New iPods

Isn't it strange how the hard drive based iPods haven't changed much in overall design but the Nano seems to get made over every year? Last year my youngest daughter got a "fat nano" and it worked perfectly for her hands. It is such a better solution than the "made for kids" type mp3 players. All that being said, the new Nano looks really sharp and I like the way they used the accelerometer. It is almost like a gateway drug to the iPod Touch and iPhone. Hmmmm. I've still got my g1 Nano that works like a champ. A little scratched up but it is a podcast/audiobook/smart playlist beast.

Any Macsparky readers getting the new Nano and want to write up your thoughts for the blog? Let me know.

Bento Syncing Done Better

Awhile back, I posted a tricky little Applescript I made to make syncing the Bento database easier. I was so busy patting myself on the back that I completely missed a much more elegant solution. Thankfully reader Neil shared it in the comments. It was so much better that I decided to give it a separate post. As Neil explained ...

I have a somewhat simpler approach (I think). All I did was copy my Bento folder from ~/Library/Application Support to my iDisk folder. Then I deleted the Bento folder and replaced it with a symbolic link. That way, when I start Bento, it looks in ~/Library/Application Support/Bento and is redirected to the copy on my iDisk. That way, it is always synced between the local computer and iDisk whenever I sync iDisk.

When it comes to computers, simpler almost always equals better. Neil, I bow my propeller beanie to your chocolate covered Mac-ness.

NoiseNinja Screencast

I reviewed the NoiseNinja Aperture plug in just a little while ago. This week I was pleased to see the folks at PictureCode posted their very own NoiseNinja screencast. Check it out.

Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Review

This week I’m back to photography. A good friend and reader recently turned me on to Nik Software that has a series of excellent photography software products. In particular, their Color Efex Pro plug-in for Aperture and Photoshop.

I know I’m supposed to be objective as a reviewer but I just have to say this plug in rocks. Have you ever seen those photoshop svants that can take a picture and then work their black magic on it. I’ve always admired it but at a certain level accepted that I’m about as likely to learn how to do that as I am to build a fission reactor in my attic.

This is where Color Efex Pro steps it up. It installs as a plug in for Aperture or Photoshop and it has a pile of digital filters that enhance your photos with the touch of a button. I’m not just talking black and white here. This is 52 filters with over 250 effects that make your photos look professional.

Pro Contrast Filter

These filters include several traditional filter effects such as polarization and color gradients. Since I don’t shoot with anything but a UV filter, this allows me to experiment on my shots.

Sunshine Filter

That is just the beginning though. There are also a host of filters that just make your photos look better or more interesting. There is one that softens your skin. Solarizer gives you an incredible contrast for portraits. One darkens the edges and lightens the center. Another takes your modern fancy image and magically turns it into an antiqued old photograph. Are you taking glamour shots? One click sets you up. Need extra light, the sunshine filter allows you to add it in with a large degree of granularity. You can turn day to night with the midnight filter or get that hazy James Dean look with the Monday Morning filter. I’ve spent hours playing with these filters and could ramble on. In the plug-in it even organizes the filters in convenient tabs such as portrait, landscape and traditional.

Bleach Bypass

Applying these filters in Aperture is easy as selecting the image, activating the plug-in and clicking on your filter of choice.

Nik Software explains the benefit is that you can do your edits faster. I think they are missing the point. Color Efex Pro allows you to do edits that are completely unreachable to us mere mortals. It is like having your own little photoshop genius in your pocket.

Glamour Glow

The Color Efex Pro filters do come at a price. There are three versions that range from $100 (with 15 filters) to $300 (with 52 filters). I know for the “point and shoot” crowd that is probably more than their camera cost but if you are an SLR owner and serious about dramatically increasing your digital enhancement skills, this one is worth a serious look. You can see samples of all the filters and download a trial at Nik’s website found at NikSoftware.com. Check it out.

You can listen to this review on Surfbits Episode 176.

OmniOutliner on the iPhone

Unable to drop my infatuation with the Omni Group, I started a thread months ago in the Omni Forums pleading my case for OmniOutliner on my iPhone. While the Omni gang has been mum on this point, the thread has slowly grown with additional apostles. The most recent advocate, random1destiny, gave an excellent tip for viewing current OmniOutliner files on your iPhone.

For everyone else, until the OO iPhone app comes out, a good view-only solution I found is to buy the Files iphone app which lets you upload any type of file. Then export your OO file as HTML(Unordered List) and transfer and view it using Files. This results in a fairly readable copy that you can keep on your iPhone.

Why didn't I think of that?

Google Reader v. NetNewsWire, Round 2

I've had several mac-savvy friends extol the virtues of NetNewsWire to me lately. About a year ago I tied my wagons to Google Reader because of its ubiquity and very good iPhone interface. As you can probably tell from the low post count, I've been under water with the day job lately. So this is exactly the sort of diversion I needed to get a break from the salt mines. I've downloaded NetNewsWire (again), installed it on the iPhone, and reactivated my NewsGator account. I'm going to live with it a few weeks and report back. Where do you fall in the RSS debate?

World's Best Presentation Contest

Guy Kawasaki (yes, THAT Guy Kawasaki) posted links to winners of the Slideshare World's Best Presentation Contest on his blog. The presentations are very well done and if you do any amount of presentation work yourself, worthy of clicking through.

SugarSync Hits the iPhone

My favorite syncing utility remains to be SugarSync. It certainly isn't perfect. Among its sins:

1. It still doesn't sync sparse images properly (DropBox handles this with no difficulty);

2. Customer service is spotty. I've heard from readers about this and experienced it myself. In my case I have a few machines on SugarSync that need to be removed. I know they are trying to help me with this and part of the hold up was my fault (I wrote them from the wrong email) However, it has been several weeks and it is still not resolved.

This all being said, Sugarsync still does a very reliable job of keeping my files in sync. I've never lost a file through SugarSync. With it I keep files on 2 Macs, 1 PC, and an iPhone and I've had no problems. The service is now expanding with versioning and they've recently released a free iPhone application. I've only been using the native iPhone application a few days, but so far it is working seamlessly.

New MacRoundtable

I was fortunate to participate in the MacRoundtable #47 podcast over the weekend. In it we discussed the best practices for going paperless, our thoughts on using the dock, and made our own software/hardware picks. Mine was my favorite word processor, Scriviner. Check it out.

RapidWeaver 4 Review

There really are two kinds of web designers: the ninja coders and the unwashed masses like myself who actually loose IQ points just from looking at css code.  Strangely, I'm okay with that.  While I like tinkering with Applescript and Cocoa, I've got no interest in learning to code websites.  So, as I thought, I was left with one option, iWeb.  Don't get me wrong.  I really like iWeb.  It can take you from zero to fifty very quickly.  But what if I want to go faster than 50?  Enter RapidWeaver.

Booting up RapidWeaver I did my usual bit of zero preparation.  I didn't read any manuals or watch any tutorials.  I just went for it.  Once opened I quickly was able to open pages of various design types and templates at will.  You can make a blog or add static pages. You can quickly fill your site with pages and sub-menus to your heart's content.  Additionally I was able to drop in html snippets that I dowloaded from RapidWeaver's site.  This runs deeper though.  You can also add custom javascript, CSS and PHP to your RapidWeaver pages.
 
Once you are ready to publish, RapidWeaver 4 again rescues us neophytes.   You can publish directly from RapidWeaver to .Mac, FTP, SFTP or even your local drive.  You simply fill in your details and click the publish button.  It even does this cool bit of coverflow animation where it shows you each element being published.

A lot of people don't realize that different browsers have different standards.  Internet Explorer, for instance, does not read all the wizbang features in the most current versions of Safari or Firefox.  This fact drives web developers crazy in that they must code their sites so they may be read by all browsers.  RapidWeaver takes care of this problem for you, publishing your site to work exactly the same in every browser, even Internet Explorer.

RapidWeaver 4 ships with 40 templates and there are a great many more available for download and purchase.  The RapidWeaver web site is nicely organized with available themes, css, code snippets and other addons that allow you to improve your site.  Some of these require purchase.  Others are free.

Version 4 is uses several of the most recent OS X technologies and requires that you run Leopard.  The interface is pleasant and intuitive.  I spent very little time looking for options.  Everything I needed was where I would expect it to be.  I think the ideal customer for this product is anyone who feels constrained by iWeb but doesn't want to consume a 1,000 page CSS treatise to do it.  RapidWeaver is a chocolate coated iWeb, with sprinkles. 

A license for RapidWeaver 4 will cost $79.  You can learn more and purchase RapidWeaver at realmacsoftware.com.