Pixelmator

I’m not real big on image editing.  I’m not a photographer save for the random family photo, but every so often I need to do a little advanced image manipulation (typically for this site).  There are some great apps for the iPad that will allow you to manipulate photos, but may not be practical if you need to create or combine images.  Photoshop from Adobe will let you do just about anything with images, be it creating something from scratch or touching up photos, but that software requires big money to get your hands on a licensed copy.  If cost is a serious factor for you, there is a Mac OS X version of the open source image editing software GIMP available, but there are some caveats to that as well.

If you don’t mind spending a little money, and by a little I mean $60, then have a look at Pixelmator.  For only $60, there is a lot to it.  The UI is very clean and straight forward and I found it quick to use even with my seriously lacking image editing skills.  The one issue I had right away was the ability to draw basic shapes.  Of course you could try to free-hand sketch of a circle or square, but most of us are not that talented.  Luckily there are forums available to search through and ask questions.  Needless to say, my questions were answered after a quick skim through the forums and documentation.

The current version of Pixelmator is 1.6 (Nucleus) and has some serious improvements over the last version.  One in particular is 64-bit support.  You can download it for free and evaluate if for 30 days however there are a couple things to be aware of while doing so.  Images you save during the evaluation period will have a water mark and once your 30 days are up, you won’t be able to use the application unless you purchase a license key.  So, give it a try if your in the market for some image editing software for Mac OS X.

Update: Just used Pixelmator to create the site’s new logo!  Very cool program!

-Tim

Cisco iPhone App

Every now and again, I like to run a search for “cisco” through Apple’s App Store.  My recent search came across this little beauty of an App.  Cisco has a couple other apps for iPhone on the App Store but this one will get the most use from me even though I have WebEX installed.  The Cisco App provides news, events, product updates, security advisories and more.  The app will also give you the ability to watch some of the product videos typically found at cisco.com.  So, grab yourself a copy if you are interested.

-Tim

Photopad

I was in the App Store the other day looking for new iPad apps. when I came across Photopad for iPad.  I wasn’t looking for a photo editing app but was intrigued that the app author states in the description that the app will always be free.  Now, free is cool but experience has taught me that free usually comes at some sort of sacrifice.  With much skepticism, I decided to investigate further and was glad I did.

Photopad is  is indeed a premium photo editing app that uses your on board photo library to edit and save images.  It has some nice utilities that I instantly found useful.  Unlike other free apps, it is not packed (as of this writing) with advertising which is a big plus in my book.  The interface is easy to work with and utilizes screen real estate very well.  As you can see on with my other posts, I like to take a lot of screenshots on the iPad and iPhone.  A problem I’ve run into in the past, granted not often, is a photo not making it to my site with the proper orientation.  I had the opportunity correct this issue with Photopad and had no problems.  The coolest part about my first test run was that the rotate function can use multi touch input to rotated images.  The crop and scale functions will take the same input as well.  So if you have a need for an iPad photo editing app, take a look a Photopad.

-Tim

It’s April 3rd and for those of us who love gadgets and technology that means one thing.   Today, you can finally get your hands on the  Apple iPad.   I remember watching Steve Job’s presentation of the device and thinking to myself that it would be a great, “I need to send a quick email” or “Draft a quick blog post” device.   I’m well aware the Apple iPad is so much more capable than sending the average email or viewing websites.   Some view the iPad as just an oversized iPhone, but I think the key difference is that iPad will now give you the ability to read digital content such as books, magazines and newspapers comfortably.   I couldn’t imagine trying to do that on the iPhone.   Personally, I would need more screen real-estate if I was going to spend a lot of time reading.

I’m still not sure if I will purchase the iPad or not.   My wife sees the device as a potential replacement for her aging Macbook Pro and I believe she could get away with just having an iPad sans laptop.   She could use mine to dock the device for synchronization and backup.   As for me, I’m not sure I have a need for a device such as the iPad at present.   So, although I’m riding the fence so to speak, I’m sure some application or feature I’m unaware of will push me into one yard or the other.   Lastly, and obviously since I didn’t order one, I don’t have a review of the device so check out the one over at  Engadget.

-Tim

I make no effort to hide my distaste for internet advertising (or advertising in general).   It’s been my experience that websites that utilize 3rd party advertising servers generally have slower page loads, especially the ones that utilize graphics or flash content.     For the longest time,  I used a custom CSS file in safari to block unwanted advertisements across the websites I visit.   It was when that same CSS file caused issues with WordPress that I finally had to get rid of the CSS file with much regret.   Fortunately, I came across a much better solution:   GlimmerBlocker.

GlimmerBlocker is an ad blocker for Mac OS X’s Safari web browser.   What I like most about GlimmerBlocker (aside that it is completely free) is it acts as an HTTP Proxy.   This means that you can use any web browser (or application that uses the HTTP protocol) and GlimmerBlocker will still block advertising.   You can also feel free to upgrade your web browser without fear of it breaking GlimmerBlocker.   It’s pretty cools stuff, so check it out if you are interested!

-Tim

P.S.   If you are a Firefox fan, tryout Adblock Plus.