There is an interesting article over at ThinkSecret about Photoshop CS3 and a possible new product from Apple called ‘Photo Pro’. Think Secret didn’t confirm the existence of Photo Pro, but they did speculate that it would “more resemble iPhoto on steroids than a Photoshop competitor”. Hmmm… I guess we’ll see what happens.
So you know that little symbol on the Command (cmd) key, or the Apple key for you newbies? Have you ever wondered just what that symbol is? Well, apparently it’s a floral symbol that is used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground. I had no idea. You can get the full story here.
Found via simplebits
There were three Apple related stories that caught my eye yesterday, so I though I would just combine them into one. I’ve been out of the loop for a few days, so this may be old news to some of you.
What will it be?
Wednesday, September 7th, at 10:00am, there will be a special press-only event at the Moscone Center here in San Francisco (1 block away from my house). The invitation reads in part “1,000 songs in your pocket changed everything, Here we go again.” What could it mean? Is it the much anticipated iPhone? Is it a video iPod? Is it a PDA? Is it all three? Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my mouth.
UPDATED: Apprently Motorola is having an event the same day. They are sending out an invite that says: “The ‘Device formerly known as the cell phone’ is ready for its next act. Please join us for an evening of fun, music and evolution. September 7th…”.
.mac
Any day now we should be seeing an upgrade to Apple’s .mac service. Rumor has it that it will include an updated version of Backup, Apple’s data backup application, along with some .mac exclusive widgets.
mini test drive, or not
The third story in this post was going to be about Apple’s newest promotion. A 30-day Mac mini test drive. The Story has been covered by numerous sites, but the promotion has apparently been cancelled. I can no longer find any mention of it on the Apple site.
I personally don’t care much for Opera, one of the few Internet browsers that actually costs money, but I do usually keep several browsers installed for testing purposes. I would have never bought Opera, but luckily the company is giving away registration codes in honor of it’s 10 year anniversary. You can use Opera without it being registered, but the upper-right corner of the browser window has ads in it. If you want an ad free version, just go get the code. But hurry, because the free codes are only available through midnight tonight.
UPDATE: Well, it looks like the promotion is gone. When I first read about it, the story said last night was the deadline. i read about it again today, and that story said today was the deadline. Since it was still active this morning, I though tonight really was the deadline. But, they’ve taken it down this afternoon. I guess they just forgot to do it last night.
Those three things didn’t happen all at once, but they were definitely the hi-lights of this weekends trip to Yosemite.
Image by Vincent Laforet / Sipa Press
Well I’m back from my trip. I actually came back late Sunday night. I haven’t been posting anything (or answering email) because I’ve just been overwhelmed by the Hurricane Katrina coverage on TV. It’s being called the worst natural disaster to ever hit the US.
It’s extremely depressing to watch. I finally had to force myself to stop watching, and try to get on with my day-to-day routine.
If you are interested in helping out the relief effort with a little monetary donation, you can do so at The Red Cross. You can donate as little as $5. The Red Cross site is running a little slow right now, so if you can’t get through, please try again later, or call one of these number:
Call
1-800-HELP-NOW
(1-800-435-7669)
English speaking
Call
1-800-257-7575
Spanish Speaking
Call
1-800-220-4095
For TDD Operator
Yesterday, download squad had a story about MacNews Pro, a new RSS reader for the Mac. I am a die-hard NetNewsWire fan, but I though I would have a quick look. After all, I am a software whore.
I must admit, NewsMac Pro is a pretty nice piece of software. First of all, it’s a very visually appealing piece of software. It also has some nice features, like the ability to sync with a Palm, an integrated Podcast player (with iTunes support), and a feed rating system. I am actually fairly impressed.
However, there is one feature that it is lacking. There doesn’t appear to be any integration with any blog editors, like MarsEdit, or Ecto. As much as I liked NewsMac Pro, I don’t want to go without this feature.
Bottom line… If I were in the market today, and didn’t want Blog editor integration, it would be a pretty close call between NetNewsWire and NewsMac Pro. I’m not sure which one I would pick.
Paparazzi is a small application that let’s you take a screen-capture of a website without ever opening it in a browser. Simply put in the URL and hit capture.
I’m not exactly sure what I would do with this application, but it seems really cool just the same. Oh, and did I mention… it’s free.
Not too long ago comment spam consisted of repetitive words, or short phrases, like ‘play online-poker’ written 50 times in a comment. With better spam filtering by modern blog systems (like WordPress), comment spammers have had to take a kinder, gentler approach… making their comment seem like it may actually be a real comment, unless you look close that is. Here’s a typical example of the kind I am getting now:
“I luved what you’ve wrote. Your blog is great! I luv the way you express things! I’ve read lots of blogs but I find yours a lot more interesting than the others! Keep up the good job!”
The comment above would have been followed by one link, to an instant payday loan, or a thrilling game of online poker.
Make sure to look closely at your comments. Don’t be fooled by the lack of typical spam words. And delete these types of comments when you find them.
I came across a site, zephrysyndicate.com, that has some really nice Flash work. Stay on the homepage for a few minutes and watch the attention to detail in the various little activities. Then explore the animation section as they have some nice ones.