Please take a moment and take a good look at CoverSutra and Cover Stream, two full-blown, all-out iTunes controllers.

CoverSutra 2.1.2: Integrates a customizable album artwork display, a floating control window, a pop-up notification system for song/album changes, and a spotlight-esque search bar into one application.

Cover Stream 2.0: A CoverFlow browsing window makes it easy to find what you want to listen to. Has a quick search feature, a resizable album art display, and a notification pop-up for song changes.

You Can’t Judge an App by It’s Cover

On an initial superficial glance, these two iTunes controllers may look like long lost brothers, seperated at coding:

They both use HUDs¹, they both display album artwork on your desktop… even the preferences icons have similarities if you look close enough.

There’s a good explanation for this: CoverSutra and Cover Stream were primarily designed by the same person: Laurent Baumann, an undeniably talented graphic designer from France.

There’s a good story to this, really there is. Something we don’t often hear in Mac software articles is the story. How was this software created? Everything has a story. It’s only on rare occasions that someone asks just what it us.

The characters in this story are Cover Stream developer Fabian Kowalski and CoverSutra developer Sophia Teutschler, as well as Laurent Baumann. I contacted each of them for their insights, and, of course, for their story.

(In fact, my contact with Laurent inspired his personal blog post on this subject, which is very similar to what he corresponded to me. I will link to it later².)

An iTunes Controller Story

Back in the year 2004, long before either CoverSutra or Cover Stream existed in the flesh, Laurent Baumann was using the iTunes controller X-Tunes, which he was “a huge fan of”. “It was the first application to sport a ‘floater’³ with controls”, he remembers, “I had to remember a single hot-key to be able to be able to control every playback aspect.”

In 2005 Laurent started releasing icon sets and gained credibility in the design community. He says: “I felt the need to mockup ‘my dream controller’ (which I called AIR, standing for An iTunes Remote).”

Laurent describes himself as “a music lover and a big fan of artworks” so his dream application naturally “sported a black translucent controller, and the artwork of the song.”

“In October 2006”, he continues, “I took part in the beta testing of a new application called Coversutra. Unfortunately, Sophia [the developer] told us after two betas that she was dropping the development (mainly due to the arrival of iTunes 7, which intensively used artworks through CoverFlow and the new group list view)”.

Laurent pownced on the occasion to have someone actually develop his dream application, the one he had in his head from the get-go, and contacted Sophia with an updated mockup.

Apparently, she was impressed. In the coming months Laurent worked with Sophia until they released CoverSutra 1.0. “We kept working together, and while I was using it extensively, I really felt the need to be able to browse, or at least search for songs”, he says. So Laurent created a mockup that would eventually be lead to CoverSutra’s current search functionality.

In October of 2007, Laurent decided to quit working on CoverSutra. “I decided to quit working on CoverSutra because of unfortunate troubles me and Sophia were having”, he explains. “I couldn’t bear to use the application anymore, so I decided to sample other controllers. I installed and activated Synergy once more, the best alternative, in conjunction with SimpleScrobbler.”

Two months later, Laurent discovered Cover Stream 1.0. He enthusiastically describes his find this way, “It was like: Oh my goodness! Someone actually found a great solution to integrate my dream browser in a floater!”

According to Fabian Kowalski, Cover Stream started out as a personal project. And in his case necessity was the mother of invention. “It’s true there are a hundred different iTunes controllers out there”, he admits. “They all let you play, pause and skip music, some even let you search your music library for a particular song. The problem I had with all of them was that none of these controllers could be used to browse my music library, just search it.”

For this reason, Fabian found himself constantly listening to the same music over and over again, because it was the only music he could think to search for. “What I wanted wasn’t just a controller, but a controller and a search tool combined with a full-fledged browser, something that could replace iTunes altogether.”

He continues, “I always loved the original Cover Flow application by SteelSkies, but wasn’t very happy with the way Apple implemented it in iTunes.” Fabian describes Cover Flow in iTunes as ‘jerky’ and ‘sluggish’ and, for that reason, he says, he never really used it. “So I went looking for a way to extend Cover Flow to the desktop, and eventually came up with a working solution. I thought it was pretty cool and decided to make it public.”

Fabian is clearly still surprised with the response he received from the release Cover Stream 1.0. “The response I got was really quite overwhelming, despite the app’s rather simple user interface. I’m no graphic designer for sure, and didn’t even try to be when cobbling together the GUI over a cup of coffee.”

“Quite frankly”, he says, “all I wanted with the first release was to demonstrate the possibilities.”

Apparently, he did. After all, it caught Laurent Baumann’s eye.

Laurent realizes that Cover Stream 1.0 was not perfect: “Unfortunately, the application was lacking certain features, like desktop artwork, last.FM support, etc.” Nonetheless, Laurent kept an eye on Cover Stream. And finally, with the release of version 1.4 he decided to step in and offer Fabian a partnership.

“[Laurent] was still keen to finish what he started: making the best looking iTunes controller out there”, Fabian notes. “He had some really great ideas and so we decided to work together. We spent a month or two rethinking and redesigning my original project, exchanging ideas, me coding and he doing the graphics, and there you go: Cover Stream 2.0.”

The Difference

Now that we know the story, I’ll ask: What’s the real difference between these applications?

For one, the developer’s philosophies.

CoverSutra’s user interface looks great. There’s no doubt about that. It’s a wonderfully designed piece of software. One nifty thing it does is allow you change the look of your desktop album artwork to look like a Vinyl, a CD case, and a Jewel Case.

But how Fabian and Laurent approached this shows another philosophy. Laurent says, “We wanted to stick with ‘What Would Steve Jobs Do’ (WWSJD - an internal joke now).  For example, Apple doesn’t use Jewel-cases; in iTunes, Front Row or Apple TV, not even in the iTunes Store! I honestly thought, if Apple would have created an iTunes Controller, they would have used Cover Flow for browsing (Fabian also implemented an awesome search-as-you-type filter) and a Front-Row-like desktop artwork.”

“…We really want to stick with the Apple philosophy and style”, Laurent says, “this is what differentiates Cover Stream from CoverSutra”.

When asked what the main differences are between Cover Stream and CoverSutra, Sophia Teutschler, CoverSutra’s developer, added: “[Cover Stream] might be good for people who don’t want to see iTunes at all, where CoverSutra is an extension to iTunes by offering several aid ins that iTunes is lacking.”

I think that’s it in a nutshell.

Fabian Kowalski finally adds, “What I find most satisfactory about this release [Cover Stream 2.0] is that it is just the app I originally wanted. As a developer you usually make the app someone else wants. But this one I just did for me, and I guess that is what ultimately makes it appealing to others as well. It’s made with love, and I think it shows.”

Laurent Baumann has his final words too: “I definitely see Cover Stream as the genuine child of [the original] CoverFlow”, he says, “and I’m happy to have finally found and participate in, the development of my dream controller…”

Nicely put, Laurent.

Both CoverSutra 2.1.2 and Cover Stream 2.0 are €14.95 (roughly $23). You can get CoverSutra at Sophiestication and Cover Stream at its dedicated webpage.

Footnotes:

¹ A HUD (or heads-up-display) is simply a floating back translucent window often seen in Mac applications (e.g. iPhoto’s Image Correction panel)

² Laurent Baumann’s (strikingly-similar-to-what-he-corresponded-to-me) blog post: http://lbaumann.com/index.php?id=483050c1cc951

³ A ‘floater’ is a window or control that is there when you need it rather than being a normal application window, at least I think it is…

Many of us have to wake up far earlier than we would like, and Embraceware’s Awaken lets us do it in style. The interface is very polished, with interface transparency and iTunes-like buttons. The dock icon is a very cute aqua-ised alarm clock complete with bells on top. A large digital display (with the date underneath) reminds you of the time in a not-so-subtle way. A drawer below shows all the alarms you have set up at a glance. Of course, the main feature is that you can choose an alarm from your itunes music.

A Plethora of Options

With Awaken your experience can be customized endlessly. If you like your sleep and want to drift gradually into reality, set the awaken to fade in system volume gradually with the screen brightness after waking from sleep, playing a calming playlist in iTunes. If nothing short of bedlam in your bedroom will wake you up, set the system volume and iTunes volume to the max in preferences; then place your (laptop) Mac on the other side of the room and use your Apple remote to control it. If for some reason iTunes crashes or the music is unavailable, a selection of several short, but still jarring sounds get you out of bed-choose from ‘cuckoo clock’, ’sci-fi alarm’, or ‘buzzer (loud)’ among others.

Power Features

If you are too lazy (or busy) to open your RSS reader, email, or browser when you wake up, Awaken will do it for you. If you’re working on an important article or other file, these can be opened too. You can set a handy reminder note to show when the alarm starts (e.g. sync iPod, make hazelnut-with-an-extra-shot-cappuccino). If you find that music isn’t really right for you, add any custom sounds you like through a preference pane or choose from your podcasts instead. For a hidden-away look, Awaken can open at login as a menubar app, and alarms can trigger through this.

While I actually got my copy of Awaken as part of the MacHeist 2 bundle, the asking price of $12.95 isn’t bad, and you can take advantage of a fully-functional 2 week trial if you don’t feel like shelling out that much for an alarm clock.

Seesmic is a relatively new web startup that is already attracting a lot of attention in all corners of the internet. The part French company based in America could be at first glance dismissed as another YouTube knockoff, but delving in further reveals a powerful YouTube/Twitter hybrid brining social interaction to a whole new level.

It’s undeniable that Seesmic is modelled after Twitter considering the company recently acquired Twhirl, an AIR based Twitter client. When you first launch Seesmic after receiving your invite and logging in you’re greeted with what is a very well designed Flash UI (the whole site is one big Flash application) with a large screen for video playback and recent public videos on the left sidebar. Instantly it is obvious that Seesmic is a video collaboration tool allowing you to post videos to the public or to your friends and receive video replies. This is much like the YouTube’s reply that feels somewhat tacked on whereas Seesmic builds itself on this concept.

On the public timeline (just like Twitter) you will find some replies in the form of “RE: title etc”, clicking on it will launch the video reply and the timeline will transform into a list of all replies related to the original. This is where the first usability bug became apparent, I had to scroll right down to the bottom to locate the original video, in this case a I prefer YouTube’s UI that makes it fairly obvious where to find the original. But being in ALPHA stage I am sure this will appear shortly.

Being a Flash based application, Seesmic allows you to record directly from the webpage making communication fairly easy. In minutes I can have one of my egotistic views broadcast across Seesmic and receive troll like responses almost instantly. But here lies another bug that isn’t so much the fault of the service but more of society on a whole, will the public timeline become diluted with random and offensive junk just like YouTube has become? Hopefully Seesmic can deliver an image to the market stating that is more of a thought provoking or collaboration tool, not a place to boast about someone’s next “killer/sick” fight. 

One great use of Seesmic I spotted was the young Daniel Brusilovsky announcing his new idea for a website supporting  the youth in technological activities. Instantly I was able to access all these replies igniting the discussion and brainstorm of this simple idea. This video also had the likes of Robert Scoble encouraging this idea, that was something pretty exciting to witness. I could imagine this sort of brainstorm and active discussion could be replicated over numerous areas such as views on specific news topic or global collaboration between students. Seesmic allows posting to Twitter, so those using Seesmic can be notified of new videos from their friends without leaving the webpage open. 

The use of Flash for the site is also a slight caveat for those used to browsing video sharing websites, the simple browser navigation no longer exists. You cannot use the back button on the browser to go the recent page, because everything runs inside the Flash application. This could take sometime to get used to but isn’t a bad trade-off for not having to wait for the web browser to load another page when switching videos.

One cool feature I’ve noticed popping up is their Wordpress plugin. TechCrunch currently has it installed and gives users to to leave video comments on a blog post even if the user doesn’t have a Seesmic account. This new wave of commenting is a great idea as people are more inclined to leave more beneficial comments if they have a face to the comment. Anyone can hide behind their keyboard.

Seesmic has a bright future ahead of it but needs to adapt quickly if it wants to reach the level of portability and mobility that Twitter has. Seesmic should ramp up production of a mobile client much like Qik, allowing a brainstorm on the go. Without this extension Seesmic could end up as just another video sharing site.

Picturesque 2.0 is the latest application from Acqualia. This follow up version to their Apple Design Award winning application packs a handful of new features, and truly is a bloggers best friend.

Picturesque 2.0 features a redesigned single-window interface, tools for cropping, presets, and the 3D perspective effect. Using an animated “drag and drop”-style interface, Picturesque adds effects, such as 3D perspective, reflection, glow, shadow, curve, and stroke. You can also beautify images in batch, and with the ability to resize and apply effects on a whole folder of images, Picturesque is an an easy way to make sophisticated thumbnails and refined full sized images

Acqualia is an Australian based company, comprised of Zac Cohan and Nik Youdale. Founded in 2004, the company has created some very intuitive applications that have proven just as useful as they are attractive.

The Winners:

Tom Baker
Jordan Green
Steve Embleton
Jesse Dodds
Henrik Christiansen

Our sincere thanks to the 90 people who entered the competition. To the winners, your registration details for Picturesque will be on the way shortly.

Since the introduction of the first Intel iMac, Apple included a simple white remote with every new machine sold (until recently where they started charging extra for the remote when purchasing a notebook). Up until the release of Sofa Control, the Apple Remote has been limited to controlling Front Row, iTunes, Keynote, and volume control. Sofa Control introduces a whole new way of using your Apple remote to control your Mac.

When you first launch Sofa Control a message will a appear telling you that Sofa Control is enabled and ready to interface with your Apple Remote. Now all you have to do is grab your Apple Remote, sit down on your sofa, and press menu. A nice translucent app launcher will appear immediately. From here you can launch the DVD Player, Front Row, or any other program that interfaces with Sofa Control. To really get a feel of how Sofa Control works, you can hold down Menu until the Global Menu pops up. From here you can set your sound volume, control your Mac using a virtual mouse, and even power down your Mac; all with nothing but your Apple Remote.

Sofa Control is also very customizable. To start, you can change the look of the control panel, add some costume Apple Scripts to your Global Menu, and even pick the main display you would like Sofa Control to run on.

Apart from the awesome in-app functionality, Sofa Control additionally works great with other applications such as Keynote, Preview, iTunes, and Quicktime. You can easily flip through slides in a presentation or play a Quicktime file, all with a click of your Apple Remote. A new cool addition to Sofa Control is the Mouse Light which highlights your mouse with a yellow circle, similar to Mouseposé. This feature is very helpful when giving presentations.

You can grab Sofa Control today from Gravity Apps for only $15.

By now most people are aware of what multi-touch is. The uber-popular iPhone has put multi-touch in the everyday consumer market. With different companies vying for their share of the lucrative technology, it becomes more and more pertinent in every day life.

I’m sure most of Desktop Vibes readers will remember the popular video on youtube, where Jeff Han demonstrated the early prototypes of his multi-touch concept. The video is still incredibly impressive, regardless of its age, and Jeff hasn’t stopped there. He now runs Perceptive Pixel, which focuses on his multi-touch software. Seriously, check it out. You’ll be amazed.

Mainstream Use

This is all great but how will it affect the future? I don’t think I need to outline the incredible uses for multi-touch units, but this could make for some major advancements in a plethora of different fields. Most recently: CNN used Jeff Han’s multi-touch technology to explain the elections. The already popular concept has now reached prime time TV. There’s no denying this is the future.

I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the cow-sized Microsoft Surface. This obviously puts Microsoft in the bid for dominating the competition, but it won’t be easy. Simply put, the device is too big, too expensive and will only make it into the hands of mainstream businesses with a lot of cash to drop on new technology. This leaves the consumer market hanging.

Apple’s Part

Apple arguably sparked and controls the multi-touch market with the launch of the iPhone. On release, Apple set off a chain reaction of bad imitators and crappy phones. By using the already successful OS X and a revolutionary phone, Apple set foot into something that even they might not have realized.

To be honest, I think Apple is fully aware of what they have on their hands…the key to putting multi-touch devices into the hands of the every day consumer. They’ve already made the first steps with the iPhone and iPod touch, along with the multi-touch trackpads on its laptop line. With how polished and capable the Leopard operating system is, Apple has an incredible foundation for a multi-touch computer.

The Future

Apple has a choice to make: how to go about changing the way computers are used. The tried and true method of mouse and keyboard is accepted worldwide, and there will be plenty who will oppose multi-touch. But why let go of something so tactile? To put it plainly, I’m game.

Imagine what a university could accomplish with Xserve and multi-touch capable Macs. Graphs in math could be drawn and manipulated by hand, atoms could be observed in labs, medical students could play with virtual body parts, all done on multi-touch displays. I could continue for hours; the possibilities really are endless. Not to mention, Apple already has its foot in the door with many universities. Don’t get me started on what it could do for the entertainment industry.

However, what I truly want to see is a multi-touch Mac. While the idea is still in the distant future, I can see it been an incredible possibility. For anyone who has used a Mac and/or iPhone, you know why the idea of combining them is exciting indeed.

Computing has come a long way since it really kicked off back in the ’70s. We’ve come from giant, ugly boxes of circuitry that could do very little, to slim, elegant machines of style that can do a whole lot more. And in all that time, the mouse has pretty much been the standard method of user interface navigation. But now - as with most things technological, things are starting to change.

Little things called Graphics tablets are starting to creep their way in to day-to-day use. The first home computer tablet was introduced in 1984 - called the KoalaPad, it was originally designed for the Apple II but later spread to other compatible machines. Even then, the main idea behind it was all to do with drawing. In today’s world, that original idea remains, with a few added extras.

But which is better for day-to-day use?

Being a hopelessly addicted tech addict, I love new things. I decided that, after receiving some money for my birthday, I’d buy something. After I eventually narrowed it down, the choice was between and external hard drive and a graphics tablet. The sensible option, of course, would be the hard drive. I never back up, and I should. But where’s the fun in the hard drive? I went for the tablet - it looked ‘cool’ and I was sure that I’d find some use for it. The tablet I chose was the highly popular Wacom Bamboo - not only is Wacom a brilliant make (the industry leader, I think we can safely say) but it was the cheapest one that I could find that looked decent. At £45 (or $57 in the US) there really was nothing (much) to lose.

Getting used to the tablet is hard. The Bamboo uses absolute positioning (any point on the tablet surface relates to that same point on the screen). Once you’ve mastered that, you’re all set to go. General navigation is in my opinion is slightly sped up, as you can go directly where you want to go in one tap, although I do find myself dragging my hand all the way, like you would with a mouse. You also don’t get the surface problems like you would with a mouse, as, rather obviously, the tablet is its own surface. The field where the advantages of the tablet shine most is image editing. In Photoshop, using the extract tool and lasso tool (to take two examples) is much easier as you’re drawing in a much more natural style. Skitch also becomes twice as fun when you add a tablet into the equation. If you’re the adventurous type, you could even give handwriting recognition a go, but for the 10 minutes I played around with it, the keyboard wins hands down.

A problem that I have had frequently with my graphics tablet is the pen. Misplacing it is so easy. I do honestly think that Wacom, or any tablet manufacturer, should make the pens a bright yellow so they never get lost. Places my pen have ended up include on the floor, in the bathroom, under the bed, in the wardrobe and even in my bowl of cereal. And it’s still going strong.

And if you’re a “I’m-not-clicking-anything” kinda guy, most tablets come with buttons on them for functions that you can set, although I hardly ever use mine.

So where am I trying to get with all this? Well, if you are the casual internet surfing, iTunes listening computer user, you will probably be fine with a good mouse. For those of you with Photoshop on your computer (or indeed Pixelmator) a cheap tablet such as the Wacom Bamboo is something that it’s probably worth investing in. And even me, the casual use, have never plugged my mouse back in in the whole time I’ve had this (except from when people use my computer and don’t know how to use the tablet) and I feel it does help reduce the risk of Repetitive Strain Injury and helps with your hand-eye coordination.

The Bose SoundDock Portable is the original Bose SoundDock on steroids. It’s odd because the SoundDock Portable really isn’t portable at all. Its both heavier and taller than its predecessor, and its a pain to tote around. Aside from the grip handle, swiveling dock, and rechargeable battery, it really isn’t portable at all. Don’t get me wrong, It just seems more deserving of the name SoundDock II. But honestly, this is the greatest iPod speaker system I’ve ever owned, and the sound doesn’t disappoint.

Portable?

Not really - the Portability aspect of the SoundDock Portable simply doesn’t shine. Sure the handle, swiveling dock, and battery are nice, but it just doesn’t make any sense why it’s taller and heavier than the original SoundDock. I would only bring this product with me for the sound it produces. The sound is by far the absolute best I’ve yet experienced with any set of portable iPod speakers.

Control Me

The remote is of much better quality compared to its predecessor. It’s covered in soft rubber which makes it great to both hold and use. A playlist button has been added so you can skip between them, and change songs within the playlist. As I love playlists, I thoroughly enjoy this feature. There’s also your typical volume up and down keys, along with the skip track buttons and power switch. The remote gets great reception so I’ve never had to hit a button more than once - a lack of frustration is always a good thing.

Sound

This sound system never fails to blow me away every time I turn it on. Providing absolutely stunning sound for a portable player. Compared to the original SoundDock, the sound is much more crisp and clean. The base is much more defined, and there’s no annoying squeal like the older SoundDock.

Odds & Ends

The auxiliary input is key. Being that the older SoundDock didn’t feature an AUX input, I’m stoked to see one on the newer model.

The battery life is exceptional. I get about 3 hours at full volume, but Bose claims you can squeeze “much more” life at a lower volume. This is phenomenal for a product of this class.

As portable as it claims to be, the power supply is obnoxious. It’s about half the size of the Xbox 360 brick and is just about the size of a Cinema Display adapter. However for a portable product there shouldn’t be a power supply to carry around.

The Verdict

I truly love this product. From its design, to its added battery, it all adds up. It makes a great replacement to the original SoundDock, and its sure to last at least a few years. Compared to the iPod Hi-Fi it replaces, it packs the same sound, in a much smaller package. But one thing is for sure: It’s definitely not portable. The SoundDock 2 would be a much more suited label for the system.

Since Leopard’s launch last October, one new feature that I’ve found myself using on a regular basis is Spaces. Spaces, otherwise known as virtual desktops among other platforms allows you to group your applications and be rid of annoying desktop clutter. In addition, Spaces can prove immensely useful in providing priceless screen space. While Spaces is a great resource on its own, I’ve found that the methods in which it is used (especially on a laptop) can occasionally slow down my workflow.

Kent Sutherland (ksuther.com developer) has recently released his latest version of an add-on for leopard called Warp. Warp is aimed at eliminating that slow down and making Spaces all the more productive and efficient. When installed, Warp adds a preference pane to the system preferences menu which allows you to navigate through Spaces using your mouse.

So, how does Warp work?  Warp is activated by simply moving your cursor to the edge of the screen.  In doing so, you will move to the space adjacent to that edge. To avoid accidentally changing spaces, there are optional modifiers and the ability to change the activation delay.  I find this much easier than reaching for that key combination.

Kent has incorporated many options into Warp’s preference pane, allowing you to customize it in a way that suits you best. This is where the added functionality comes into play. He has left no base uncovered, providing options such as warping the mouse when switching spaces, and warping on edges with the menu bar/dock. However, the features that I feel really make this add-on shine are clicking the screen edge to warp (providing a preview of what is in the adjacent space), and Wrap around spaces, which allows you to move to the opposite side of the spaces grid in the same row or column (very useful for grids larger than 2×2).

To put it simply, Warp adds a new level of functionality to Spaces. While Spaces was a big change to get used to and incorporate into daily tasks, Warp adds a new sense of usability and makes it even more worthwhile. Don’t let its simplicity fool you, it hasn’t only increased my productivity, but changed the way I work all over again. If you find yourself looking down at the keyboard every time you want to change spaces, give Warp a try. Changing spaces can be as easy as a flick of the wrist.

According to Wikipedia, freeware software is defined as:

…computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee.

This idea came to my head while I was sitting at my MacBook and peeking at the icons stealing the precious space in my dock. There were the usual suspects including Microsoft Office, iMovie, iPhoto, etc, but sitting right next to them were icons for Adium, Transmission and Skype. These applications are available free of charge and do not come with a trial period, and are also uncrippled whether you choose to pitch in a few bucks or not.

Why are there so many great applications available on OSX for free? When friends asked me how to convert movies for their iPods, I quickly suggested Handbrake for DVDs and iSquint for regular videos files. Once they said they used Windows computers, I had to stop and think for a minute. Whenever I’ve tried to run a special operation in Windows, it seemed like it required an application that cost money. On the other hand, I can often find a similar applications on OSX for free.

What is it about OSX that makes people work hard on applications, then give them away for free? In many cases, freeware is more capable and more intuitive than the regular applications. Especially with the open-source movement, there is something cool in drawing skill and creativity from the entire community. I may not have a definitive answer to why, but I do hope that the free software community never dies.

In-case you’re wondering, here’s some of the free applications I use regularly (from top left to right):

• Butler — Application launcher
• Transmission — Bit Torrent client
• iSquint — iPod video converter
• Handbrake — DVD to iPod video converter
• Adium — Instant messaging client
• ffmpegX — convert any media to anything else
• Parsley is Atomically Delicious — properly tag iTunes media
• Chicken of the VNC — VNC viewer

Zac Cohan, Mac software developer residing in Australia is one of the two developers of Acqualia Software, the makers of World of Where, Soulver, and most recently - version 2.0 of Picturesque, an application used for preparing images for the web. Or as I know it, an application I couldn’t blog without.

Picturesque 2.0 features a redesigned single-window interface, tools for cropping, presets, and the 3D perspective effect. Using an animated “drag and drop”-style interface, Picturesque adds effects, such as 3D perspective, reflection, glow, shadow, curve, and stroke. You can also beautify images in batch, and with the ability to resize and apply effects on a whole folder of images, Picturesque is an an easy way to make sophisticated thumbnails and refined full sized images.

It has been a major part of my blogging toolset for the past year, once you start utilizing some of the fun, time saving features, working with images will never be the same again.

Competition: Five Copies To Giveaway

We have five copies of Picturesque to give away to five individual readers. Simply leave a brief comment below and we’ll draw five comments by random on the 18th of May. Oh, and while on the topic of RSS, why not subscribe to our feed for easy access to fresh content.

Dion Tavenier’s Office: Consisting Of

Mac Pro 3GHz // 8GB RAM // 4x 750GB/32MB // X1900 XT // Blu-Ray // 30″ ACD // Airport Extreme // iPhone 8GB // Pacemaker // Logitech Z-5500 Sound System // Phillips Living Colour // Wacom Tablet //

// Samsung 40″ Full HD TV // Xbox 360 Elite // Playstation 3 //

About The Workspace

I’m using my Mac Pro most for (web)design. I’m currently a starter and do this next to my job as assistant shop manager at a local Apple-retailer. I also use the machine for encoding HD-movies for personal use on the 360 or PS3, not professionally, just for my own collection. The desk is the Galant-series from IKEA.

The gaming corner isn’t used that much for gaming. I mostly use it for streaming my music and movies. I’m really a Full HD-fan. Once you go 1080p..

Tonium’s Pacemaker is a new gadget we also sell in our shop. I haven’t spend much time with the Pacemaker yet, but I can already tell that once you’ve used this device you’ll see it as your new iPod. The idea of mixing and saving on the go is great! The Philips Colour lamp was a gift of my dad which you can adjust the LED-light to suit your mood. It’s really nice.

Planning ahead I’d like to add a top of the line 17″ MacBook Pro to the desk in the near future. Handy to use between work and home.

More Views

This is a problem that many Mac users have debated over for years. It’s not exactly a problem more as a personal preference, but where you do keep your dock?

Like most, I started with my dock on the bottom. In fact nearly the entire time I used Tiger I left the dock untouched, just sitting at the bottom of my screen. It didn’t exactly bother me until I really thought about the dock and its relation to UI and productivity.

With the update of Leopard though, I moved my dock to the left of my screen and it’s amazing how such a simple move can make such a difference, especially for those with limited screen real estate. The decision to give the dock a “stylish” reflective look actually steals precious vertical space that could be used for other purposes. 

Think about it. How often do you need to use horizontal space? When it comes to design and page layout, you don’t usually see horizontal space being abused. Actually, take a look around you. Books, magazines, and paper all have the same concept; they read down in a narrow column. It’s only natural that applications reflect their real-life counter parts.

The trend of technology generally tends to support this also. As widescreen becomes more and more popular, vertical space becomes limited while horizontal expands. 

So, give a try. Most tend to hate it at first, but the benefits are worth it.

When it comes to media libraries, iTunes is undoubtedly one of the most popular applications on both Windows and Mac OS X with hundreds of millions of copies in the wild. I tend to be very obsessive compulsive with my iTunes library. Everything must have its place and be organized perfectly. Album art on every album - and if the album art can’t be found on the Internet, I scan it in manually. 

One of the advanced iTunes features that I didn’t begin using until recently are Smart Playlists. While I occasionally played with the default “Top Rated” and “Most Played” playlists, I didn’t really use the feature to the max. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve begun to discover the true power of Smart Playlists in iTunes, and how they can help you get the most out of your music.

All songs:

One of my pet peeves with iTunes is the way it handles music. The so-called “Music” tab is mixed with PDF documents and Music Videos. When you create a smart playlist, it includes songs, podcasts, movies, and anything else in iTunes. The best way to get around this is to create an “All Songs” playlist. This will automatically exclude podcasts, movies, PDF documents, and other non-music files. This playlist will become the foundation for other music-only smart playlists.

Forgotten Lovers:

This is one of my favourite new playlists, and one that I find myself spending a lot of time in. When you have a large music collection it’s easy to lose track of one of your favourite songs and forget about them. “Forgotten Lovers” scans through your iTunes library for songs that are three to five stars that haven’t been listened to for over 2 weeks. As you can see, to avoid this playlist from including podcasts and movies, we only have it gathering songs from our filtered “All songs” playlist.

Rate Me:

Having thousands of songs in my iTunes library makes it hard to go through and rate every single one. However, I try to rate as many as I can. This playlist makes it easy to do so. It gathers all the unrated songs in your library that have been played more than three times, and skipped less than three times. Usually this means that I like the song, but haven’t yet rated it.

Once you have the All Songs playlist set up, iTunes makes it simple to create powerful playlists that you can use on a daily basis. The sheer amount of metadata that iTunes stores is mind-boggling, down to the precise number of times a song has been skipped. Smart playlists in iTunes help people with large music collections rediscover their music all over again. 

It’s something which we’re constantly told to do, but something very few of us ever actually take action on. What are we talking about? Backing up your precious data.

It was made immensely easier when Apple integrated Time Machine into every copy of OSX Leopard, but now there’s a new kid on the wireless block which makes backing up all the Macs in your house a simple un-daunting task.

Not only does the Time Capsule backup wirelessly but it also doubles as a 802.11n router, which allows 5X faster network speeds and twice the range of a traditional .11g router. Not to mention, when you plug in a printer to the USB port on the back of the unit, it also can be used as wireless print server with over 50 Macs or PCs on your network. Now we’re talking.

Design

Time Capsule looks strikingly similar to the Airport Extreme, with its sleek Apple-like design and sheer sexiness. If you were to place both the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule next to one another, you would notice that Time Capsule has a chrome Apple logo and is slightly thicker due to the integrated hard drive and cooling system.

It looks phenomenal on my desk, next to my iMac and my MacBook Pro.

Setup

Setup was extremely easy both on a Mac and a PC. On a Mac, you simply install the Airport Utility which you use to manage all wireless connections around your house. Once you get the utility up and running you answer a few simple questions, follow several steps, and before you know it, your connected.

It’s just as easy using a Windows machine. Setting up Time Machine for wireless backup was also a snap. Simply click on Time Machine, slide the switch to the on position, and then select your Time Capsule to begin your first backup, which depending on how much data you have, can take some time for the initial backup. From there, the incremental backups should be brief and painless for the network.

Life with Time Capsule

I have a 1TB Time Capsule that my MacBook Pro and my iMac share. Over the past several months I have been quite pleased with it, except for when I have occasional printer troubles, which can become very aggravating. The wireless printing feature hasn’t worked in weeks - although this could be a problem with my network settings.

It’s super quiet except for the occasional spin of the hard-drive when it’s backing up. Quite honestly, I would have never backed up if it wasn’t for this product. I recommend it to anyone who has a MacBook Air, or any Mac portable for that matter. After all, who wants to be tied down for hours at a time while your computer backs up, or worse off, lose data from not backing up at all? Errr, not me.

Sticking to a subject we been talking about a lot this past week, is Dustin MacDonald’s stunning new RSS reader Times.

Mikio Inose, the designer Dustin employed to design and create the application icon, today posted a few images on Flickr showcasing the full process of designing the icon from start to finish. In addition to the computer based mockups, Mikio also uploaded images of the initial sketches and an array of different concepts.

This is well worth checking out if you’re interested in seeing what goes into creating an application icon as stunning as the 512×512 one used for Times. View the Flickr photoset here.

Over the last few years the amount of PC gamers has begun to drop. People have started to favor consoles as their main source of interactive entertainment. Computers have become more of a digital lifestyle tool rather then for enjoyment. This is one of the things that I associate to the increase in Mac sales. With people buying consoles they no longer need a computer that can play games.

However this hasn’t stopped companies like Alienware from flourishing and manufacturers continuing to promote their line of gaming desktops vigorously. For instance the newly releasedDell XPS 730. Truly a beast of a machine. This sort of computer still has its market for those who want an experience that the console does not yet offer.

Long Live The PC

The gaming PC is bound to be around for a while longer, there are still a fair few things that attract consumers to PCs. For instance, they’re more customizable to suit your needs. With a PC you can tune your computer to play whatever form of games you want - something that the console (power wise especially) does not yet offer.

Your also less limited to games, playing a real-time-strategy using the Xbox 360’s controller isn’t the most friendly experience. While with a good old keyboard and mouse, you have far more control. And of course, with a console you are pretty much limited to playing games and watching video content (though Microsoft is slowly making changes with this). On a PC you’re only limited by the software which is available for the platform.

Power is important, let’s face it, if you compare the latest and greatest gaming PC to something like the Playstation 3 there is no comparison (admittedly there is not comparison in price either) but if people are willing to make a large investment they want the best, which graphically wise the Playstaion 3 or Xbox 360 does not have.

Consoles Are King

There are a fair few attractions to the consoles, the price (as previously mentioned) been one of them. You could buy ten Playstation 3’s for the price of the base Dell XPS 730! When you get a console you get a GUI that is fine tuned to the gaming experience and making it easier for you to get to your games straight away. With the PC, it has been designed to do many more things: send and receive email, browse the web, create Excel spreadsheets - the list goes on.

It’s also a lot harder to fit a gaming computer in a home media center experience. You really have to have a separate area, it’s not as easy to game, you can’t simply switch input and turn it on as you can do with a console.

Conclusion

Though desktop gaming still remains to be many people’s preference the future seems to be the console for gaming and the computer for everything else. As for whether this is really a good thing really depends. It may keep everyone innovating and my hope is for PC makers to realize that they are alienating their customers by having such high prices - and therefore make them more competitive against consoles.

It seems, for now, the jury is out.

Times is the latest addition to Dustin’s achievement list and the first application he’s created under his new company Acrylic.

Most people would describe software as boring, bland, dull tools that are only necessary to simply get a job done. Sadly enough, most modern software actually matches this description pretty well. Acrylic is different. We think of software as something much more - an amazing medium to express new ideas and experiences to the user. We strive to create innovative, beautiful, fun software that makes using a computer more enjoyable. - Dustin MacDonald.

Trying to reinvent the way you read news, they’ve created the best possible news experience straight from the ground up. Instead of treating news like email (as most RSS readers do), Times presents you with headlines and photos from a variety of sources all in one place, letting you more easily discover the news you want to read.

The Winners

Our sincere thanks to the 138 people who entered the competition. This may be the first competition we’ve run on Desktop Vibes, but it most certainly won’t be the last. Expect another within a fortnight.

Jordan Chark
Michael Mistretta
Katherine Fellows
Ebbi
Stephen.

Your registration details for Times will be on the way shortly. Enjoy a completely new experience of RSS.

OSX Leopard is such a compelling and creative platform that many times I find myself sitting at my laptop for hours on end working on a project for a client without realizing the day has passed and I haven’t even had time to get some fresh air outside. Recently, I found an app that changed all of this. Time Out has one main objective - to get you to take timed breaks away from your Mac.

Time Out has two different kinds of breaks, a micro break and a normal break. A micro break is a very small break which allows your eyes to adjust to something other than your display for a few seconds, while a normal break is slightly longer and often a good time to grab a bottle of water or take a quick walk outside.

In the Time Out preferences you can easily customize the time of breaks. During both micro and normal breaks, Time Out fades over your screen with a selected color and indicates the time left in the break with a progress bar. If you have to finish a very important task and Time Out goes into break mode, you can postpone the break by either 1 or 5 minutes. Time Out also gives you the option to skip a break.

Time Out is very customizable. In the preferences you’re able to set many different properties for the timer and appearance of the application. A preference that is often under looked is the ability to run Apple Scripts or Automator workflows at the end or beginning of each break. For example, you could have Coda automatically save and upload a HTML document to your server each time you go on a break.

Time Out is a very useful app to anyone that needs a helpful little reminder to take a step away from their Mac every so often. I’ve found that after taking a break from my Mac, I can come back to a project with some fresh new ideas. I’ve also noticed that I enjoy the time I spend at my Mac even more, because I’m always taking short breaks away from it. Best of all, Time Out is absolutely free and you can download it from Dejal Software.

Software developer Dustin MacDonald is well recognized in the Mac software industry. Although just 19 years of age he’s already well known for his success with personal data organization application Wallet, which is now in version 2.7 and used by thousands of Mac users around the world.

Times is the latest addition to Dustin’s achievement list and the first application he’s created under his new company Acrylic.

Most people would describe software as boring, bland, dull tools that are only necessary to simply get a job done. Sadly enough, most modern software actually matches this description pretty well. Acrylic is different. We think of software as something much more - an amazing medium to express new ideas and experiences to the user. We strive to create innovative, beautiful, fun software that makes using a computer more enjoyable. - Dustin MacDonald.

Trying to reinvent the way you read news, they’ve created the best possible news experience straight from the ground up. Instead of treating news like email (as most RSS readers do), Times presents you with headlines and photos from a variety of sources all in one place, letting you more easily discover the news you want to read.

You’ll be impressed by the sheer attention to detail in Times. Every feature was carefully crafted to work as intuitively and naturally as possible, while still keeping with Mac design philosophies.

Times uses many advanced OS X technologies, like Core Animation - which allows for clear and concise animations throughout the interface, making it easy to always see what’s going on. - Times Website

Like your own personal newspaper, you can put feeds into separate areas, create pages for different subjects, and more. The best way to understand how Times works, and if it’ll work for you is by downloading a trial.

Competition: Five Copies To Giveaway

We have five copies of Times to give away to five individual readers. Want a chance to own the latest RSS application to the Mac platform? Simply leave a brief comment below and we’ll draw five comments by random on the 6th of May. Oh, and while on the topic of RSS, why not subscribe to our feed for easy access to fresh content.

This year marks the start for a new uprising of web services which focus around the concept of Cloud Computing, the ability to run high end and useful applications from the web using an ordinary internet browser. One such experiment is from Adobe Lab’s which is the web version of Photoshop aptly named Photoshop Express (BETA).

Photoshop Express (BETA) is a Flash powered website that allows you to perform the basic Photoshop operations on photos such as colour adjustment, cropping, red-eye removal, and special effects. To get started you simply create an account (currently you can only join by stating your country as the US), login and then upload your photos. Now this presents PSE’s first hurdle, redundancy of data. Now this is intended for quick touch ups and edits, just like it’s competition which is the mediocre applications that ship with digital cameras. The advantage with these applications is that any inexperienced user can plug in a camera and be instantly downloading and editing their photos. I found it annoying to have to use my browser to look for the photo I wanted to edit, it was just a step I felt I could do with out.

What I think Adobe may getting at sooner is extending this service into their AIR platform, allowing the AIR application to directly access the user’s hard-drive and pull all the photos they have on their hard-drive or memory card. This is something that could be a real winner for Adobe, allowing my grandma to visit our house and immediately show us her new photos without having to email a 50MB zip file.

But, Adobe also does allow me to import my photos from Facebook, Picasa or Photobucket so I can edit a headshot of me for later use. Something that if promoted would win over the Facebook crowd.

The first couple of features are pretty stock standard such as Red-Eye removal, Auto Correct and Exposure. One feature that really striked me as quite attractive was the Touchup feature, allowing me to select an area that may be blurred or scratched and replace it with a swatch from another area. It takes a little getting used to because you need to adjust the red circle (the area you wish to copy) before clicking the green circle (the area to replace) otherwise it may accidently take a swatch from the background or some random area.

With White Balance, PSE has some nifty presets for adjusting based on the lighting conditions at the time. Highlight adds extra light to a photo which, unless the photo was taken well, will result in just a washed out photo. Sharpen and Soft Focus perform exactly what their names imply.

Pop Colour is a nifty effect allowing you to select a specific colour and have it stand out, much like those photos you see with a greyscale photo encapsulating a coloured object, for some artistic users they may enjoy producing art basically on the fly. The Hue, Black & White, and Tint effects are what you’d expect from any photo application. Sketch transforms photos into something like it had been drawn while Distort allows you to bend photos creating “fish-eye” effects.

As you may of noticed that effects are pretty standard, but this is a powerful web application for quick edits and novice users. I am found myself using it when I need a quick crop, it saves me the wait of Photoshop to load or to have iPhoto want to first import it into its 6GB library.

Photoshop Express is a winner for anyone on the go wanting to edit that little blemish or produce a mug-shot in a snap, it especially appeals to those running Windows who right out the box want to edit a photo without loading some trialware enhanced application. I will certainly be using this a lot more in the future.

Although they’ve been in public knowledge since CES 2008 in January, the first I heard of Monster’s latest audio product “Beats” with the backing of superstar Rap producer Dr Dre was just yesterday.

Retailing for $399, they’re supposedly tuned by the former N.W.A. member and Death Row founder himself (along with a little help from ‘Head Monster’ Noel Lee), and boast “rich, deep bass” which promises to keep your head ringin’

The black headphones come complete with a beautifully designed carrying case with anti-microbial cleaning cloths, a special Monster headphone cable, a mini-stereo to ¼-inch stereo cable adapter, as well as Monster’s iSonitalk, a microphone/headphone adapter for iPhones.

“When I’m making a track I’m trying to capture the sound that makes me go ‘now that’s the shit! And I want that reaction from everybody who hears it,” said Dr. Dre. “I spend a lot of time in the studio listening to my music through headphones…with Beats, people are finally going to hear it the way they should: the way I do.”

While I’ve been stuck using the stock standard iPod headphones for the last three years, I feel it’s time to move forward and look for something more satisfying to get the most out of my listening experience.

I’m eager for Beats to arrive in store later this year so I can take a close look at them. The sleek design has already caught my eye, all that needs proving to now is my ears. Not too much longer to wait.