Archive for the ‘software’ Category

Cooliris finally available for Safari!

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

cooliris.jpgCooliris, formerly known as PicLens, is finally available again for Safari users! Cooliris is a browser plugin (currently available for Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer) that enables you to browse or search for images and video via a beautiful interface. The results are shown on a 3D wall that you can scroll around on and zoom-in on.

Supported sites include Amazon, YouTube, Flickr, SmugMug, Google, Yahoo, deviantART, Photobucket, Picasa, Facebook, and MySpace. For the full list click here. It is also possible to enable Cooliris on your own website or blog.

I have been waiting a long time for Cooliris to be compatible with the new version of Safari, and now that it has been released I am suitably impressed. The images don’t completely load until you click on them, so when you select an image to enlarge it’s a bit blurry at first, but the loading time is quite fast – and I have a terrible connection! It also considerably speeds up image browsing and searching, as there’s no need to load a new page after every few images, and it only fully loads the images that you are interested in.

To see everything Cooliris can do, just hop over to Cooliris.com, and watch the introductory video. You need to see it in action to fully understand how great it is! ;)

VectorDesigner tutorial: How to convert raster to vector images

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

This is a simple tutorial on how to convert raster images to vector images using VectorDesigner. VectorDesigner has a built-in “Convert raster to vectors” command under the “Arrange” menu, but unfortunately the results when converting complex images (i.e. images with more than one color ;) ) aren’t too good. This means that we first have to take a few steps to prepare our image for conversion. Read under the cut for both a text and a video tutorial.

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Stumbi – StumbleUpon plugin for Safari

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

I had never used StumbleUpon until recently – they don’t have a plugin for Safari, and I wasn’t going to change back to Firefox just for them. On their website is written: “Unfortunately we cannot support IE or Safari because they do not provide features necessary for StumbleUpon to work.” Right. They might not have been able to make a toolbar, but what was stopping them from just making a plugin? Seems to me like they just couldn’t be bothered to make StumbleUpon work on other browsers.

Luckily there is Stumbi, a plugin for Safari that will add 3 buttons to your toolbar – one for stumbling, and two for voting. If you don’t want the buttons in your toolbar, you can use the menu in the menubar instead, from which you can also email the page to a friend.

Stumbi is shareware – it can be used free for 100 stumbles, after which you’ll need to pay $2 to continue using it. It’s a bit of a pain to have to pay to be able to use a service that Firefox users can use for free, but at least $2 is a very reasonable price. Thanks to the developer for enabling Safari users to finally use StumbleUpon!

Edit: Stumbi has now been acquired by Soya Software and is being sold for $4. *Sigh*, that’s what I get for not buying it immediately :/

New apps in MacHeist bundle, and VoodooPad bonus for 24 hours

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

The MacHeist Bundle has undergone some changes; Wallet has been replaced by VectorDesigner, and TextExpander and SoundStudio (the latter still to be unlocked) have been added to the mix. Furthermore, if you buy from this page within the next 24 hours (or less – I’m not sure when the time frame started), you’ll get VoodooPad as a bonus.

That makes 15 Mac apps for $49, and 25% of every purchase goes to charity! If you decide to buy the bundle, please use my referral link – that way I get a bonus application too! :P

Give Good Food to your Mac reopens!

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

Give Good Food to your Mac is open once again, this time with a selection of developer applications. You get a 20% discount if you buy 3 apps, a 30% discount for 4 apps, and a 50% discount for 5 or more apps. The promotion ends on June 23rd.

ZeusDraw review

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

ZeusDrawIcon96x96.pngZeusDraw is a vector application that I found a few days ago on MacZot. At first glance it didn’t seem interesting, but I took the time to watch the demonstration videos and was blown away by the simplicity and intuitiveness of it’s brush and color controls. I’m no expert with graphic applications, but brush capabilities are something even I have found sorely lacking in the cheaper (i.e. not made by Adobe) graphic applications for Mac. They all allow you to paint with a brush, but usually the only things you can customize are the size, color, and softness. With ZeusDraw, on the other hand, it’s a different story entirely.

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ZeusDraw on MacZot

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

ZeusDraw, a vector drawing application, is on special this weekend at MacZot. At first glance it didn’t interest me much, but after watching the videos I was blown away by it’s brush and colour controls! Stay tuned for a full review ;)

Interview with VectorDesigner developer Marco Pifferi

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

VectorDesigner logo

Marco Pifferi of TweakerSoft is the developer of VectorDesigner, a vector application for the Mac and winner of the Macworld Best of Show Award in January 2008. In this interview we will find out how VectorDesigner was born, and where it’s going in the future.

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Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman released

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

It seems today is the day for graphic application releases – earlier today VectorDesigner was updated, and now the much-awaited Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman has been released too! The updates include curves, grids and rulers, a masks palette, a polygonal lasso tool, a more in-depth help file, and many more Automator actions.

The masks palette makes working with selections and masks much easier, and the help file is great for beginners or for finding out the use or shortcuts of a tool. The images illustrating the effects of the filters and other tools are a very useful learning aid, enabling you to see what effects they will have without having to test each one. Unfortunately there aren’t previews for the Quartz Composer filters, but I guess we can’t have everything ;)

All in all I’m very pleased with Pixelmator Draftsman, and the regular updates give me confidence that Pixelmator will keep improving steadily. Keep up the good work, Pixelmator team!

VectorDesigner updated to version 1.2.0

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

Today VectorDesigner was updated to version 1.2.0. The core updates are:
- Smart snap on elements, points and intersections
- Export selection
New video tutorials have also been added to their website.

Unfortunately the Path Tips that pop up now every time you put your cursor over a line, point or intersection can get quite annoying and distracting – hopefully they will soon add an option to turn them off.

Update:
The option to disable Path Tips has been added. Thanks Marco for the super-fast addition!