PhotoPresenter 4
App Developer: Boinx Software Ltd
Version Reviewed: 4.1.6
License: US$9.99 – Requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later
If you like showing off your photo collection to family and friends but want something more entertaining than the traditional slideshow then PhotoPresenter may be for you.
PhotoPresenter takes the idea of a slideshow collation of photographs and changes the way it is conceived, developed, and presented.
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BlueAnt Embrace Stereo Headphones
Company: BlueAnt
Price: $199.99 MSRP
There are headphones and then there are just headphones. BlueAnt has set out to show how headphones should be done, and as far as I’m concerned, they have really succeeded with the Embrace Stereo headphones. Designed specifically for the iPod, iPhone and iPad, the Embrace Stereo headphones also do a fantastic job when plugged into your Mac or PC.
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.
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Scott and Tim continue their conversation, this time talking about who will rise out of the jungle of iPad would-be competitors. John Nemo plugs his iOS gadgets into your TV with the Macally HDMI Audio/Video Adapter for iPod, iPhone, and iPad. And Peter sends his regards while neither eating donuts nor gravel.
Dexim Visible Green Charger
Company: Dexim
Price: $34.90 USD
Charging cables are the most heavily used pieces of equipment that users of iOS devices take completely for granted. How exciting can chargers be, right? Dexim may change that perception with their new Visible Green Charging Cable — a system that is not only cool to use, but is also environmentally friendly.
The Dexim Visible Green Charger is designed to eliminate the “vampire” power draw that accounts for close to 10% of the energy consumption in the U.S. This is electricity that is being drawn from the grid by devices that are simply plugged in but are not being used. Maybe it’s a game console that’s turned off or a battery charging cable that’s simply plugged into a fully-charged device. Either way, there is a needless usage of electricity that not only adds to your monthly electrical bill, but also harms the environment with the extra power that’s forced to be generated.
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Guy and Gaz FINALLY end all the iHub stuff with feedback from many of our winners AND we record live some of their entries! Saudi Arabians know Red Dwarf quite well it seems and do you want to know what the original Mac ALMOST looked like? Google + gets compared to other currently more popular social media sites and is the iPod on life support? OH, and apparently Apple made a lot of money last quarter YAWN!
App Picks:
Videator from the Stone Design Group $9.99
Backdrop from John Haney Software
Contact info: Drop us a line and let us know you want to be on the show. Gaz and Guy on Twitter, guy@mymac.com and gaz@mymac.com, or our Skype direct number 703-436-9501. Also go into iTunes and leave some feedback.
Toddy Smart Cloth
Company: Toddy Gear
Price: $9.99 USD (2 or more for free shipping, 3 or more for $5 off)
Apple’s iOS products look sleek and just beg to be handled. Of course we as Apple fans do this, and as anyone who’s ever been to an Apple Store can attest, these products get dirty faster than Steve Balmer breaks into a sweat. As a biology teacher, I always cringe when I pick up an oily, fingerprint-laden handheld product because I know what sorts of microbes live on these devices for up to a month. Todd Gabel thought similarly when he came up with the Toddy Cloth, an antimicrobial screen cleaning cloth for any handheld device or laptop screen.
If you are a person who reads the news, speculation, and rumors about any Apple product you know that iOS 5 rumors and speculation is in full swing. One of these rumors I saw (and I don’t remember where) was that Spaces is coming to iOS 5. When I first heard this I thought this was a stupid idea. However, now that I have thought about it I think I have figured out a way it might work.
Spaces on the Mac allows you to have additional desktop “spaces” with certain applications. You could have a space for productivity applications, a space for internet/email, etc. When you run a certain application it will only be visible in its assigned space.
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iPad sales are phenomenal so it should come as no surprise that everywhere you look there’s another iPad accessory. Apple reported that in the quarter that ended on Christmas Day 2010, it sold 7.3 million iPads. That’s just one quarter. Sales of that magnitude have spawned a fertile and highly competitive accessories industry. I recently dipped one toe into the accessories pond and found that quality and usefulness ran the gamut from good to downright chintzy. Here are a few examples of both:
Concerti
Company: Moshi
Price: $55
The Moshi Concerti is one of the nicest of the accessories. It’s a stylish iPad case that is made from a hybrid silicone/microfiber fabric, but it looks and feels like suede. I handed it to my wife as she was about to leave on a two week trip. She found it functional in most respects but with limitations.
The Concerti opens like a book. The right side has a rubber frame that accommodates the iPad with a snug and secure fit. The frame holding the iPad has openings for all cable interfaces and buttons. When open, the left side of the case has two ridges that allow the user to easily prop up the iPad in its horizontal position. The ridges are stiff enough to make the iPad feel secure if it’s sitting on a desk or the seatback table on an airplane, but it’s far less stable if it’s sitting on your lap.
PowerBlock Plus
Company: Griffin Technologies
Price: $34.95
Wall wart chargers are a bane of gadget-lovers existence. It always seems that when you’ve plugged in your gadget’s particular charger, you just used up the last free wall socket. Even more frustrating is when the charger is bulky enough to cover up one or possibly two sockets on your power strip!
Griffin Technologies’ PowerBlock Plus is one answer to this problem.
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Mogul DJ Ear Pollution Headphones
iFrogz
$40 to $70 online
Guest review by Devon Gilbert
The first things you notice about the new Mogul Earpollution DJ Style headphones from iFrogz are the sleek, stylish design and color scheme. These headphones are clearly meant not only to deliver great sound quality, but also to turn heads of people around you. They are portable and fold in half for easy storage.
If you are annoyed with how some headphones have twenty foot cables, you will appreciate the Mogul’s 5-footer. The large, flat, padded style of the headphones fully covers your ear and slightly conforms to the shape of your ear to deliver better sound quality and comfort. One downside to the design is that on higher volume levels, anyone within 20 or 30 feet can hear your music. Although this doesn’t matter if you are out at a loud club as a DJ, many consumers want to keep their music to themselves.
iB969 Charging Station
Company: iHome
Price: $49.99 USD
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve found that I have my electronics scattered about in my house. My iPad was being charged overnight in the den, my iPhone was being charged in my bedroom and my iPod was relegated to another room. Another part of the problem was that the outlets in the each of the rooms already had other items plugged into them, like computers, lights, etc. The iB969 Charging Station has changed all of that for me.
Five-Star Apps
by Glenn Fleishman
Peachpit Press
204 pages
$19.99 US $23.99 CAN
You are now the proud owner of an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad. First order of business is to fill it with apps: reading, music, games, video. How do you know which apps are a hit, and which apps are better left alone?
Combing through the iTunes App Store can be quite an intimidating experience. Luckily for us, author Glenn Fleishman did the leg work of sorting and testing thousands of apps, choosing what he feels are the almost 200 “must-have” apps published in his latest book, Five-Star Apps.
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I love technology. I may not be an early adopter, but eventually I get all the latest and greatest: Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Flip Mino…well, you get the idea. Does this make me a material girl?
Yes. And no.
I have a lot of email accounts. Probably more than I should. One is personal, one for MyMac, one for work, one for junk, etc. I use Apple Mail for my personal email and Postbox (based on Thunderbird) for the other accounts that are gmail based, and Entourage for work. However, I find myself using Postbox and Entourage less and less for checking email and defaulting to my iPod Touch or iPad.
I don’t mind Apple Mail, but if there is email in the account when I check the others I just use the Touch or iPad too. Why? Because checking email on those device is SOOOOO much faster! I don’t have to wait for the program to open and download the mail. I wake up the device, look at the Mail icon, and I know if there is mail waiting for me. I open the Mail app and I instantly get access to the email in those accounts. In fact, I just used my iPod to read email and I am sitting at my iMac right now. It is just so much faster and easier.
Even writing emails on the iPod or iPad is easier and faster. I don’t mind the touch keyboard (I rarely type a long email), and I can probably type several emails in the time it takes to open Postbox and have a blank email template pop up.
Unless I need to do something the iOS device can’t and I need a desktop client, I check my email there.
I just wish there would be other mail clients for my iPod and iPad. I have tried a couple, but don’t like them. I am not a fan of the single inbox, and would like to have a separate place for my personal email to avoid sending mail from the wrong address. That would be my only complaint.
What about you. Has the iPod or iPad changed the way you do email? Leave a comment below.
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Learn by Video
Presented by Kelly McCathran, Scott Citron, and Ted LoCascio
Produced by video2brain
Peachpit Press
ISBN: 9780321719805
$59.99 US, $71.99 CN
Like many Photoshop users I upgrade to the current version when the need for the newest features becomes too tempting to ignore. The latest version of Adobe Photoshop is CS5. A bevy of extraordinary new improvements such as Content-Aware Fill, Camera Raw 6, Brushes, Puppet Warp, Refine Edge Dialog, amongst others, make this application a creative and more efficient way to process workflow.
iSkin Cases – The Touch Duo and The Vibe
Company: iSkin
Price: $34.99 USD Touch Duo, $29.99 USD Vibe
Website Links – Vibe – Touch Duo
If you are like me and can’t afford the latest iPod Touch, or there is nothing wrong with your 2nd/3rd generation iPod Touch, you can help make that iPod last longer with a great case from iSkin. Today we’ll be looking at the iSkin Vibe and the Touch Duo cases.
These cases offer remarkable everyday protection for your iPod Touch, a level of protection you usually don’t find in other products.
The iSkin Vibe:
By guest reviewer Devon Gilbert and John “Nemo” Nemerovski
Devon and Nemo spent hours listening, evaluating, and comparing these three innovative, affordable headphones with microphones, or headsets, if you prefer the term. We will first describe them one at a time before we rate or rank them.
Crossfade LP
Company: v-moda
Price: $200
Web site
Coby Vitruvian Speaker System
Company: Coby
Price: $59.99 US
Product Page
Most people listen to music on their iPods with earbuds or headphones. But sometimes it’s nice to dock the iPod into a set of speakers. Could the Coby Vitruvian Speaker System be your next purchase?
The Coby Vitruvian is made for iPod and iPhone, as well as other MP3 players. It’s compatible with iPods that go back as far as the 3rd generation, so it’s a safe bet that your iPod will work with the Vitruvian. I tested my iPhone 3GS, first generation iPod Touch, and 60GB iPod Video (now known as iPod Classic).
Soulra Solar Powered iPod Speaker
Company: Eton
Price: $180 to $200 online
Superpipe Battery Powered iPod Speaker
Company: Skullcandy
Price: $70 to $100 online
Eton’s Soulra is the most innovative portable iPod speaker/dock and audio player we have evaluated at MyMac. Charge its Li-Ion battery with the included AC power unit and play Soulra anywhere and everywhere for four hours. Flip open the built-in solar panel charger and continue trickle charging while enjoying your music. When inclement weather dampens your picnic, or when you are at the beach, fold closed the hinged solar panel and listen to the weatherproof sealed unit.
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