News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
It's coming up to two months since the iPhone 3G launched in Australia. Over that time I've been keeping a close watch on music applications available on the iTunes App Store and as of today there are 75 music-related applications to choose from. That sounds impressive, but once you remove the tuner and metronome variants plus the numerous novelty applications (does the world really need two cowbell applications for iPhone?) the pickings get a little slimmer. One application that launched this week that shows some real promise is BtBx (short for Beat Box). It's a fairly comprehensive seq...
If you've dreamed of decking out your house with one of those fancy Sonos sound systems think again. With a few Apple products (iTunes, Airport Express and Apple TV), and some simple set up you'll be able to create a music, and video system, that can be listened to and watched anywhere in your home. The secret ingredient is a free app for your iPhone or iPod Touch from Apple, simply called Remote.
Danny Gorog | Aug 19, 2008
It’s a challenging world when you set out to review a newish image editing application and you suddenly you find there are two with the same name: Iris and Iris. No, wait, there’s dozens of ‘em! Iris for accounting, astronomy, flight simulation and so on. The one in question is an image application by Perth-based Nolobe that promises to free you from the tyranny of confusing image-editing interfaces forever..
Barrie Smith | Aug 6, 2008
Apple’s long-awaited Final Cut Server 1.1 is a complex and powerful tool for Final Cut Pro users who have advanced requirements for organising large amounts of footage, working with multiple editors and/or artists, or needing to automate certain production steps. Final Cut Server is a client-server-based workflow tool that can potentially help you in three ways: in cataloguing and searching assets, especially video-based assets; with version control through check-in and check-out capabilities and approval; and with automation capabilities to convert, copy, and execute scripts.
Mike Curtis | Aug 1, 2008
One of the most common accessories we all own are earphones or headphones. I've always preferred headphones - I find earphones too intrusive and uncomfortable. That's why I was interested in having a look at Klipsch's Custom-2 earphones - at $299.00 these can be considered high-end and thus I wanted to see if they could convince me to throw away my headphones. The first thing that stands out is the shape of the earphones themselves - they look more like aural probes than listening devices. The reason for that are the countoured ear gels that are designed to provide a full seal in your ear canal. Five washable ear gel sizes are provided and it's worth experimenting with the sizes until you get a true seal.
David Holloway | Jul 30, 2008
With the price of disk storage falling constantly, now's the time to consider digitising your DVD collection. While most users think about iTunes as a music jukebox application, it's also well versed in managing your movies. Unless you want to re-purchase your movies in iTunes (something that's still not possible in Australia) you'll need a program that lets you convert your DVDs to a format that iTunes accepts. That program is called Handbrake, and luckily for you (and me) it's only a free click away.
Danny Gorog | Jul 23, 2008
When a picture alone doesn’t quite say enough, Plasq’s Comic Touch app lets you jazz up the photos on your iPhone or iPod touch with funny effects and captions. The program is a bite-sized version of Australian developer Plasq’s excellent Comic Life, which creates custom comic strips from your digital photo collection. Comic Touch lets you work with any image in your iPhone or iPod touch Photo Library or you can use it on a new snapshot with the iPhone’s built-in camera.
Kelly Turner | Jul 18, 2008
The Olympus SP-570UZ is a dead match for the Nikon P80 to be reviewed in the 08.2008 issue of Australian Macworld. Both share — or nearly share! — some remarkable specs, not least of which is the Olympus’ lengthy zoom range, a 20x optical zoom. Yes, I know the Nikon has an 18x zoom, but you get the message. As a dSLR in appearance but with a fixed lens, the zoom range is phenomenal and, put up against a 35mm SLR, compares to a focal length stretch of 26 to 520mm.
Barrie Smith | Jul 12, 2008
Arturia are one of the small band of software publishers devoted to recreating classic synthesisers of the 60's, 70's and 80's. The Moog Modular V, Minimoog V, CS-80V, ARP2600 V and Prophet-V are all synth icons and Arturia have had them bundled together for awhile now as the Analog Factory 2.0 suite. The Analog Factory Experience adds a CME brand 32-key weighted MIDI controller keyboard - with wooden sides to keep that retro feel. It's essentially a duplicate of the standalone software component and fills that role beautifully.
David Holloway | Jul 1, 2008
The Turbo.264 is a useful piece of kit if you find yourself regularly converting movies from one format to another. While you won't find much speed gain on newer Macs, older PowerPC machines will see a significant speed gain when converting movies. At $199 the Turbo 264 is more expensive than a software-only solution, but if you're serious about converting your videos, the cost of the unit will quickly pay for itself.
Danny Gorog | Jun 24, 2008
The Centro looks like another in the long line of Treo smartphones although, at 54mm wide, it's a little narrower and consequently easier to hold than its Treo forebears. There's the familiar Palm QWERTY keyboard sitting below a very nice 320x320 display. Typically, entry-level smartphones skimp on the screen but Palm has delivered an excellent touchscreen with good colour depth and brightness. However, will any of that be enough to counter the comin iPhone onslaught?
Anthony Caruana | Jun 17, 2008
You don't have to compromise capacity for portability anymore, with bus-powered pocket-sized drives now available with half a terabyte on board. First off the rank was Other World Computing's Mercury On-the-Go enclosure. It turns out to be no slouch at all in the performance department either.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 17, 2008
Think thoroughbred horses: the trick is to maintain and improve the bloodline. It’s proving to be a similar story in digicams. Take Canon’s IXUS series. IXUS was one of the earliest lines of camera to offer a small, stylish body shape, along with easy to access controls and above average specs. Looks good: works great. The IXUS 80 IS sits right up there: the Canon zoom has 3x optical power; the CCD has 8.0 megapixels so the maximum 3264x2448 pixel image will make a final print size of 37x28 cm at 225 dpi. The IXUS will also take movies at an SD aspect ratio of 4:3 and 640x480 pixels at 30 fps — but no wide screen! However, it can shoot a series of images in time lapse mode so you can capture a run of 640x480 pixel shots at intervals of one or two seconds over two hours.
Barrie Smith | Jun 11, 2008
Australian free-to-air television guide IceTV is now available via the iTunes App Store for people to install on their iPhones. Usage of the free app requires registration with the IceTV service, which is free and provides a one-day TV listing. Paid subscribers to the IceTV service get a seven-day listing. Other features available to subscribers are the ability to record programs remotely using EyeTV, a personalised TV guide and recommendations based on shows you've previously recorded.
