation of some Leopard technologies. RapidWeaver makes it very easy to get a website up and running, even if you don't even know what HTML stands for. If you have a license to RapidWeaver 3.6, this is a free upgrade for you. If you own 3.5 or earlier, this upgrade is $30. You can purchase a new license for $59 from Realmac Software’s store for a limited time, and when this offer expires, licenses will run for $79.

The first thing about Delicious Library 2 you will notice is a major design change. In the previous version of Delicious Library (which I will henceforth refer to as “DL), the main window consisted of three vertical panes. In DL2, there are still three panes, but they are arranged with one pane vertical on the left side, and two panes stacked vertically on the right. I am not a big fan of this change, as the other design was able to make better of screen real estate on widescreen computers. Some may not be too concerned about this change, but it would be nice to have an option to change the view in the next update of DL2.

Other design changes include making the overall window more “open, with more white space, and each element of the window is no longer boxed in by the gray border. You will now find all info pertaining to your media in one “Details tab, instead of having separate “Details and “My Info tabs, and 3 additional tabs (Synopsis, Reviews and Recommendations) have also been added. One feature of DL that always had the “neat factor also got a bit of an interface tweak. When inputting items with your iSight, the window now has guides to make it easier to line up the barcode to be scanned.

As I mentioned above, DL2 takes advantage of many Leopard technologies. When you add an item, a nice little animation fills up the space where the item will occupy, and deleting an item will cause it to “explode out of your library. DL2 also takes advantage of some technologies available to developers to make it run faster and more smooth, like CoreData, and CoreGraphics.

Above interface changes, the most significant changes to DL have been done under the hood. Many things have been optimized, so that things like scrolling now work flawlessly, even for people who have very large libraries.

Feature-wise, DL2 did receive a few additions. You can now create Smart Shelves (think iTunes' Smart Playlists), your iTunes library now shows up in the sidebar (albums, movies and audiobooks), you can export to the web right from within DL2 (more on that later), quicklook items on the desktop, improved voice search, three click selling through Amazon, and the list goes on. For a full list of all changes from v1 to v2, check out the release notes on Delicious Monster's site.

In v1 of Delicious Library, the only types of items you could add were media items such as DVDs, but in v2, you can add many more different categories of items like Tools, Gadgets and even clothes. Depending on how keen you are keeping track of your belongings, or on using the functionality of this app to your advantage, DL2 may never be anymore than a novelty to you. I feel that DL does have practical use if you have a lot of stuff to keep track of, and actually take the time to fill out the metadata, though again, for some, DL may never be more than a novelty. One very handy use that is brought up on the Delicious Monster site is insurance reasons:

But a few people are skeptical, or slightly less obsessive. “Ok, they say, “then I have my stuff in my computer. Big whoop. I can just look at my real shelf, right now, for free.

And we say, “True, but have you ever had someone break in and steal all your CDs or DVDs? Your insurance company wants an exact list of what you had, but you can't remember every last thing, and so for years afterwards you think, ËœDrat, I forgot to list Rocky Horror Picture Show, and now it's too late!' Well, with Delicious Library you always have a complete inventory of your stuff, with replacement costs. You can print it or back it up to the web, so it's not going anywhere.

Being able to share your library with friends is quite handy, which can be done with people through the new “Publish to Web” option. You then get the option to export to .Mac, iWeb, FTP or a folder. You can choose to upload everything or just selected shelves to two different templates. Clicking on the little green “i” will let you select the different options for that destination. It does take quite a while to create the pages, and quite a while to upload, especially when your library is big. The first time I uploaded everything to my server, I just walked away from my Mac for a hour or so.

Overall, DL2 is a solid upgrade that brings many new features and speed improvements. To purchase a new license of DL from Delicious Monster, it will set you back $40. To upgrade, the cost is only $20, though if you bought a license between December 1st, 2007 and May 26th, 2008, you qualify for a free upgrade.

HDR means High Dynamic Range, and in photography, is when you combine multiple images with different exposures to create one master image (For examples of HDR images, check out the HDR group on Flickr). When I started to look for software that would help me create HDR images of my own, the one that seemed to come up the most was Photomatix. Unfortunately, I didn't have $99 to spend on it. One day looking through an issue of Macworld, I saw a program called Hydra, which did the same thing as Photomatix, but at a more affordable price.

To get started with Hydra, all you need is your 2 or more images you want combined. Hydra supports all RAW formats that Aperture does (outlined here). Hydra is split up into 2 windows, the first where the photos are displayed, and the second an inspector window.

Creating an HDR image with Hydra can be broken up into three steps. Importing the images to be combined, aligning those images, and then the final merge.

To import photos into Hydra, you can drag and drop them onto the Hydra window, open them from a folder, or use the media browser to find your images in iPhoto or Aperture.

The next step is aligning the images. The neat thing about Hydra, is that it claims you do not need a tripod when taking your images with different exposures. Hydra uses advanced aligning techniques to make sure that even if you didn't use a tripod, your images are perfectly aligned. You can align the images yourself, or have Hydra do it for you.

The last step, and the step that will affect the final outcome of your images the most, is the merging. There are two types of merging that you can do, each with their own options. 8-bit Blend takes 8-bit jpegs as input, and outputs an 8-bit image. You can adjust the smoothness of the blend, and how much of each image is used in the final output. HDR Merge allows you to take 8 or 16-bit images (RAW images) and outputs EXR. EXR carries much more information than even 16-bit images, and preserves every bit of dynamics.

Hydra also comes with an Aperture plugin when you download it, so you can create your HDR images right within Aperture. After you install the plug-in (move the plug-in file to ~/Library/Application Support/Aperture/Plug-Ins/. Create the folder if it is not already there), you just ned to select your image in Aperture, right-click, and select Edit With>Hydra. A box will pop up, and you will be able to edit and save your final HDR right within Aperture.

Now I am no expert at creating HDR images, but so far the results of my testing have been pretty neat. Hydra allows you to export your final image as a JPG, TIFF or EXR. You can pick up Hydra for $59.95 from Creaceed software.

What are your favorite examples of HDR images?

Of the people that I have spoken with, many prefered the likes of MarsEdit and Ecto. I was thinking about getting one of these to use myself, when I came across a client called Blogo that I thought I would give a try.

When Blogo opens, you are greeted with a very simple interface. At the top of Blogo, there are two big tabs labeled “New and “Edit. There is a place to enter the post title, a box for the actual post content itself, a place for keywords/categories, and two boxes for images.

Entering a title in Blogo is pretty straightforward, just type in the “Title box. When typing your entry on the “Body box, it can feel weird at first typing in such a small space, but you do get used to it after a while. To the right of the box you are typing in, there are options for formatting your post. The selection is your basic formatting options, like bold, italic, quote, list etc. The chain button is for adding links. Clicking in the little box (in the screenshot above there is a 7 in it) beside the title drops down a calendar which lets you set the time-stamp for your post.

The button at the very bottom right of the “Body box is for fullscreen. This is a nice feature, as you can go fullscreen, and do everything from drafting your blog post to publishing it without having to leave the fullscreen mode which can lead to distractions (as I'm sure you all know).

For categories and keywords, hitting the “# key will drop down a list of all the categories currently associated with your blog, you just need to scroll down until you find the one(s) you are looking for.

The next part of Blogo is adding images. To add an image, just drag it onto the dropbox, or you can find it in the Finder by clicking the “+ sign in the box to the left of the dropbox. When you add an image, you will be given the option to crop and resize the image to your liking. This is something that I really like, as usually I open ImageWell to resize screenshots etc.

The last part of Blogo's interface is the three buttons at the bottom. The big one at the bottom labeled “Post does exactly what you would expect it to do, which is post the entry to your blog. The button that looks like a book lets you save your draft, and the button that looks like the quick look icon lets you preview how your post will look on your blog right inside of Blogo. This preview is a full preview, meaning what you see in Blog will be exactly what will be posted to your blog.

The “Edit tab lets you edit your drafts or posted items, with the same options you have when creating a new post.

Overall, Blogo is a very minimal and clean desktop blogging client. My only major qualm with Blogo is the size of the text-box for writing the body of your post. It can get pretty cramped in there once you begin to add images etc., which is why I usually work in the fullscreen mode, which gives you a little more room to breathe.

Unfortunately, Blogo does have a downfall, which is its apparent lack of offline support. A few days ago I went outside to work on a few things (this review being one of those things), which was out of range of my wireless base station. When I went to launch Blogo, I was told that it could not verify my license information, and then quit. One feature I would like for Blogo, would to be to first of all support launching while not connected to the internet, and secondly, support saving drafts offline. At the moment, you can only save drafts directly into WP, Blogger etc. Though on Brainjuice's FAQ, they say that saving drafts to your computer is a feature in the works.

Blogo retails for $25, from Brainjuice. And may I just say, that even though the icon has absolutely nothing to do with blogging, it is one of the coolest I have ever seen. Look out for a review of Ecto and other desktop blogging clients on MacApper soon.

If you missed last years promotion, there is a tab toward the bottom of the “ingredient” list that lets you choose some of the applications featured last year. These applications aren’t eligible for the current discounts, but rather have fixed discounts.

The list of this year’s participants in the main promotion are as follows:

• BannerZest Pro, from Aquafadas
• BitRock InstallBuilder from BitRock SL
• Changes from Skorpiostech Inc.
• Code Collector Pro from Mcubed Software
• DeltaWalker ’08 Oro commercial or personal from Deltopia Inc.
• DMG Architect from SourceBits
• Domainer from Rage Software
• DropDMG from C-Command Software
• ForgEdit from Programlogik
• iLocalize from Arizona Software
• iShell from Tribalmedia LLC.
• MaxBulk Mailer from Max Programming, LLC.
• Maza Digital from Email Backup Pro
• Navicat MySQL GUI from Premium Soft
• PHP Function IndeX from ARTIS Software
• Razor SQL from Richardson Software LLC.
• REALBasic Personal Edition from REAL Software
• REALBasic Professional Edition from REAL Software
• Revolution Studio from Runtime Revolution
• SiteMap Automator from Rage Software
• Source Guarding PHP Encoder from Inovica LTD.
• SQLGrinder from Advenio
• SubEthaEdit from Coding Monkeys
• SuperCard Developer or Standard Edition from Solutions Etcetera
• Transaction from Max Programming, LLC.
• Typinator from Ergonis Software
• Unity from Unity3D

Check out the list of participants from last year that you can get a discount on this year on the website.

Depending on the applications that you choose, you could walk away with quite a discount on software. And if developing isn’t your forte, you can still buy some applications from their last promotion at a discounted price.

Give Good Food 2 Your Mac

If you would like to be eligible for 1 of the 3 licenses, all you need to do is comment below with how Flux could be useful to you in creating a website, or what sort of features you would like to see implemented in the future. Flux is still a young application, and your feedback is invaluable to the developers.

Flux retails for $69 from The Escapers.

A few weeks ago, I was looking at a photo full-screen in iPhoto on my iMac, when I noticed a line of white at at the top of the screen (pictured below), where the menubar usually ends. Restarting didn't seem to fix the problem, so it was at that moment, I realized that I might have Image Persistence.

Searching across the internet to get rid of it brought a few different methods, like certain movie clips to play fullscreen, and certain screensavers. After poking around a little, I settled on trying the application LCD Scrub, from ToastyCode. LCD Scrub is a screensaver that is supposed to get rid of unwanted Image Persistence. The instructions were to turn on the screensaver, and leave it for several hours. After following these instructions (I left the screensaver on overnight as I slept) I was pleased to see that I could barely see the persistence anymore. After I had gotten home from school later that day (the screensaver on all the while), I could no longer see the white line.

Of course, the line was never that big a deal in the first place, as it was not visible when the menubar was visible, though it was annoying when in fullscreen. Overall, I was pleased that this application actually functioned as advertised, though your results may vary. Let us know how you got rid of your Image Persistence

LCD Scrub is $18 from ToastyCode.

This interview covers everything from getting involved in the Mac scene, to MacHeist to MDA. At the end of the interview, he also gives us a sneak peak at the interface for the iPhone app he is developing along with Sophia Teutschler of CoverSutra.

How did you get involved in the whole “Mac Scene?

I got my first Mac back in 1990. I was a hardcore Amiga user before that and after the Amiga started to die out, I made a brief switch to the Dark Side by going with a PC for a bit. Needless to say, I totally hated it and it wasn't long before I was able to save up for the first affordable Mac: a Macintosh Classic. It had almost no RAM, tiny hard drive, crappy monochrome screen, slow processor¦ but I was immediately hooked and never looked back.

Over time I got to know more and more people in the Mac community since I was developing apps and making media contacts, etc. It's definitely an interesting scene¦ most Mac users are die-hards with little tolerance for mediocrity so to stand out above the crowd you really have to work hard at what you do and pay a lot of attention to aesthetics and usability.

Did you ever consider following any other avenues of work (or what else do you do besides what you do in the Mac Community)?

There've been times when I've just gotten sick of programming and I felt it was necessary to try some new things. I've been all over the place with things I've done¦ painting, guitar-making, and I even considered boat racing at one point. But it always comes back to programming for me, even after some long hiatuses.

Even recently, I thought I was finally done with programming but once the iPhone SDK came out, I got back into it. But I have to admit that after this last break, I was completely rusty and the learning curve was pretty steep for me this time around. I'm working on some iPhone apps with Sophia Teutschler of CoverSutra fame and she was going to be doing all the programming on them, while I did most everything else. But right before the Apple Design Awards deadline, she had a lot of CoverSutra work to do so I tried to take up the slack and did some programming for our first iPhone app. Well, to put it mildly, things didn't go so smoothly for me with it. I've never been called “a shitty programmer so many times in my life¦ she can be pretty harsh.

What was it like working on MacHeist? If you could go back in time, would you still accept the project?

Considering that MacHeist was my original concept to begin with, I'd have to say, yes, I definitely would “accept the project.

MacHeist changed my life, to say the least. I've never been involved with a project that's been so consuming, but I mean that in a good way. Once we get going for the season, it's really nonstop but it gives me a rush unlike anything I've ever done before, work-wise. And this is for most aspects of MacHeist: mission planning, the countless all-nighters while implementing the missions, working out the bundle with devs, seeing people solve the missions (definitely the most exhilarating part of the whole thing for me), and the mad rush of the bundle sale.

What was the original inspiration for MacHeist? How did you become involved?

The original inspiration for MacHeist goes back to when I had iClip in a week-long bundle on MacZot in early 2007. Brian Ball at MacZot was trying various things during the sale to hype it up and they were mostly improvised. What he tried did increase exposure of the promotion but I had the thought that if things were planned out well ahead of time and some fun things like games and puzzles were added with free software as prizes, then things could really take of. In addition, I felt that if we could get even just a few killer apps for a bundle then it'd be a must-have.

Once I worked out some of the details in my head, I talked it over with Phill Ryu one night and I wanted to hire him to do some of the legwork for it. I got to know Phill by advertising iClip on his MacThemes site and we worked together on some past projects and promotions. And he seemed to be into this so we started to get the ball rolling. Now at this point, this was to be a MacZot event but I couldn't come to an agreement with Brian about making this all work out between us, unfortunately.

So then Phill and I talked about doing this on our own and it just snowballed from there. I knew that I couldn't handle all the development on my own (in the end very little actual programming on MacHeist) so he suggested bringing on Scott Meinzer to help with this. I knew Scott a bit from some of the things I worked on with Phill and I'll just say that I wasn't happy with this at all at the time.

But we didn't have a lot of choice here as we didn't know very many web programmers, especially one as good as Scott. So I reluctantly decided to give it a shot and hire him. To make a long story short, we went from me hiring Phill, then hiring Scott to having us all be approximately equal partners and it worked out for the best, I'm happy to say (although I do sleep with one eye open because I fear that Phill's going to try to have me killed one day so he can get part of my share ).

And in the end, having Scott be a part of the team was a great thing. I got him all wrong based on my original dealings with him¦ I just wasn't getting his sarcasm at the time so I was taking things too personally. Even though he can still be a bit stressy at times, I have to say that I really enjoy working with him, especially on creating the missions. When we get into the groove, it's truly an amazing experience.

What would you say were the biggest obstacles to overcome when creating MacHeist and MacHeist II?

The biggest obstacle is definitely getting stuff done on time. I shouldn't be “breaking down the wall and saying this but pretty much when a mission goes live it does just as we finish implementing it (I've never experienced anything more chaotic than the few hours leading up to a mission going live). Sometimes we'll even put a mission live then finish some of the final details as it's in-progress. We have the benefit of there being a few hour delay before heisters get to the later parts of a mission so we feel like we can get away with stuff like this sometimes, but it's pretty risky and I'm sure we'll get bitten by it one day.

How long does it typically take to complete a mission, from planning to coding?

That's hard to say exactly because we almost never put one together in a single stretch. The only one that I can remember that was done like that was Mission 6 to wrap-up MacHeist I because Scott and Phill seemed to go into the federal witness protection program or something and I had to get it all together mostly by myself (with design/implementation help from Ollie Wagner). That one took a few weeks to do, including a mini-heist, if I recall correctly.

Typically, we spend several months planning and implementing everything. Throughout the year, I'll jot down puzzle ideas as I come up with them and before MacHeist II I went away on a week long “retreat to plan out things. Then the three of us threw ideas back and forth and came up with an overall story-line for all the missions. Scott and I would then meet-up frequently (virtually) to develop more puzzles and integrate them into the story-line. Things would change very often but at some point, we'd have a (somewhat) coherent plot, broken-up unto several missions and puzzles to fit.

Then, for each mission, we'd plan them out in fine detail so that we could pass them off to our graphics designers, Wolfgang Bartelme and Ernest Liu (we'd sometimes hijack someone else for a rush job for something we'd forgotten or needed to change last minute) and our web coder, Karl Baron. Occasionally we'd need something specialized so we'd recruit someone with the necessary skills to do those things (for example, Sophia did the Safari plug-in that let you control the maze with the Apple Remote for Mission 4 of MacHeist II). Half way through MacHeist II, we recruited IRC-goer Noël Rosenthal, who had some nifty, puzzly ideas and she helped out with various parts of Missions 3 and 4.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with the team we've assembled. We have some of the hardest working and most creative individuals in the Mac industry helping to create something that so many people in the community enjoy. It's an extremely rewarding experience to have it all come together and hear how much people love it all.

What was your favorite mission and why?

For MacHeist I, I loved Mission 3. It was one long puzzle sequence that communicated with the heister mostly via graphics rather than words. Moreover, it included the freaky red filter iSight thingy (some people were really weirded out and paranoid from having their live image appear in their web browser, especially all tinted red and upside down) which was actually the very first puzzle I came up with for MacHeist. That whole mission had a very tight feel to it and it showed that we were finally getting the hang of things after a somewhat lackluster start.

For MacHeist II, I thought Mission 4 rocked and the heisters seemed to agree. The maze controlled by the Apple Remote really made that mission. If I recall correctly, the maze was originally Scott's idea.

Do you ever feel like Phill (considered the face of MacHeist) is getting all the credit for MacHeist?

Totally!

But that's partly my fault as I intentionally wanted him to be the public face originally. I'm pretty much an introvert and he was much more well known than I was leading into MacHeist I so it made sense at the time.

For MacHeist II, I tended to be a lot more in the forefront as I spent a lot of time in the forums (post count at 577 now!) and in the MacHeist IRC (some of you may be more familiar with our custom IRC client, MacHeist Chat) so I boosted my visibility quite a bit. So even though Phill got most of the credit for MacHeist I, I don't feel that's the case for MacHeist II and I no longer feel the deep resentment I carried around for the previous year.

What is it like working with Phill Ryu and Scott Meinzer? Any experiences you would like to share?

As for working with Phill, I once summed it up in a MacHeist forum post:

It's no secret that Phill and I are often at odds with each other but I feel that overall, we work really well together. We've known each other for years and have been involved in various projects together, so even though we're occasionally at each other's throats (we can both be complete asses toward each other), we obviously know how to make it all work when we need to. When things aren't clicking it can totally suck, but when it comes together and we get in the zone, it's fantastic. And the same goes for Scott, although he and I tend to be more often on the same page with things compared with Phill. The bottom line is that we all want to do the best job we possibly can and we all have a tendency to be stubborn, so the occasional flare-up is inevitable, but we always make it work when we really need to.

Working with Scott's usually a lot of fun. We often compliment each other creatively and he has a tendency to come up with some great puzzle concepts and story ideas for the missions. When we flesh things out it doesn't feel like “work at all because we'll do a lot of brainstorming and there are always little diversions which keep things interesting. Because of working with Scotti, I now far know more than I've ever wanted to know about deep fryers, burn barrels, and the crown jewel of Minnesota (AKA 'sota): the walleye.

Any projects you are working on that you care to share the details of?

Yeah, but I'll save my answer for when you ask the inevitable iPhone question¦ (Ok, ok, this is an email interview so I know the question's coming since I have them all ahead of time.)

How were you involved in the conception/execution of MDA?

When Phill came up with the concept of My Dream App, he pitched it to me and I have to say that I originally wasn't into it. I don't watch any TV (DVDs only) and the “American Idol for Mac software idea didn't do much for me. But it quickly grew on me for some reason. I agreed to be a part of it so long as I didn't have to do any programming so I took on the role of “Development Manager.

I was involved with helping pull everything together both for the competition and for developing the apps. Unfortunately, things didn't work out so well in the long run and I quit My Dream App around September of last year (even though I'm still listed on the site) because of some personal differences Phill and I were having. I'm still really hoping that the apps get finished but I'm not sure what state things are currently in.

A little known fact is that Phill came up with the My Dream App concept after we started talking about MacHeist, not before. We felt it would've worked out best if we put out My Dream App first, then followed it with MacHeist. In retrospect, I'd say that it definitely was most effective doing things in this order even though I had a lot of reluctance to the ideas.

Do you have any advice for people who are just beginning to get involved in your areas of interest? i.e. Mac Developing/Web Design?

Collaborate!

I started doing Mac development on my own and while I was able to build a pretty successful business that way, it wasn't until I started working closely with others that things really started to take off. And the overall experience got sooo much better by collaborating with other talented, motivated people.

I'm actually very surprised that so many indies in the community are pretty much solo. The saying “the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts couldn't be truer here and I think that if more people started working together we'd see some really great things come out of the Mac dev community. I hate to sound negative here but the scene has been pretty stagnant for too long of a time and I look forward to seeing some talented, original people get together to “rock the boat with something really fresh and innovative.

The other advice I have is to not be afraid of doing things beyond your level of comfortability. I originally hated marketing but if I just stuck with what I was familiar with and only what I enjoyed, MacHeist simply would never have happened. Starting up an indie dev company takes countless skills and you often have to be willing to do tasks you're just not familiar with or even have a distaste for. But when you give those things a fair chance you can gain an appreciation and sometimes even a liking for them.

With the recent announcement of the iPhone SDK, do you see yourself getting involved in developing applications for the iPhone?

When the SDK came out, I thought, “sure, why the hell not. I toyed with the SDK a bit but was kind of empty for ideas so I felt that I was going to watch things from the sidelines this time around.

But then I came up with an idea that I felt could be done in a few days and would be pretty cool to have. I told it to Sophia and she immediately wanted to do it, so she and I partnered up for it. Well, a few days turned into several weeks as it evolved significantly and we wanted to have a killer design in it, so we hired Wolfgang to perform his pixel magic. We went through a zillion iterations for it but we're totally happy with the end result. We can't show the whole app because of NDA reasons with Apple but we can show a snippet of the design:

Wolfgang did such an incredible job turning our concept into reality. Doesn't that look sweet?

And now, after my initial idea drought, Sophia and I have been coming up with cool, new things almost daily.To put it simply, I LOVE iPhone development and I've been very absorbed with all the apps we're working on.

We came up with the perfect name for our iPhone app company. I wish I could tell you the URL right now but we’re in the process of buying the domain from one of those evil squatters and we’re still waiting for the transfer to finish. But keep an eye on the MacHeist forums and Sophia's site because we’ll have info there as soon as we can make it public.

Thank you very much for joining us, John.

Thanks a bunch for having me on and for MacApper's continued support of the things I and the people that I work with create!

One application that is relatively new to the WYSIWYG scene is Flux, from The Escapers. This app aims to give you complete control over the look and feel of your websites, while not limiting you to only being able to adjust a few parameters of pre-installed themes.

When you first open up Flux, you can either start a new website from scratch, or from one of the included templates. If you decide to go from scratch, Flux can automatically create an index.html file, and CSS file to get you started. Once that is done, you can add additional pages/CSS files to your hearts content.

Double clicking an HTML file will open up Flux's main window. This window is where the bulk of your web development will take place. Double clicking on a CSS file will greet you with the alert: “CSS files are created and modified by Flux, they should not be edited externally. If you still want to open the file, press ‘Open’, which in my eyes is a big downfall of Flux. There are some things that are easier to edit in say TextMate or CSSEdit, so it would be nice if there was a way to edit CSS files externally, and have the changes reflect in Flux. When asking the developer about this, I received this response:

Right now, you *could* edit CSS in other editors, but it’s really not something we recommend, basically because Flux supports CSS fairly well, but it does not support some of the more esoteric features, and also there is some CSS “shorthand” we don’t support yet, this means that someone could type in valid CSS which Flux might take a dislike to. Similarly, Flux supports new CSS features like@fontface rules, which other editors may not, and then they might end up messing up Flux’s valid CSS. It’s something we are thinking about and will probably try to support sometime in the future.

This might be something we see in the future of Flux’s development.

With external editing aside, lets move on to Flux's main window. The main window of Flux is organized into three panes. Your CSS styles are in the left pane, you build the website in the middle pane, and the right pane is where you will edit your CSS styles. There is also an option to have the pane where you edit your CSS display under the styles in the left pane.

The first thing that I always do when creating a website is add the metadata. To do this in Flux, you can click on the “Page Attributes button in the toolbar at the top of the page. You can add in your page title, keywords description and author. The other tabs are where you can add custom code/attributes, javascript files, and CSS files. make sure before you start building your website that there is a CSS file in the CSS tab. If not, drag the one you created earlier into the pane from the site manager.

To begin building a website, you have to add an element. For this review, I'll begin by adding a div in the middle of the page, and call it “contentcontainer. To do this, click “New Element in the top left corner, and click “Div. You can resize the div to whatever you please by dragging its handles. To add a CSS style to this div, right-click and select “Create style with… or use the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-S. This will open a dialogue window that lets you name your style. Once you have created your style, you can begin to edit your div in the right-hand pane.

Selecting the div in the middle pane, or the style in the left pane, will open the CSS Editor. You can edit all things you would expect in the editor, like position, Size, Fonts, Decoration, Shadow, Padding etc., and you can add in your own attributes if you would like. Clicking a checkbox beside an attribute drops down its options. For example, if I select “Fonts I can choose the fonts that I want displayed in that div. This makes creating the CSS for your site easy, as most of the values for that attribute are right there in the editor.

One of the really neat feature of Flux is its built-in image effects. If you add an image right into the site manager, you can apply many different image effects, from adjusting the color, to adding scrapbook tape to it (like you see in the screenshot further below). The window is a little buggy, you have to resize the window in order to see all of the options for some effects, though I have notified the developers of this problem, and hopefully it will be fixed soon. If you add an image from the site manager to your site and then add effects to it, the changes are not reflected in the Edit view, but they are in the Preview view (which I will touch on in a second). Maybe we will see this in a future update.

Flux has 3 main views. The Edit view, which we have been working in the length of this review, the Preview view which lets you preview your webpage using WebKit, and Live Preview which allows you to publish your page to a server, to preview it online. When you are ready to publish your website to the world, you can publish it by clicking “Publish in the File menu, or upload the files in the folder Flux created in your documents folder to wherever you like.

Flux's abilities extend far beyond what I have demonstrated here thus far. It supports adding JavaScript actions, embedding PHP, Flash, Java and even support for Ruby on Rails. I am not going to talk about all that today, but I thought I should let you know that it is all there. Flux lets you design and build websites without having to conform to a pre-designed theme, or having to code everything by hand. If you want, you can still use Flux's built-in templates, which are very customizable.

Besides the few bugs I mentioned above, I have had quite a bit of trouble with the Undo/Redo in Flux. For example, I added an image into Flux and then deleted it. I then entered some text and deselected everything. Clicking Edit>Undo got rid of the image, but overlooked the fact that I had even just entered in some text. Just like with the other bugs, I have notified the devs of this abnormality, and it will hopefully be fixed in a future update.

Flux is $69 from The Escapers.

The basic premise behind this new app is being able to move files onto and off of DVDs and CDs almost like Disk Images. Once you insert a blank disc, you have to launch BurnAgain FS to open a session. BurnAgain FS supports CDRs, CDRWs, DVD+RWs and DVD-RWs. If you are not using a blank disc, the disc must have been burned using the ISO9660 rock ridge standard, and not have been closed (for example, a music CD from iTunes cannot be altered by BurnAgain FS, as it has been closed).

Once BurnAgain FS has launched, and assuming you have inserted a disc that is compatible, all you need to do is click “Open to begin your sessions. The disc will be mounted by BurnAgain, and double-clicking on its window will take you to it.

From there, all you need to do is drag files onto the disc, or into the trash to alter what is on the disc. When you are satisfied with your changes, you click “Close and after naming the disc, BurnAgain will write the changes, all without having to erase the entire disc.

Compatibility wise, discs burned with BurnAgain should be readable on all platforms without any extra software. Compared to BurnAgain DVD, this is a list on FreeRideCoding's site of new features:

• Use your disk directly in the Finder
• Open and edit files directly on the disk
• Remove individual files from the disk
• Replace folders (with the old items completely removed)
• Move or rename already burned items

With this update, BurnAgain has went from a backup utility, to a more general disc utility. You can still use it for backing up files, but I am sure that more people will be able to get use out of BurnAgain FS with its re-burning features.

This version is Leopard-only, so you Tiger folk will have to make the upgrade if you wish to use this utility. The trial of BurnAgain FS allows 20 free burns, and full licenses are available for 15⚬ ($23) from FreeRideCoding's website.

A few weeks ago an application by the name of Decompose was featured on MacUpdate's MU Promo (I suggest subscribing to both MU Promo and MacZOT's mailing list. It's a great was to build up your Applications Folder on the cheap). Decompose is an application that lets you remove the background from an image by selecting the foreground, outline and background of the subject you want the background removed from.

When you open up Decompose, you must select the image that you want to remove the background from. From here, the steps are pretty straight forward to remove the background of your image. The top of the app consists of 11 buttons and two sliders. The interface isn't the most intuitive I've ever used, but all the tools are laid out in a way that it is still simple to get the job done.

To start the background removing process, you must trace the contour of the object. There are 5 tools to help you do this (from left to right- Brush, Fill, Lasso, Rectangle, and Wand). I found that out of all the tools just using the brush and fill was the easiest. The Lasso wasn't very helpful, the wand is a little too sensitive, and in my tests, none of the images had anything that was perfectly square or rectangular. Your experiences may vary. You can change the size of the tools with the slider that is under the tool buttons.

After you have finished drawing the outline of your object, yo must select the foreground of the object. The easiest tool for this is just the fill tool. Clicking on the little person who is filled in (the left-most button in the group of buttons with people on them) tells Decompose that you are now selecting pixels in the foreground. Assuming you have completely enclosed your object with the brush, filling the foreground should be simple.

The last step is to select the background. Clicking the person who is un-filled with a black background tells Decompose that the remaining pixels are the background.

To see your finished image minus the pesky background, click result. Matte will let you see the space that the object used to occupy. How accurate your result is depends on how much time you want to spend to outline your object as best you can. As you can see in my example, since I didn’t follow the contour of the building all that accurately, you can still see some of the sky in the result. If you do it quickly with no precision, your result will not be good. If you take your time, the result is pretty decent.

If there was anything I would add to Decompose, it would be a straight line tool. As you can see in my example image, the subject is a building. Trying to trace the straight edges of the building was a little difficult, and could have been made much easier (therefore more accurate result) if there was a straight line tool. Also, the zoom slider in the bottom left corner is quite sensitive, and when you zoom out, the image moves into the bottom left corner, instead of staying centered as you would think.

Decompose shows the object on a transparent background, and exports them as a .TIFF file.

In the end, Decompose v1.0.2 can produce quite good results depending on how much time you want to spend, and is an application that I will definitely be using in the future. You can pick up your very own copy of Decompose from Metakine for $29.99 USD.

I have been keeping a eye open for some of these new releases the past few days, and have compiled a list of some of the applications that have been introduced, and ones that have been updated.

The first application on my list is TapeDeck. TapeDeck is an application that was released as version 1.0 on May 9th. The basic premise behind TapeDeck is being able to record audio quickly and easily. This is a Leopard-only application, that takes advantage of technologies like Core Animation, and Core Audio. Each new “tape that you record is stored in a sliding panel, that is easy to search. When you record, the little wheels of the deck even spin, which is a nice touch. TapeDeck has been released for $25; look for a full review on MacApper soon.

The next app on my list is Bokeh. Bokeh, a joint application from Ollie Wagner and Geoff Pado, is an application that was born from Freeze Frame. It allows you to stop an application from using the processor, freeing it up for other applications to use. For example, you could freeze every other application you have open except for Final Cut Express if you were rendering a scene and wanted FCS to be able to use all of your processor. When you “Focus on an app (freezing all other applications except for one) the screen behind the app blurs, hence the name Bokeh. A full review of Bokeh is currently in the pipes, to be consumed by you readers in the near future.

Next up we have a few application updates. Pixelmator got a big update yesterday, bringing it up to v1.2 (Draftsman). This update was free to all registered users and brought plenty of bug fixes, and some new functionality. Most notably was the introduction of rulers, a curves feature for “adjusting the entire tonal range or making precise adjustments to individual color channels in an image, and a new color balance tool essential for controlling the overall color mixture in an image for color correction work, (Pixelmator Weblog) an enhance tool, and a polygonal lasso. The documentation of Pixelmator has also been updated, as well as a few enhanced Automator actions. You can pick up the update right from within Pixelmator, or from the Pixelmator Team’s Website.

Another application that received quite a considerable update is Picturesque, from Acqualia. I reviewed Picturesque v1.0 way back in May of 2007, and with this update, you won't even recognize Picturesque anymore. The interface of Picturesque has been completely redone, doing away with the floating inspector window. This update in addition to a new interface, has brought a few new tools, like Perspective and Crop. A review of Picturesque has just been posted to MacApper, by our very own Joe Turner.

Now those are the only ones that I found in my travels through the internet, but I would be happy to hear some of the other ones that I may have missed.

We will find out the winners of the ADAs in a months time at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference this June.

The winners have been chosen, and licenses have been sent. The winners were:
fmyakos
Shawn
John
marieboyer
Marlo
Barrie
Denis
Paul
Zander
Ben Cunningham

Congratulations, and enjoy Misu.

If you participated in MacHeist I and II you have seen these apps before, but they are now back, updated and ready to go. I had a chance to sit down with Phill (well, sit down over the internet) and ask him a few questions about this latest project.

MA: Hi Phill, glad you could join us.

PR: Yeah, my pleasure.

MA: So your mixing up the Mac Software scene once again with the MacHeist Retail Bundle. Tell us a little about that.

PR: Well, we always seem to get swamped with emails after each MacHeist bundle asking when it’ll return, and we felt having a nice bundle available throughout the year would be a good idea. It’s really a great introduction to Mac shareware, and we feel it’ll do great in stores, especially for switchers. Really, this is about reaching a wider audience, and I think this package of software will go a long way in helping us do that.

MA: What apps have you put together for inclusion in this bundle?

Update: App list updated.

PR:

• iClip (Inventive)
• CoverSutra (Sophiestication Software)
• Awaken 4.0 (Embraceware Software Inc.)
• Cha-Ching (Midnight Apps)
• Overflow (Stunt Software)
• Xslimmer (LateNiteSoft)
• DEVONthink Personal (DEVONtechnologies, LLC)
• Wallet (Waterfall Software)
• WriteRoom (Hog Bay Software)
• Enigmo, Bugdom 2, Nanosaur 2 (Pangea Software, Inc.)

MA: How long have you been planning this bundle?

PR: I think I started talking to developers about this nearly a year ago, but it was after MacHeist 2 that I really started working on getting everything together. All in all though, we put this together fairly quickly… It helped that much of the sale’s mechanics are already in place.

MA: This bundle is even complete with its own trailer?

PR: Yeah, I mean, the idea of doing a full blown trailer for a software bundle struck me as a little ridiculous too at first, but it was one of those things where we’re talking ideas, and we go through a stage where it’s a bad idea, then decide why the hell not. I think it turned out well.

MA: Where did the idea to do a boxed version of the bundle come from?

PR: We’re always trying to reach as many Mac users as we can, because we have the best software deal out there. Retail is an opportunity to break into the mainstream, the casual user who doesn’t read TUAW everyday, or maybe the new Windows switcher looking to fill their new Mac with some software. Plus, it’s just cool to have a physical box. Kind of makes it feel more real.

MA: Did you consider doing this bundle in partnership with another organization like the MacUpdate/Skunkworks bundle of last year?

PR: No. Our “skunk works” bundle with MacUpdate last summer was an interesting collaboration, but ultimately we felt constricted by the partnership, and decided to continue on our own. We’re always open to potentially working with others though. For example, I’m in talks right now with a guy who may be helping us unleash the Heist brand on Windows users, so we’ll see how that goes.

MA: Do you think that the upcoming MacUpdate bundle will hurt your sales at all?

PR: No, but I think we will probably end up affecting their sales pretty heavily. I imagine with our launch the week before MacUpdate’s, a lot of customers are going to be light in their pockets the following week, and in some sense, gorged on quality Mac software. We definitely have the advantage with the timing. It’s interesting, I was talking to John Gruber about that [MacHeist/MacUpdate competition] the other day and he compared us to Coke and Pepsi, and it really is getting kind of ugly. I’m just waiting for Joel to launch the MacUpdate Challenge, but you know, we’re quietly feeling out the bottled water industry. MacHeist bottled water, coming this fall.

MA: Going off topic a little bit, can we expect any more MacHeist related promotions before the debut of MH III? There have been a few rumors floating around of a Skunkworks 2.0.

PR: I can’t comment on our future events, beyond the fact that MacHeist 3 is happening later this year.

MA: Thanks for joining us Phill.

PR: Thanks for inviting me here, enjoyed answering these questions.

So there you have it. The bundle goes on sale soon, and can be purchased through MacHeist. It is not known yet where you can buy the Retail bundle in-store.

The winners were:

Ben who suggested djay should be able to accept Audio Units as plug-ins.

Michael who suggested that djay be able to play music from a folder, instead of just your iTunes songs.

Dean who suggested being able to use two finger scrolling on the trackpad to “scratch.

Thanks to all who commented, and I hope the winners enjoy their software.

The first thing that you will notice about BannerZest as compared to BannerZest Pro is the price. BannerZest costs $80 less than BannerZest Pro, sitting pretty at $49. The 80-dollar question is though, does BannerZest Pro have enough features over BannerZest to justify the cost?

This post is going to be mainly discussing the differences between the two applications, so if you haven't read my post on BannerZest Pro yet, it will help you understand this post a lot more if you read it now.

The startup windows of each application look almost identical, except for the absence of an icon in the bottom right of BannerZest's window. This icon is the Media Browser in BannerZest Pro. Since BannerZest does not have a media browser, you must locate the files you want to add in the Finder before dragging them onto the window. The Media Browser is quite convenient, as it integrates with iPhoto and Aperture.

The next major graphical difference between BennerZest and BannerZest Pro is the absence of a “Publish tab in BannerZest. Instead of having the “Publish tab, BannerZest has a very user friendly step-by-step wizard for you to follow to publish your banner. You have all of the same publishing options in BannerZest, except you cannot choose a target URL, or have the banner display in Lightbox or Shadowbox.

BannerZest has all of the same themes as BannerZest Pro except for two. One called Accordion which you can see at the bottom of my review of BannerZest Pro, and the other called Falling Stripes. Accordion is also a navigation theme, which means you can use the banner as navigation within your site. You can adjust all of the same settings in each theme, except you cannot choose a custom loading screen, though you can still use the three that come with BannerZest.

BannerZest does not allow you to associate a URL with your images, which means that you cannot have an image in one of your banners open a new window.

Finally, BannerZest still generates the code for you to paste your banner like BannerZest Pro, except the options are much simpler. You have the option to “Show Banner which takes you to the online preview, copy the code, which is an iFrame instead of javascript and other HTML, or copy the URL of the online preview.

In the end, BannerZest is still has quite a bit of functionality unless you absolutely need one of the features that the Pro version has. You can pick up the standard version of BannerZest, which just came out of beta like the pro version, for $49 USD from Aquafadas.

BannerZest Pro from Aquafadas, is a program that makes Flash picture banners as easy a drag and drop, at a fraction of the cost. The results are quite professional, and are very simple to customize.

The first thing that BannerZest Pro asks you to do when you open it, is drag images onto its window. These are the images that will be used in your banner. If you do not have the images right in front of you to drag onto the BannerZest Pro window, you can find the images by opening the Media Browser. You can add and remove images as your please once you add the initial images to the window. Once you have a few images inside of BannerZest Pro, it's time to start creating your banner.

BannerZest Pro consists of two windows. One window is the preview of your banner, and the other is called the inspector. The inspector has four tabs. The Media tab is where you edit the name and subtitle associated with each of your images. Themes is where you choose the theme of your banner, there are 16 themes you can use in total. Aquafadas has plans to release a theme development kit soon so you can create your own themes easily. The Settings tab is where you customize aspects of the theme you selected, and finally, the Publish tab is where you choose settings for publishing your banner to the web.

The Media tab gives you an overview of the images you are using in your banner. You can delete images by clicking on the “x beside each image, or add more images by dragging them from the finder or media browser onto the inspector. The Media tab lets you change the title of your image used in the banner, the subtitle (which is set to the current date by default), and add a URL to open when you click on the image. You can also crop images right inside of the Media tab.

The Themes tab is pretty basic. Clicking on a theme will load it into the preview window.

The Settings tab is where the bulk of the work is done. Each theme has different parts that can be customized, so the Settings tab will be different for each theme that you use. The theme that I am using in this example is “Water Apparition.

In this theme you can adjust the Loading Screen, Size, Border, Theme Title, Title, Subtitle, Media and Background Gradient. To adjust a parameter, just click the triangle beside the adjustment name. Once you have made your changes, click the reload button on the preview window to see your changes take effect.

The last tab in the inspector is the Publish tab. This is where you adjust the way your banner will be published. You can choose to publish it locally, or remote through FTP or .Mac. After specifying a server and a subfolder, you can choose your image quality, and the target URL. There is also an option to have your banner display in Lightbox or Shadowbox. The last step is to publish your banner!

Once your banner finishes publishing, it is quite simple to get the code to integrate your banner into your website. You can either click “Show HTML” or “Show Banner.” Clicking “Show HTML” will open up a window that gives you options to copy code depending on where you will be adding the banner. Aquafadas has created presets for publishing to programs like RapidWeaver, WordPress, and Facebook. Clicking copy to clipboard will copy the entire section of code, allowing you to paste it where you please.

Clicking “Show Banner” will take you to the place online where you published your banner, and show you a preview of what it will look like. On this page there are also the options that you saw in the “Show HTML” window, also with options to copy the sections of code to the clipboard.

Unfortunately, BannerZest Pro does seem to have trouble scaling images when you make the banner smaller than the theme default. If you look at my first example banner below, you may notice that some icons are a little blurry. The theme default is 900px across, but I had to change that to 520px to fit within the boundaries of our blog. Each icon has been scaled down from 512×512, though they look crisp and clear when the banner is 900px across.

In the time I spent with BannerZest Pro, I did find myself wishing for a few things. The inspector does not allow you to resize it yourself. Each time you select a new tab, it resizes automatically. A few times I found myself looking for ways to make it smaller to save screen space. The next thing I found, and I’m not sure if the underlying animation technology used supports this, is I wanted to be able to change the text in my banner without having to use the inspector to do it. Instead of having to click the “Theme Title” triangle in the Settings tab, it would be nice to just be able to edit the Theme Title right inside of the preview window. Having said those things, BannerZest Pro looks like a mature application, and will most likely receive added functionality in the future.

BannerZest Pro will come in handy when just trying to add a little more spice to your website. In minutes, you can create an interactive flash slideshow, or an advertisement for your product.

BannerZest Pro just came out of beta, and can be had for $129. Pick it up at the store of Aquafadas. Check back at MacApper soon, as I will have a post outlining the differences between the standard version of BannerZest, and the pro version reviewed in this post.

You can see a few banners I created with BannerZest Pro below. Clicking an icon will take you to that apps site:

Click an application name to see its icon.