Piezo
Company: Rogue Amoeba
Price: $9.99 US
Version: 1.1.1
Requires: Mac OSX 10.6.0 or higher
Mac App Store link
NuTouch Gloves
Company: Newer Technology
Price: $19.99
I live in the Northeast region of the United States, where every winter, cold is a way of life. Using your iPhone or other smartphone outside is not a pleasant experience: either you’re unable to manipulate the screen with a gloved hand, or you need to remove your gloves to use the phone. Neither option is a good choice.
Enter NuTouch Gloves by Newer Technology, the perfect marriage of convenience and warmth.
Continue reading »
Tether Stemware Saver
Company: Quirky
Price $14.99/4 pack
Maybe this has happened to you: you have a glass of wine for dinner. After dinner you load and run the dishwasher, which includes the above-mentioned wine glass. When you open the dishwasher at the end of the cycle, you find the wine glass has tipped over, or worse, broke when hitting another glass. If this scenario looks familiar, the Tether Stemware Saver (Tether) may be what you need.
Continue reading »
Take Control of Your iPad
Author: Tonya Engst
Publisher: TidBITS Publishing, Inc.
Price: $15.00
170 pages, ebook-PDF format
ISBN: 9781615423989
Did you get a new iPad for the holidays? Congratulations! Still learning how to use this wonderful device? Make it easy on yourself and pick up a copy of Take Control of Your iPad (TCYi) by Tonya Engst.
I have a number of Take Control ebooks, and they all have one thing in common: the writers focus on one topic and they do it very well. In TCYi, Engst concisely, yet thoroughly (as well as humorously), explains the ins and outs of using an iPad running iOS5.
Continue reading »
video2brain-Video Learning
Company: video2brain
Price: Various, most between $19.95-$49.95
My Courses:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 10: Learn By Video $49.99
Duration: 5 hours 20 minutes
Getting Started with Photoshop Elements 10 $34.99
Duration: 4 hours 30 minutes
I’m a visual learner. Tell me what to do, and sometimes I get it. Show me what to do and I understand much better. What’s the best way to show someone how to do something? Make a video, of course!
video2brain (v2b) has taken the concept of showing how to master a particular skill and has run with it. Formed in 2002, v2b has courses in English, German, French, and Spanish, with over 515 hours in English-language titles.
Continue reading »
Clean your device from smudges and dirt.
Safe for flat-panel monitors, iDevices and televisions.
Includes spray foam and 2 cleaning cloths.
NuScribe 2-in-1 Touch Screen Stylus and Pen
Company: Newer Technology
Price: MSRP $19.99, available at Other World Computing for $10.00
I hear you out there. You’re thinking, “Another stylus review. Whoopee.” But not every stylus is the same; some work better than others. Where does the NuScribe 2-in-1 Touch Screen Stylus and Pen fit in? Let’s take a look.
Continue reading »
Adobe Photoshop Elements 10
Company: Adobe
Requires: multicore Intel processor, Mac OSX 10.5.8 or higher, QuickTime 7
Price: $99.99, upgrade $79.99
In part 1 of this review I focused on the Adobe Elements 10 Organizer. Now we’ll talk about the Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 Editor.
New to PSE10 is the ability to paint effects onto specific photo areas. Use the Smart Brush in the toolbox to create new ways to work with and visualize your photos. The first photo below is the original I took of a cruise ship. In the second photo I applied a Pencil Sketch to highlight the ship and give the photo a little interest. Since the sky was a bit overcast the day the photo was taken, I brightened it up in the third photo. Finally, just for fun, I gave the entire photo a fluorescent glow.
Continue reading »
Offers three AC outlets.
Dual port USB charger to charge multiple devices.
Ultra compact design for maximum portability.
Built-in surge protection and indicator LED.
Hidden swivel plug.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 10
Company: Adobe
Requires: multicore Intel processor, Mac OSX 10.5.8 or higher, QuickTime 7
Price: $99.99, upgrade $79.99
When Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 was released a number of years ago, I decided to buy it, even though I had no graphics experience whatsoever. I even bought a book to teach me how to use it. Sadly, I used PSE6 mainly to create coupons for my husband’s business, slightly edit screen shots I take for MyMac.com articles, and superimpose faces on other people’s bodies (Don’t ask. It’s silly.) So when the opportunity arose for me to review Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, I jumped at the chance to really sit down and learn about some of the fun and powerful techniques I could use with this software.
Keep in mind that this review is coming from a novice’s perspective. Even though I have used PSE6 in the past, my experience is so limited that I’m still considered a newbie. For a more in-depth review of PSE10 from a user who has an extensive Photoshop background, check out MyMac.com writer Donny Yankellow’s article.
Continue reading »
Turbo.264 HD
Company: Elgato
Version: 1.2
Requires: 512 MB of RAM, Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, QuickTime 7.6 or later
Price: $49.99
Mac App Store link
Turbo.264 HD Software Edition is a simple application that can convert almost any type of video on your Mac to a high quality H.264 file in standard or HD format. The resulting video can be played on iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Sony PSP, or sent to YouTube.
Continue reading »
Jetsetter
Company: Gilt Travel, Inc
Version: 1.1.1 for iPad
Requires: iOS 3.2 or later
Price: Free
Version 2.0 for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
Requires: iOS 4.0 or later
Price: Free
Do you like to travel? Do you find it difficult to navigate through web sites, looking for honest and unbiased reviews of hotels and destinations? Do you want to travel somewhere interesting, somewhere that you may not have thought of? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you might want to take a look at Jetsetter.
Jetsetter is a travel app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch that’s more than just a simple app that shows vacation spots. Jetsetter uses photos, reviews, insider tips, and intuitive site navigation to make searching for a new adventure, well, an adventure! I used the iPad version of Jetsetter for this review.
Continue reading »
Using Preview to take a screen shot, annotating screen shots.
Desktopr
Version 1.0.1
Company: Sandwichlab
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Price: $3.99
Mac App Store link
Desktopr is a small app that sets your Mac’s desktop image, or wallpaper, to whatever you want: photo, movie, even a web site like Facebook or Twitter. The app lives in the menu bar, and is easily customized.
Wallpapers are set through the Preference pane of Desktopr. Under the “Add” tab are some pre-chosen web sites covering news, social, lifestyle, and toys that can be added as wallpapers. The custom section is where users add their own web sites or files from their Macs. Use the “Settings” tab to enable or disable Java and JavaScript or Flash, change transparency and Quartz frame rate, and tweak a few other options.
Continue reading »
Orbit Wireless Mobile Trackball
Company: Kensington
Price: $59.99 or lower online
Requires: Mac OSX 10.5.6 or higher
I’ve owned and used a laptop computer since late 2001. In that time I’ve always used the trackpad; I was happy with it. Recently I decided that I needed a little more control than I was getting with the trackpad, so I bought a wireless mouse. I love it, though I primarily use it when editing video. When the opportunity arose for me to review a wireless trackball, I jumped at the chance.
Continue reading »
Take Control of Upgrading to Lion, version 1.1
Author: Joe Kissell
Publisher: TidBITS Publishing, Inc.
Price: $15.00
150 pages, ebook-PDF format
ISBN: 978-1-61542-138-1
On July 20, 2011, Apple released the much-anticipated OS X 10.7 Lion. As with all previous OS upgrades, it’s important to get your Mac ready for a new operating system. And also, as with previous upgrades, TidBITS Publishing is there to help, with Joe Kissell’s new ebook, Take Control of Upgrading to Lion (TCUL).
This book is NOT about how to use Lion; Kissell refers the reader to another Take Control book on that subject. Rather, TCUL is a primer on preparing for Lion’s installation.
Continue reading »
Comments. Be heard!
Book Review
Book Review
MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384