This week we look at G-Drive, doubleTwist, ArtenScience Software, Things, Tags, Freeware plus much more. 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.
You can email me at surfbits at Gmail dot Com. I love to hear from you.
Receive 25% off of all Devon-Technologies software by going to http://www.devon-technologies.com/podcasts
Here is the freeware and shareware I look at during the podcast:
OmniWeb, OmniDazzle, OmniDiskSweeper, and OmniObjectMeter: The OmniGroup
David Sparks from MacSparky joins us this week and reviews:
G-Drive: http://www.g-technology.com
Chris Marshall from ChrisMarshall.ws joins us this week.
Text to Speech to MP3: http://www.manythings.org/mac
Tags: http://gravityapps.com/tags/overview
Things: http://culturedcode.com/things
Jeff Powell joins us and talks about:
HTTP Scoop 1.4: http://www.tuffcode.com
R-Name: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12259
Zen Bound: iTunes App Store
Tweetube: http://www.tweetube.com
Cory Doctorow: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Gazmaz Joins us again this week to review:
ArtenScience Software: http://www.artenscience.co.uk
Robert Lachman, L.A.Times Staff Photographer joins us. His Web site is PhotographyandtheMac.com, and he talks about:
doubleTwist: http://www.doubletwist.com
The star of Episode 200 is Lola Wong. Besides doing episode number 7 of the MacReviewCast lounge where I join her this week, Lola does a special MRC episode 200 series of Mixes with the help of several other editors. Thank you Lola for all the work, I’m sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.
eyetv hybrid from Elgato: http://www.elgato.com
Fujitsu snapscan s300m: http://www.fujitsu.com
NeatReceipts for Mac: http://www.neatco.com
DROBO from data robotics: http://www.drobo.com/
Not-so-Fav: Newertech ministack v1 (updated versions can be found here: http://www.newertech.com/products/externalhd.php)
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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 techpodcasts.com |
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Continue reading about The MacReviewCast #200: Join us for this Special Episode
Blogo’s interface almost tricks you into thinking you are logged into a web 2.0 site. It has big friendly buttons and very much feels like a browser. It includes several, easy to use, tools. For instance, inserting a picture into a blog entry is as simple as dragging the file in, picking alignment and setting your size. The application takes care of the rest. You no longer need to resize your pictures before uploading. Placing the pictures, however, requires a paragraph break. At first this seemed odd but after using it awhile, made sense. My only real complaint with image management is that it does not show you a thumbnail in the editing menu. It simply puts a placeholder for your imported images. You have to open the preview window to see your pictures with your text.
Blogo also does a nice job of formatting text with easy to recognize buttons for typical markup. However, it does not have a “headings” button which is puzzling. I use headings often and using Blogo, I’ve got to dig into the html to pull that off. Speaking of html I am no expert expert but comparing the html code generated by Blogo, it appears a bit more verbose than that generated by MarsEdit but it gave me no trouble posting to the website.
The Omni Group has released four of their software applications as freeware: OmniWeb, OmniDazzle, OmniDiskSweeper, and OmniObjectMeter. All versions are fully functional with no licensing restrictions, and are available at no cost from The Omni Group’s website at http://www.omnigroup.com.
“As a small company with limited resources, we have had to make some difficult decisions about where to focus our attention as our business continues to grow,” said Ken Case, CEO of the Omni Group. “By making these applications — which are not currently under active development — available as free downloads, we hope that more people are able to enjoy using them without the barrier of cost.”
Continue reading about The Omni Group Releases Four Applications as Freeware
Simplify is a plug-in for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements which basically removes small stuff from your photographs. Sounds confusing. I mean it specializes in removing really small details, although this software lets you adjust how small. I guess you’re not sold on it yet. Especially when you buy expensive cameras to give you more pixels, more information and more details. This software almost sounds counterproductive, but this isn’t the case.
The main effects produced by this software is converting your photos into color or black-and-white line-drawings or making your photographs look like paintings. I know, Photoshop and Elements have these features, but the Topaz Simplify plug-in makes it so simple with very fine controls.
This week we look at Blogo, TopazSimplify, ShoveBox, Posterous, Freeware plus much more. 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.
You can email me at surfbits at Gmail dot Com. I love to hear from you.
Receive 25% off of all Devon-Technologies software by going to http://www.devon-technologies.com/podcasts
Here is the freeware and shareware I look at during the podcast:
Elgato Hybrid TV Tuner: http://www.elgato.com
ScreenToaster: http://www.screentoaster.com
Shrook: http://www.utsire.com/shrook
NewsFire: http://www.newsfirex.com
Mathusalem: http://code.google.com/p/mathusalem
Trailrunner: http://trailrunnerx.com
Easy iWeb Publisher: http://www.plyxim.com/free
iCompta: http://angeman7.free.fr
Tom Piraino from MacinTomBlog.com looks at:
SendPhotos: http://www.sendphotos.com
Posterous: www.posterous.com
Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast looks at:
ShoveBox: http://www.wonderwarp.com/shovebox
David Sparks from MacSparky joins us this week and reviews:
Blogo: http://www.drinkbrainjuice.com/blogo
Robert Lachman, L.A.Times Staff Photographer joins us. His Web site is PhotographyandtheMac.com, and he talks about:
Topaz Simplify: http://www.topazlabs.com
The talented Lola Wong brings us the MacReviewCast Lounge, this week she talks about David Sparks Favorite Things:
iPhone: http://store.apple.com/us/product/TU866LL/A
LED Football for iPhone: http://ledfootball.com/
Omnifocus for iPhone: http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/iphone
Richard Solo Products for iPhone : http://richardsolo.com/iphone_and_ipod.html
Griffin Clarifi http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/clarifi
Not-so-Fav: No bluetooth support for iPhone
Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard (no longer available from original Manufacturer but different models still around): http://www.amazon.com/Stowaway-Ultra-Slim-Bluetooth-Blackberry-Handhelds/dp/B0002OKCXE
David Sparks’ podcast and website: http://www.macsparky.com
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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techpodcasts.com |
Technorati Tags:
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Continue reading about The MacReviewCast #199: Blogo, Topaz Simplify, Posterous, Shovebox
I’ve had TV Tuners for my Mac for several years now. They were older tuners from Miglia and Elgato that were for my analog cable channels. They were handy to have on my Mac when I wanted to watch sports or news while I slaved away on my Mac, but I never used the recording [...]
Spotify is a Music streaming service from a Developer in Sweden with the headquarters based in Luxembourg that allows you to stream music from the web. Now I know that they are striking up deals with Indie companies in the US and I’m sure they’ll get the bigger boys on soon, so hopefully they’ll be appearing over the pond in the US soon.
There are three basic models that you can subscribe to. First, a free option which currently I think is only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain, and some of those countries you will need an invite, so you’ll need to take a look locally to see if that’s the case.
Well let’s find out what the heck ShoveBox is and what it can do for us. They describe it like this: “ShoveBox catches all those little scraps of information that you can’t act on now but would rather not forget. It sits up in your menubar, waiting for you to drag in text, images, URLs, and more. It also provides a sensible interface to sort everything you shoved. It’s all about spending less time processing and more time actually working on things that matter.”
This week we look at DragThing, Spotify, Miro, Freeware plus much more. 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.
You can email me at surfbits at Gmail dot Com. I love to hear from you.
Receive 25% off of all Devon-Technologies software by going to http://www.devon-technologies.com/podcasts
Here is the freeware and shareware I look at during the podcast:
MobileMe Shared Files: http://www.apple.com/mobileme/news/2009/02/sharing-large-files-with-idisk.html
Foxmarks: http://download.foxmarks.com
Miro 2: http://www.getmiro.com
iClip Lyrics: http://www.icliplyrics.altervista.org/en
TagIt: http://www.ironicsoftware.com/tagit
Shape Collage: http://www.vincentcheung.ca/shapecollage
The talented Lola Wong is back with us for another episode of the MacReviewCast Lounge. This week she talks to Allison Sheridan about her favorite and not so favorite gadgets.
Cradlepoint PHS300 Personal WiFi Hotspot
Not-so-Fav: Elgato Turbo264
Allison Sheridan’s podcast and website: the Nosillacast at http://podfeet.com
Make your own Honda Bob Ad:
Gazmaz Joins us again this week to review:
Spotify: http://www.spotify.com/en
Bastian Woelfle from Boinx Software joins us to review:
DragThing: http://www.dragthing.com
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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techpodcasts.com |
Technorati Tags:
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Continue reading about The MacReviewCast #198: DragThing, Spotify, Gadgets and More
To be honest, the application I am going to talk about had already been reviewed a long time ago, but I felt that it was worth it to bring it back to your thoughts once again. It’s about the fine application DragThing.
DragThing has been around since 1995, so it was first used under System 7. Back in the days, it used to do what the dock does today, so some of you might ask “Why would I want to use DragThing today?”
But luckily that is easy to answer. Just like back in the day, it once again does more than the stuff Apple provides us in OSX.
The app that I’m going to get into this week is called Disco. For those of you that don’t know what this is, don’t expect flashing lights and rotating hips. Disco is a CD / DVD burning application. Upon start up you might think that Disco has a very simple interface and indeed on the surface this application looks very clean, but Disco has some very cleaner brains under the bonnet.
So why would you want a CD / DVD burner with hard drives getting larger and cheaper, well to be honest a lot of people still want to backup important files on portable media? I certainly need to burn CD’s as I have plenty of family and friends that are not quite as tech savvy as some of us, and I certainly send the grandparents photo’s on CD/DVD to watch on their TV.
As any self respecting Mac geek, I’ve put together a toolbox of sorts to deal with the various problems I come across. One tool I’ve come to rely upon is Drive Genius 2 from ProSoft Engineering.
Drive Genius 2 is a jack-of-all-trades for Mac hard drive maintenance. It includes modules for troubleshooting, repairing, defragmenting, partitioning, shredding, and even editing sectors. The geek meter goes all the way to 11 on this one. I’ve been putting this application through its paces for awhile now I’ve had no difficulties getting my drives in top shape.
Continue reading about Drive Genius 2: Mac Hard Drive Toolbox
This week we look at Disco, Drive Genius 2, Things, Freeware plus much more. 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.
You can email me at surfbits at Gmail dot Com. I love to hear from you.
Receive 25% off of all Devon-Technologies software by going to http://www.devon-technologies.com/podcasts
Here is the freeware and shareware I look at during the podcast:
Stellarium: http://stellarium.sourceforge.net
Celtx: http://www.celtx.com
PyeTV: http://code.google.com/p/pyetv
ETVComSkip: http://code.google.com/p/etv-comskip
Comskip: http://www.kaashoek.com/comski
Google Code: http://code.google.com
David Sparks from MacSparky joins us this week and reviews:
Drive Genius 2: http://www.prosofteng.com
Jeff Powell joins us and talks about:
Things for Mac and iPhone/Touch
Things Detailed Review
TUAW’s Things Contest
LED Football 2 for iPhone/Touch
Bejeweled 2
The talented Lola Wong has episode 4 of the MacReviewCast Lounge, here are the links that her and Chris Marshall talk about:
Chris’ fav – Linksys wireless G PTZ Model No. WVC200
Not-so-Fav: Belkin WiFi Skype phone
Webcam shots and life in southern Spain: http://almerimarlife.com/
Gazmaz Joins us again this week to review:
Disco: http://www.discoapp.com
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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techpodcasts.com |
Technorati Tags:
software, review, mac, apple, iTunes, Mac mini, podcast, Macreviewcast, podcasting, maccompanion, OSX, iPhoto, Exposure 2
Continue reading about The MacReviewcast #197: Disco, Drive Genius 2, Things and More
Pulsar, a new Application from Rogue Amoeba, is a listening client to link to two websites, those being XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. If you don’t know what XM and Sirius Radio is, the best description is Radio without the Ads. How is this possible? Well they are both subscription sites, XM costs $8 a month Sirius costs $13 a month. This gives you roughly 60 to 80 channels with some great content and no Ads.
Now in the UK we already have pretty good Radio, especially the BBC with little in the way of advertising. I say little because of course they do advertise their own programs. But I must admit, I have listened to commercial Radio over here, which is popular, but it drives me crazy!
And what if I can’t find what I’m after via the BBC?
So what on earth did I find? Well there are 4 free iCal Utilities. I mentioned at the start about using iCal, if you didn’t quite know what you were doing when you first switched, or were a little over enthusiastic with your entries, you may find that you have duplicates or blank events. Well I downloaded iCal Cleaner, iCal Archiver and iCal Backup Script.
