News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
When I first saw FileMaker’s database “for the rest of us” — namely Bento — last year, I immediately thought what a lot of other people thought: this is the database that’s missing from iWork. A lot of customers who’ve been clinging to AppleWorks for years longer than they should have are yet to accept iWork as the “successor” to AppleWorks until it can replace the database function. On closer examination, Bento was somewhat less than that. For one thing there was no easy way to bring AppleWorks databases over to Bento without a very fiddly process of export and import.
Matthew JC. Powell | Oct 31, 2008
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 is a solid upgrade to an already impressive Web site design program. The latest version adds to features introduced in Dreamweaver CS3 (Photoshop Integration and Spry JavaScript tools for building interactive interfaces, for example) and also presents a completely revamped interface that more closely resembles other products in the Creative Suite.
David Sawyer McFarland | Oct 31, 2008
OS X’s Front Row interface is a fine choice for watching movies or TV episodes you’ve purchased at the iTunes Store. But if you want to play media from sources other than the iTunes Store, Front Row isn’t much use. There’s an alternative solution: a free, open-source media center application called Plex. Though still in beta as of this writing (and suffering from some prerelease instability), Plex is extremely flexible and customisable—a great media player for geeks.
Gina Trapani | Oct 31, 2008
The original Canon EOS 300D was the first digital SLR (DSLR) to break the $1,000 price barrier. Since then, Canon has released several other models with smaller bodies and larger feature lists, with the latest being the EOS 450D.
Ben Long | Oct 29, 2008
When we get products for review, journalists are usually very careful to be as gentle as possible so as to not damage them. But when the promotional literature features said product being run over with a car and chewed by a dog, well, we can't help but take that as license to get a little rough. Oh, yeah.
David Braue | Oct 28, 2008
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare draws its influence not only from landmarks of the genre, but also from Tom Clancy novels, international politics, and the realism of modern warfare. From its visually stunning beginning to its emotionally wrenching ending, this is a surprisingly deep, rich, and unique approach to the first-person shooter.
Chris Holt | Oct 27, 2008
At casual glance it appears nearly identical to its predecessor, but it’s not. Inside and out, the new MacBook Pro 15-inch models—with speeds of 2.4GHz and 2.53GHz—have been remodeled, redesigned, and reengineered for a completely new laptop experience.
Jackie Dove | Oct 24, 2008
Adobe made some pretty serious changes in Photoshop CS4, especially in the workspace. And while some of them, like the new Application Frame, will take some getting used to (and are optional), they’re changes that are long overdue.
Lesa Snider King | Oct 23, 2008
Battery life is a key aspect of a laptop, especially to travelers who don’t have easy access to a power outlet. To test the new MacBook and MacBook Pro for battery life, we performed a battery-drain test by watching a movie clip ripped from a DVD to the laptop’s hard drive.
Chris Holt | Oct 23, 2008
The verdict is in: The Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics chip makes the MacBook a capable and affordable action gaming laptop—finally. And the new Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics chip in the MacBook Pro provides a substantial boost over the graphics chip in the previous MacBook Pro.
Roman Loyola | Oct 22, 2008
Our test results for the new MacBooks made this point, but it bears repeating as we turn our attention to the revamped MacBook Pro models released by Apple a week ago: the performance gap between the consumer and professional offerings in Apple’s laptop line is narrowing.
James Galbraith | Oct 22, 2008
I've owned a dock / FM transmitter for 3 years that I was happy with, but it doesn't support the iPhone so I needed to upgrade. I did some research and decided to test drive the Belkin TuneBase FM.
David Holloway | Oct 21, 2008
This morning Apple released a new version of its iPhone SDK for developers. iPhone SDK beta 2 includes Interface Builder, a component of Apple’s development tools that lets developers create the interface for their applications. That seems to be the only major change in the latest build, according to the SDK’s read me, which continues to list some known issues. Apple says “this second beta is known to be incompatible with installation folders other than the default /Developer.” Given the importance of UI on the Mac, Interface Builder is a pretty critical tool in the development process, and some developers had chosen to hold off on their efforts until the SDK was revised. Apple unveiled the iPhone SDK at a special event earlier this month, allowing developers to begin building applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Several high-profile companies have already jumped onboard, demoing their applications at the event. Highlighting the demos was AOL with a native AIM client; other applications from Electronic Arts, Salesforce.com, and Apple were also shown.
