There is a reason why I waited until last to do the review of Apple’s new spreadsheet program. I’ve never been very good at them. Frequently I find it useful to create little spreadsheets and graphs. My Excel sheets are usually pretty small. I’ve made more complex spreadsheets, but it usually seems more trouble than its worth and, frankly, Excel is not always friendly to casual users.
So Apple now has this new spreadsheet, Numbers that is supposed to be “for t
Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Podcast, hosted at podfeet.com. I’m finally back from vacation, did you miss me? I had a great time in Italy, but the internet access was really weak, so I was forced to go outside and play. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so well on vacation in my life – the gnocchi, ravioli, and gelato were fantastic, and we were actually staying in the Chianti valley in Tuscany so we were forced to sample a bit of that as well. I guess it’s time to get back to work though, and talk about some Mac software!
I recieved some software from a company who has an identity crisis – the company name appears to be MacWare, but their website is at MacXWare.com. they also have trouble figuring out what to name their software, using multiple names for the same thing. The software I chose to review today is called WebGhost, let’s see what it’s all about.
Handbreak is the all-in-one ripping and/or recording solution for the mac, its just been updated to 0.9, which is a major update and it includes a whole host of new features. Some of which include:
- A completely “re-invisioned” mac interface.
- Picture quality has been improved through better image scaling, better deinterlacing, new filters for de-noising and de-blocking, and new presets devoted to high quality settings.
- Speed improvements due to updated copies of the x264 and ffmpeg codecs and This includes improved multi-threadeD encoding for the iPod.
- Compatibility is improved through new presets for devices like the iPhone and PSP. As well, HandBrake now supports DTS as an audio source and has limited support for .VOB and .TS file containers as input. Most excitingly, HandBrake can now output to the MATROSKA (MKV) file container.
- Stability has been improved due to countless bug fixes. (Including audio drop and mp2 issues). Handbrake also has optional support for MP4 files larger than 4 gigabytes
Continue reading about HandBrake: Add It to Your Applications Folder Today!
I was not a fan of Pages 06. I’m sure it was perfectly fine for making brochures and flyers, but unfortunately I never had much need for brochures and pamphlets so there it sat on my hard drive, unused and neglected. That being said, I wasn’t particularly happy with any other of the word processors on my Mac either. I played a bit with Bean and NeoOffice but when it came down to it, I usually ended up in Microsoft Word. Word reminds me of one of those RV’s you see driving down the road. The kind with bicycles tied on the back, a boat bolted to the roof, and spare luggage falling out the window. Like the old RV, Word has every possible feature bolted on and wedged into the various menus. While it has everything you could possibly need (and quite a few you will never need) it drinks system resources and is a real chore to use. Nevertheless, I, like many others, have been using Microsoft Word for more than 15 years and anything else I try will be compared to it.
Welcome to episode 122 of the MacReviewCast, I want to thank you for downloading and listening to the podcast. We have the best in Mac hardware, software and websites reviews. We have a lot of great folks on today’s episode with their reviews and comments on software, hardware and websites that make using the Mac special. Plus I’ll have the top freeware Mac apps of the week and much more.
Here is the freeware and shareware I look at during the podcast:
Mac Surfshop Discounts on Mac Software: http://astore.amazon.com/surfbitslearn-20
The Filter: http://www.thefilter.com/default.aspx
JetPhoto: http://www.jetphotosoft.com/web/home
Transmission: http://transmission.m0k.org
Finder Browser: http://www.tekuris.com/products/finderbrowser
SyncBar: http://semaja2.net/syncbarinfo
YemuZip: http://www.yellowmug.com/yemuzip
Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast joins us this week. Here’s what she looks at:
WebGhost: http://www.macxware.com
David Sparks from MacSparky joins us for his review of:
Pages ’08: http://www.apple.com
Chris Marshall from ChrisMarshall.ws joins us from Spain and discusses
MailSteward Pro: http://www.mailsteward.com/proman/index.html
iPhoto Library manager: http://www.chrismarshall.ws/?p=921
Budget: http://www.chrismarshall.ws/?p=937
Jeff Powell joins us today. Here is what he looks at:
Snapz Pro
Updated
GarageSale eBay
software for the Mac
New Apple Keyboard review
iTunes Tip – Delete a song while in Playlist view : option-delete
We welcome Danny Greg to the podcast this week. Danny reviews:
Handbrake: http://handbrake.m0k.org/
Robert Pritchett from the macCompanion Magazine was not on today:
Try the new ENHANCED version of the MacReviewCast:
And now we have the Podcast in Bit-Torrent Feeds! 
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You can either click on the podcast link on the left and listen to it via QT from the browser, or you can right click on the podcast link and choose to “download linked file”. That will download the mp3 and you can play it from you hard drive with iTunes.
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“MailSteward Pro will automatically select all of your Apple Mail app email accounts to be archived, and create an empty MySQL database named “myemaildb”. So all you have to do is click on the archive button, and MailSteward Pro will begin copying your email into the database.”
Continue reading about MailSteward Pro: Make Apple Mail Fast Again
Presentations and word processing are my bread and butter. That is, I earn my living writing and presenting. I have been writing Power Point presentations for years. I’m actually very good at them and occasionally freelance for my geek challenged colleagues. It is with those years of experience in mind that I was initially skeptical [...]
Welcome to episode 121 of the MacReviewCast, I want to thank you for downloading and listening to the podcast. We have the best in Mac hardware, software and websites reviews. We have a lot of great folks on today’s episode with their reviews and comments on software, hardware and websites that make using the Mac special. Plus I’ll have the top freeware Mac apps of the week and much more.
Here is the freeware and shareware I look at during the podcast:
Mac Surfshop Discounts on Mac Software: http://astore.amazon.com/surfbitslearn-20
FootageHead: http://www.zankasoftware.com/footagehead
WeatherDock: http://www.alwintroost.nl/content/weatherdock/home.xml
ArtRage 2: http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html
Seashore: http://seashore.sourceforge.net
MagiCal: http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/magical
Facebook Exporter for iPhoto: http://developers.facebook.com/iphoto
Ted: http://www.ted.nu
AppFresh: http://metaquark.de/appfresh
MacFreeware Update: http://www.eagle-of-liberty.com/freewareupdate/
KidiFree: http://www.freewarepub.eu/KidiFree.htm
Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast can not join us his week:
David Sparks from MacSparky joins us for his review of:
Apple iWork Keynote: http://www.apple.com/iwork
Chris Marshall from ChrisMarshall.ws joins us from Spain and discusses
TVMax + from Miglia: http://www.miglia.com
Wakoopa Website for Apps: http://www.wakoopa.com
Jeff Powell does not join us today.
Robert Pritchett from the macCompanion Magazine was on an talked about:
Presentation on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/v/0fH0YlPs954
EVO Networks: http://www.evonetworks.com/website_g4/solutions/dce/dce.htm
Try the new ENHANCED version of the MacReviewCast:
And now we have the Podcast in Bit-Torrent Feeds! …
You can either click on the podcast link on the left and listen to it via QT from the browser, or you can right click on the podcast link and choose to “download linked file”. That will download the mp3 and you can play it from you hard drive with iTunes.
The right link below is the URL for the podcast RSS feed. Just right click it and choose to copy the address and then paste it in your podcast reader, or ipodder, or newsreader that will download enclosures automatically.
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By Chris Marshall: I have used the TV Max from Miglia from the day it was released and it is one of my most used and favorite pieces of equipment in my Mac set up. With the relatively recent parting of the ways between Miglia and Elgato it was always going to be interesting to [...]
I was remiss for not letting you know how I was using my Slingbox set-up and what the results were. I tried it on the two other computers in my house, they are on the same gig network as my Slingbox and, as you would expect, the picture quality was top notch. It’s similar to [...]
For about the past two years I’ve been hearing more and more about this new product that will revolutionize how you watch TV, it’s called Slingbox. Since I didn’t have a PC, only Macs, it went on the back burner of my “things to check out” list. But when Sling Media released a Mac version [...]
Continue reading about Sling Media, SlingPlayer, Slingbox, Oh My!
I have a particular affection for fonts. Back in 1987 I first learned the word Fonts when I leaned over a funny looking little beige computer in my college computer lab that said “hello” when you turned it on. Granted that was a long time ago but the truth is the first thing that really impressed me on the Mac was the way that I could change the screen type. I’m sure I abused this newfound freedom turning in several papers with what could have only been called a font explosion. Does anyone else remember the original “San Francisco” font that bordered on anarchy?
When it comes to invoicing software there is a very basic requirement. Firstly, does it add up? Secondly, Does it generate an invoice at the end that corresponds to my calculations? There are lots on invoicing apps out for the mac and I would bet my on mac that they all add up. Over and above that you get what I refer to as the bells and whistles. The extras the little things that make your financial affairs easier to organize.
Continue reading about MacFreelance: Invoice and Billing Software for Creative Professionals
Welcome to episode 120 of the MacReviewCast, I want to thank you for downloading and listening to the podcast. We have the best in Mac hardware, software and websites reviews. We have a lot of great folks on today’s episode with their reviews and comments on software, hardware and websites that make using the Mac special. Plus I’ll have the top freeware Mac apps of the week and much more.
Here is the freeware and shareware I look at during the podcast:
Mac Surfshop Discounts on Mac Software: http://astore.amazon.com/surfbitslearn-20
PamFax: http://www.pamela.com
Cocoa Dev Center: http://cocoadevcentral.com/
The Filter: http://www.thefilter.com
MediaMaster: http://www.mediamaster.com
ThinkingRock: http://www.thinkingrock.com.au/index.php
Free Ruler: http://www.pascal.com/software/freeruler
Resize ‘em All: http://www.eagle-of-liberty.com/resizeemall/index_en.php
Star-Trail: http://www.pawn-soft.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26
DesktopLyrics: http://homepage.mac.com/julianmayer/desktoplyrics/index.html
Monolingual: http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/
Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast can not join us his week:
David Sparks from MacSparky joins us for his review of:
MacWare MacFonts: http://www.macxware.com/CandyPress/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=27
Chris Marshall from ChrisMarshall.ws joins us from Spain and discusses
Adobe Soundbooth CS3: http://www.adobe.com
Jeff Powell joins us today. Here is what he looks at:
Dockables
Pukka
iRemember -
Digital Scrap booking
20% Discount on Knox
Try the new ENHANCED version of the MacReviewCast:
And now we have the Podcast in Bit-Torrent Feeds! …
You can either click on the podcast link on the left and listen to it via QT from the browser, or you can right click on the podcast link and choose to “download linked file”. That will download the mp3 and you can play it from you hard drive with iTunes.
The right link below is the URL for the podcast RSS feed. Just right click it and choose to copy the address and then paste it in your podcast reader, or ipodder, or newsreader that will download enclosures automatically.
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I have not been disappointed by any of the applications that I have used. I shouldn’t be really given the price, professional market target and Adobe’s reputation but I have been impressed with the integration with the Mac after all I heard about not being “Mac Apps”, the tutorials and online documentation and support.
More than anything though it is has been the way that they have a relevance to the novice, while at the same time working at the pro level. At times it has been daunting but overall it has just left me inspired to be more creative and improve the quality of my output.
Soundbooth has been no different from the rest. The two areas that really stand out are the professional workflow through the integration with the rest of Premiere Pro and the detail that can be achieved with the editing, both in terms of speed and accuracy.
At $199 it was a lot ‘cheaper’ than I thought it would be for a pro level application, but I would strongly suggest that if you can you buy it as part of the Premiere Pro suite as the real strength with Adobe is the integration and the total power they give you and your digital management.
