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The difference between a new computer user and a power user is all in the keyboard. With the many menu commands in Mac OS X, if you really want to save time on your computer, you have to use keyboard shortcuts. Though it can be hard to memorize all the keyboard shortcuts in all your applications at once. Keycue, from Ergonis Software, presents a viable solution to this problem by allowing you to learn new shortcuts as you work.

A couple weeks ago I reviewed Photonic, a new application that allows you to interact with Flickr from your desktop. Thanks to the awesome guys over at Barton Springs Software for giving us 10 licenses of Photonic to give away.

Without further ado, the winners of Photonic are: Henry Yue, kenneth, E.T. Cook, Jens Poder, rmaspero, Maarten, Ryan Sandberg, Joebaynham, Oyvind, Reggie

Congratulations to all of you! You will be receiving an email with your licenses shortly.

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and be sure to stay tuned to the MacApper RSS feed for more giveaways like this.

I’m a believer in desktop applications that enhance the online experience. I don’t think that doing everything online in a browser window is the answer to everyone’s computing problems. Instead, having a powerful desktop application that integrates seamlessly with an online service, produces the ideal experience for the user. Photonic brings the photo-sharing site, Flickr, to the desktop, in a beautiful and functional interface that makes interacting with Flickr all the better.

A couple weeks ago, I reviewed ScreenFlow, a brand new application that makes creating screencasts simple and easy. Thanks to the awesome guys over at Vara Software for giving us a licenses of ScreenFlow to give away.
We had an overwhelming response and we want to thank everyone that participated in the giveaway. I wanted to note that many of the features requested for future versions of ScreenFlow are already in the initial release. ScreenFlow already has iChat integration, as well as the ability to record both your video and screen at the same time.

A couple weeks ago, I reviewed Opacity, a brand new application that helps create graphics and icons for the screen. Thanks to the awesome guys over at Like Thought for giving us 2 licenses of Opacity to give away.

We had an overwhelming response and we want to thank everyone that participated in the giveaway. The winners of the 2 licenses are Alan B. and Gwen. Congratulations! You will be receiving an email with instructions shortly.

Be sure to download the trial version of Opacity and purchase a license if you find it useful. Stay tuned to the MacApper RSS Feed for more giveaways or subscribe to the MacApper Podcast to see more video reviews.

Last week, I reviewed Pomoto, which is a service for uploading and sharing your photos right from your Mac. Thanks to the awesome guys over at Pomoto for giving us 3 one-year subscriptions to give away.

Also, a big thanks to all who participated in the giveaway. The winners of the four licenses are: Jason, Rusty, and Gwen. Congratulations! You guys will be receiving an email with instructions shortly.

Be sure to download the trial version of Pomoto, and pay for it if you find it useful. Stay tuned to the MacApper RSS Feed for more giveaways, or subscribe to the MacApper Podcast to see more video reviews.

It’s not often that you find an app that totally changes the way you do a task. As a video blogger for MacApper, I use screen recording software all the time, and never has it been easy to create a beautiful and professional screencast.

Not until ScreenFlow. ScreenFlow from Vara Software takes screencasting software to the next level. With a beautiful and simple interface, ScreenFlow uses all of Leopard’s Core Animation features to the max, providing an environment for you to capture, edit, and output your screencasts with ease.

If you are a graphic or icon designer, and are looking for an app that is easy to use, beautiful, and very powerful, Opacity is the perfect app for you. Having just come out on February 13th, this brand new application takes advantage of Leopard Core Animation to create a powerful and beautiful environment for making icons, buttons, and graphics.

iPhoto is a great way to organize, edit, and output your photos. However, when it comes to sharing your photos over the Internet, you need to have a .Mac account. Pomoto is a great replacement for .Mac Web Gallery, going by the slogan, “Your iPhotos Online”. Using a simple UI, Pomoto seamlessly integrates with your iPhoto Events, Albums, and Smart Albums, and has a beautiful interface that allows you to create simple, beautiful online web galleries in no time at all.

Last week, I reviewed ArtRage 2, which is an amazing tool for painting and drawing right from your Mac. With it’s incredibly simple and straight-forward interface, ArtRage allows anyone to paint, sketch, draw, or doodle in an amazingly realistic way. While Ambient Design, the makers ArtRage have a free version, the $25 full-version adds more advanced features like tracing, stencils, more tools, and layers.

First a big thanks to the nice guys over at Ambient Design for giving us 4 licenses of ArtRage to give away. We had a really huge response to this one so also thanks to all who participated.

Last week I took a look at PopChar in a video review and giveaway here on MacApper. PopChar, by Ergonis allows you easy access to special characters (think ASCII and other Unicode characters like ©), and really is handy for anyone who works in text on a regular basis. As pointed out in the review we have 3 licenses to give away thanks to the generous folks at Ergonis.

We got a nice response from you all so first of all thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway. Unfortunately I can only pick 3 winners, so without any more ballyhoo, the winners of the licenses of PopChar are…

Sometimes digital devices can get in the way of your creative ability. When you want to paint or draw on your computer, often it is tedious and cumbersome, and the results are mediocre at best.

It is just too hard to find an application that accurately makes digital painting as easy as painting in real life. That is, until I found ArtRage.

Have you ever been writing something on your Mac, and found that you needed to use a special character? Whether it be a foreign currency symbol, obscure accents, or even another language, PopChar is here to help. PopChar is a little application that sits in the background on your Mac. When you need to insert a special character, all you need to do is click the little “P” in your menubar, and PopChar will appear. It offers every single character that you will ever need - both ASCII and Unicode.

Today is the one day in every Apple fanatic’s calendar year that anything can happen. Steve Jobs himself, will be kicking off the Macworld keynote in San Francisco today. Last year, he unveiled the iPhone and this year, the rumors are high for an Apple ultra-portable (Macook Air?), an AppleTV update, or even a Mac based tablet. The keynote kicks off at 9AM PST / 12PM EST with Steve Jobs taking the stage in the Moscone Center. If you aren’t fortunate enough to see the iCEO in the flesh, there are many sites covering the keynote. Here are some of my favorites.

During the Christmas season, we ran a giveaway for Tangerine! - an application that allows you to create intelligent iTunes playlists. Once again we had a plethora of suggestions on how to improve Tangerine! so thanks to everyone who contributed responses for the giveaway.

The kind folks at PotionFactory have generously given us two licenses of Tangerine! to give away. The two lucky winners of Tangerine! are: Tim Stringer and Cat.

Your licenses will be arriving shortly. Enjoy your software, and be sure to stay tuned to the MacApper RSS feed for any future giveaways.