MacApper » Indra Masribani

Effortless Photo Printing with Snapshot

Indra Masribani — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:00:26 +0000

The clash between the two has been going for years. The battles were chaotic, however, everything must come to an end, and the end is indeed near. The era of film is slowly crawling to its end; digital formats are starting to dominate. No more changing rolls – digital has become the new ruler of the land and the photographer’s workflow has much benefited in both speed and instant feedback.

Everything is a snap these days. People aim, shoot, and review in mere seconds. The time needed between shots is getting shorter and shorter. To keep up with such a fast moving world, one needs to keep up with the post-production process. Why waste time in a dark, red, and dusty room to process your photos? In fact, why waste time walking or driving to the nearest photo service shop to get your photos printed? Why do all that if you can easily do it from the comfort of your own home?

Edit multiple photos at once. Pretty handy for mass editing purposes.

Snapshot helps make your photo printing process a walk in the park. At its heart Snapshot allows you to print pictures to exact sizes like 4×6, 8×10, or any other size you specify. It’s easy to use, and with just a few clicks you’ll have your favorite photo printed the way you want it. You can also do some basic editing like cropping, resizing, adjust exposure, brightness, contrast and more on the fly. Adding photos is as simple as drag-and-drop. You can even add creatives like attractive borders and speech bubbles to spice up your pictures even more. The interface and buttons are pretty much straight forward – There is really little to no learning curve with this utility.

Basic Exposure, Contrast, Brightness and some more adjustments on the fly.

Nobody’s perfect though, a few flaws do exist. One is how photo resolution will affect the size of the word balloon. It’s nothing significant, but it makes it harder to add speech bubbles to your photos. The second flaw that I’ve found is that I can’t print more than two pictures on a page unless I print in contact sheet mode (but this makes the photos too small). How about 3 on a page? 4? 6? it would be nice. Overall though, Snapshot really does the job for the average day-to-day photo printing needs, with a few basic editing features, that don’t feel like an after-thought. I really liked it. If you regularly print photos and are frustrated with the results, this one’s for you.

Snapshot v2.0 is $29.95 and includes a free trial.

Qumana: Powerful Blogging Software

Indra Masribani — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:30:52 +0000

As a blogger, I’m always interested in better managing my time. I am all for tools that will make blogging more efficient and interesting, as well as removing the boring steps. Enter Qumana, an all-in-one tool for all your blogging needs.

Blogging has evolved from how it began. It is not limited to one’s personal expression anymore, but it has become a powerful online tool to create, manage, and maintain a constant flow of information, product reviews, opinions, marketing and even rich media. The word blogger has become an official job description, among many others, such as web designer, programmer, and other online professions. As a professional blogger, it is crucial to use your time efficiently, while maintaining high quality content. Qumana is the tool that helped me to do just that.

At its heart Qumana allows you to create, edit, and save your posts offline and then publish them whenever you are ready. You can also manage your post with categories and tags for maximum exposure (Technorati and Digg, anyone?) and upload your pictures and images, align them, give a title/description, and adjust image size. This, combined with the ImgRed technique, will make your blogging experience go VAVAVA-VROOMM!

Qumana supports most blogging platforms including Blogger, Drupal, LiveJournal, Moveable Type, MSN Space, TypePad, and my personal favorite, WordPress. What makes Qumana different from other blogging apps is its own advertising service called QAds. QAds allows you to slip an ad or two into your post according to your preferred keyword. This small but unique feature might allow you to earn some extra cash while blogging. No need to have “Sponsored Posts”, just click and you are on your way to generating some revenue, provided the company you are blogging for is okay with that.

I have been using Qumana along with my WordPress based blogs for a while now and it has never disappointed me. The menus are straight forward and very user friendly. Qumana is available as freeware (because a piece of the ad revenue supports its development) from Qumana Software, Inc.

How To Get Windows Mobile and Mac OS X On a Date

Indra Masribani — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:00:06 +0000

The Apple iPhone has been released into the wild for quite sometime now, and boy, it has since become a wet dream for every Mac fan boy alive, including me. Unfortunately, almost the rest of the world still can’t get their hands on it.

Until this sexy device makes its way into the Indonesian market (congratulations to those of you who live in US and Europe), or is unlocked, I guess I’ll just have to settle with my Windows Mobile-based PDA phone. Yes, it still maintains the well known reputation of happily-crashing-every-now-and-then.

Now, with the mentioned habit above, I need to be assured that my data is always safe and accessible. Problem is, Windows doesn’t really like to go on a date with my Mac. OS X’s built in synchronization tools, aka iSync, doesn’t really work with a Windows Mobile based PDA phone. So how could one synchronize his/her most important data from the PDA phone to the Mac?

Enter Missing Sync for Windows Mobile by Mark/Space.

The Missing Sync is the long lost connection that bridge both Windows Mobile and Mac. Compared to its Window’s counterpart, ActiveSync, The Missing Sync packs a lot more functions and features. It will synchronize your contacts, bookmarks, calender events, call logs, files, and much much more.

It also has the ability to integrate iTunes with your device so it will synchronize your music as well. Cool? There’s more. The Missing Sync is also able to connect with your device through USB cable, or even Bluetooth. You can install Windows Mobile .cab based software direct to your device and like I said earlier, it has all the main features of ActiveSync, plus a few more. This is definitely a must have for a Mac user with a Windows Mobile based phone, like me.

Installation is a breeze. Synchronizing for the first time was Plug and Play, and soon enough, my contacts, photos, files, SMS, calenders, and more were all synchronized. Too easy! Now I can easily edit my contacts with Address Book and load it back to the phone. The Missing Sync will also remind you if you haven’t been synchronizing your device in a while.

Overall, The Missing Sync is very user friendly, despite the fact that it packs such a punch. There are so many features and functions that it makes other synchronization software look a bit half-developed. With a price tag of $39.95, I consider it as a worthwhile investment. Pick it up here.

And so, in the end, Mac OS X succeeded in taking out Windows Mobile on a date, and they live happily ever after. The End. (Oh the irony -Ed)