Rosario Tech

TUAW has a nice comparison of screencasting programs. This is something I thought I’d do, but they did such a good job, I thought I’d just link to it:

Screencasting — the not-so-ancient art of recording the computer screen for the entertainment and enrichment of others — has evolved into quite a Hydra of options. How do the myriad gladiators in this arena stack up? I’ve tried everything I could find that could record a little movement on the screen, and selected 8 contenders for the matchup. We’ll start this boxing match off with the free apps, and then see if the “money” apps stack enough features on to make them worth the cash.

Continue reading TUAW Faceoff: Screencasting

Apple released version 2 of Aperture this past Tuesday. Finally! They are touting “over 100+ new features,” which seems about right.

I’ve been playing with it for the past few days and it appears that Apple is serious about supporting this program (there have been recent doubts since they have been taking so very long to support the newest digital SLRs). Aperture is now on par with the feature set of Adobe’s LightRoom.

If you’re already an Aperture user, get this upgrade right away. It’s faster, and it’s faster.

Did I mention that it’s faster?

Oh, and if you have not already committed to either Aperture or Lightroom, Apple dropped the price to $199, which is $100 less than Lightroom.

Before you run out and update to Leopard, pick up AppFresh, a free program that will let you know which of your applications are as up-to-date as possible. Since it’s only compatible with Tiger for the moment, don’t update to Leopard and then run it. Update your apps before you put 10.5 onto your system.

AppFresh runs through all your applications (and widgets, plug-ins, preference panes) and let’s you know whether you have the latest version installed. It can take a little while for AppFresh to run through all your apps and stuff, but be patient. Here is what you’ll see if a program needs updating:

Here, it’s letting me know there is a newer version available to download.

It can also let you know the last time you used a program:

So you can think about deleting it if you haven’t used it in a while. (try using App Zapper to delete old apps)

It’s a nice little free program, albeit with no built-in help; you will need to visit the website for help. But, it’s free and can help as you need to update those programs for Leopard.

Camera RAW files need love too, you know. Here are some links to Apple and Adobe documents stating exactly which camera raw formats Aperture and Lightroom/ACR are supported.

Apple supported raw formats
Adobe supported raw formats

Helpful to determine which camera is supported by which program. Important because of the new Leopard update.

Apple Steve Jobs has announced today that, come February 2008, Apple will be releasing an SDK (software development kit) for the iPhone. What this means is the iPhone will soon be able to run sanctioned third-party applications (I wonder how soon we’ll see them after the SDK release in Feb).

Steve said today:

“We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.”

Read the entire release here.

I, for one, am beginning to feel happy with my decision to purchase an iPhone.

Click here to pre-order Leopard (10.5) from Amazon for $109, with no catches. You can even get free shipping if you can wait a few days.

Check out all the new features inside of Leopard here. It’s quite an impressive list.

Well, I broke down and got it last Wednesday. It’s past the point of returning and getting a full refund (Apple lets your return it within three days for full refund, including activation fee). So here is my short review as of today:

So far, I like it very much.

Getting it set up was a breeze, although my desktop contact management program is Entourage and it took a little doing to get it to sync to iPhone. It was not that much of a big deal as Entourage can sync with iCal and iCal syncs with iPhone. The syncing is both ways, so if I enter contact or date info on the iPhone, it will eventually show up in Entourage.

I can sync it to two computers; one has my music and podcasts on it and the other has all my contacts and Safari bookmarks. iPhone can easily sync to both machines without an issue.

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Not only has OJ been Jobs’ hitman since 1985 (when Jobs bombed Philadelphia’s Move House that same year with pyrotechnics borrowed from Great White) but he also paid Steve Jobs to clone Dolly the sheep in 1998.

Jobs is also accused of pointing nuclear missiles at Lance Armstrong’s bicycle, the Seattle Space Needle, and the brain of one Jonathan Lee Riches. Riches also states in his complaint , filed September 21st in US District Court in Orlando FL., that Jobs regularly tours his brain with infrared waves.

Read the full complaint here.

I really hope this doesn’t delay Leopard any longer.

I’m getting an iPhone. Resistance is futile and all that crap. I’ve held out as long as I can and unless I get really lousy AT&T reception in my apartment, the iPhone will be in my sweaty meat palms before Thanksgiving.

What set me over the edge is that Mark/Space will be releasing a version of their popular program, The Missing Sync, for the iPhone sometime in the last few months of 2007.

What it looks like it’ll do is sync the iPhone’s SMSs, call logs and notes to compatible desktop programs. The notes sync should be well worth the price alone. The product page doesn’t mention whether we can use this program to sync with, say, Entourage, or any other contact manager (other than iCal and Mail). But they do say that it’ll have a “migration assistant” to help move your data from your Treo or Blackberry to the iPhone.

Flesh is weak. What are you gonna do?

I like Walt.