K’s Weblog

I mentioned the other day that I was making my first forray into the world of podcasting by producing a segment for the Global Geek Podcast called the Mac Lab Rat. I’m going to make it a habit of including all my sources in the show notes, but also providing a copy of the review on the blog with all the relevant links. So without further ado, here’s this weeks reviews.

The first item this week comes from Apple itself. A few weeks ago Apple released an update for OS X (version 10.4.10… this update was primarily required due to the delay of Leopard until later this year which was itself necessitated by the Q2 launch of everyone’s favourite over-hyped device the iPhone…. but I digress…). The initial version of this update had some problems which caused hissing and popping noises for some Mac users. Apple has since released an “Audio Update” and updated the 10.4.10 files to include the audio update. The long and short of it: make sure you run your software updates regularly.

I’ve included a link to the original notice from Apple on the Apple Docs website.

The second item for this week is an image manipulation tool from Acqualia called Picturesque. This tool allows you to add all those super-cool “Web 2.0″ effects to your photos or website graphics. Some of the features include rounded corners, faded edges and the ever-popular “reflection” effect. I’ve included a couple of bef0re-and-after images to give an idea of what picturesque does. Normally I’ll be trying to keep an eye out for free Mac software, but in this case the amount of time Picturesque can save over trying to do the same effects in a more sophisticated tool like Photoshop more than makes up for the $20 price tag, particularly if you spend much time doing website or template design. The trial version will watermark your photos, so to really take advantage of its features you will need to purchase the full version.

To get more info on Picturesque, or to download the trial version visit Acqualia’s website.

Finally, I was going to discuss an about activating your iPhone without a 2-year contract from AT&T, but I figured we’re all at the iPoint of iOverload with iPhone iStories.

Thanks to Dave and Tim for giving me this opportunity. I’m looking forward to producing next week’s segment.

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