There's also the DIGIC III Image processor, and ISO as high as 1600, but everybody comes for the basics: 3x zoom, 7.1 megapixel CCD and a 2.5-inch LCD in each shooter. The $300 SD750 gets a bit fancy on form factor, but manages to be a mere 0.75-inches thick, while the 4.5 ounce SD1000 keeps the the classic ELPH look and also retails for $300.
List of every song featured in an iPod commercial
Here's Wikipedia's list of every song featured in one of Apple's iPod commercials, including the date, artist and model. So, just in case you forgot to download one, here's your chance.
Apple Store Down - New Products ?
Sunday, 25th February 2007, 9.00am. The Apple Store is down stating they are busy updating the store. What we are all wondering is whether this is general store maintenance, or maybe some quiet system upgrade (perhaps the Mac Mini) that we have been waiting for. We will update you if there are any changes when the store comes back online.
**UPDATE** 10.30am and the Apple Store is still down. Typically previous updates have been completed within the hour, so this could indicate something quite big. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a technical hitch.
**UPDATE 2** 11.00am the store is now back online. I cannot see any major changes. The only things of note is that the 802.11n Airport Extreme Base Station is now down to 3-5 days shipping, plus in the refurb section all the items seem to be refreshed with better description and a lot more choices.
Apple Mail - Resize you images easily
Do you ever get moaned at for sending large image attachments in your emails? Or perhaps you want to save some of your valuable time by sending smaller images. Well, rather than having to resize your images with Photoshop or yet another utility, you can do it right from within Apple Mail. Check out the how to here.
Tons of New Mac hardware - black iMac ?
While the release of Microsoft's Vista earlier this month is said to be seriously challenging Apple on its recent PC market share catch-up, tipsters well placed at Apple informed MacScoop that the company is preparing to make the fight harder for its competitors of the Windows world with several Mac hardware releases scheduled for calendar Q2.
BBC licence payers demand Mac & Linux Support
The BBC's plans to launch on-demand services including features such as "catch-up" and "streaming" content has come under fire. It has not gone unnoticed that there iPlayer software will only work on Windows based machines.
A petition has been launched on the Prime Ministers website with the following statement, "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to prevent the BBC from making its iPlayer on-demand television service available to Windows users only, and instruct the corporation to provide its service for other operating systems also." At the time of posting the number of signatures was nearing 2,000.
Show your support for your chosen computer platform by signing the petition, which can be found here.
Floola - an iPod alternative
Floola is an alternative management software for iTunes. Basically you can use Floola to manage your iPod related content, including music, movies and even podcasts without touching iTunes. Floola even has Growl support for Mac OSX and allows you to manage applications that can then be launch right from your iPod. It is donationware and available to download for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.
17" Powerbook LCD bug, literally!
An actual bug stuck just behind a lovely Powerbook screen. This is a sad (for the owner & the bug), but very interesting article. I just hope that no more hatch in there.
ADC Developer Pavilion Interviews
Head on over to the Apple Developer Connection site and you can listen to interviews with nine different software developers, including Dan Messing from Stunt Software, whose Overflow and Downsize applications we have recently reviewed here on Geekanoids. The interviews certainly give you an insight into what makes these great people tick.
Downsize your images with Downsize
Downsize by Stunt Software, now… what can I tell you about this clever little application? Well, so that I could give you a really good insight into what it offers, I have been using it for the past month. You may well have noticed that all of the images on the Geekanoids site changed. They now all have borders, with rounded edges and a nice subtle shadow, a nice uniform look… all courtesy of Downsize.
The application window is just so easy to get to grips with. On the left hand side you select the source of your images, this can be from iPhoto, a particular folder for batch processing, or you can just drag a single image into Downsize. You can also set a destination folder for your finished images. The right hand panel consists of three tabs, resize, watermark and frame, each determining how your image will look.
In the 'Resize' tab you set your maximum width and/or height that you want your finished image to be. You can also choose a sharp or smooth quality and a compression quality. Just using these settings alone give you a useful way of resizing your images quickly and easily, but there's more…
The 'Watermark' tab allows you to add either a piece of text or an image file to the files you are processing. You can control the placement of the watermark, the opacity and the distance that it will be from the edge of your image. This is a great way of adding some copyright protection to your files. Again, this is so well implemented and a very useful feature.
The last set of features are found in the 'Frame' tab. This is where I played to get the settings I liked for the Geekanoids images. You can add a frame to your images, with adjustments for thickness and colour. Rounded corners are easy, with a slider control to adjust the corner radius. You can even alter the background colour of your images. Shadows are also controlled in this tab, where you can tweak blur, distance, opacity and the angle of the shadow. When all you settings are made, a simple click of the 'Process Images' button and Downsize springs into action.
There are many applications available for OS X, but the ones that count are those that make your day-to-day tasks easier, and Downsize is one of those applications. It found its way into my dock for this review and it will remain there, now an integral part of my workflow. The only minor omission is that you cannot save your settings, so if you want to change them for a different project it is important to make notes beforehand. I mentioned this to Stunt Software and they acknowledged that the ability to save settings is in the pipeline and will appear in a future version.
Downsize really is the best image processor that I have found, not only is it quick, but also very easy to set-up, with just the right amount of features. The fact that it is only $19.95 makes it a total bargain.
Product: Downsize
Price: $19.95 (free to try)
Supplied by: Stunt Software
Contact: info@stuntsoftware.com
Formac Gallery 2010 Xtreme-5 Pro Monitor
Formac has revealed its new Gallery 2010 Xtreme-5 professional TFT monitor, which is available and in stock at various UK resellers. The stunning looking monitor is available in white, silver or black, has a 1600 x 1200 native resolution with a .255 dot pitch and connects via DVI-D.
A nice high brightness of 300cd/m2 and contrast ratio of 1000:1 really ensure this is ideal for professional use, whilst the 8ms response time make it suitable for the playback of moving images. Of note, this is a true 8-bit MVA panel supporting 16.7 million colours.
The Gallery 2010 Xtreme-5 has a retail price of £429.
Spring Cleaning 9 goes Universal
Smith Micro have launched Spring Cleaning 9 for Mac OS X. The biggest news is that it sports full Universal Binary support for Intel and PowerPC-based Macs. On top of this you get new maintenance and cleaning tabs, a permissions fixer, Spotlight index rebuild button, and the ability to securely delete (zero data) from your hard drive free space. There is also a application uninstaller, plus many more features for your money.
Spring Cleaning 9.0 requires Mac OS X v10.4 and costs $49.99, you can upgrade from a previous version for $19.99.