ProCamera takes pictures just like the standard iPhone camera app. But it adds three important features. First, you can set a timer to take a picture. Second, you can have it wait for the camera to stop moving before it snaps the picture, very useful for eliminating blurry photos. Third, it gives you a level for taking photos that line up straight. All very nice if you take a lot of pictures with your iPhone.
There are a lot of ways to experience Twitter on your Mac. Right now. TweetDeck seems to be very popular among Mac users. It is free and you can immerse yourself in social media by filling your screen with your tweets, your friend’s tweets, and tweets from around the world. Lots of great bonus functionality.
You can change your account icon by going to System Preferences, Accounts. Then click on your icon to select a new one, or choose Edit Picture to select a file or use your iSight camera to take a new picture. You can also drag and drop from the finder onto the icon. Or, you can select the icon and paste into it. You will then have a chance to zoom in and recenter.
Dominating Apple news this week was the announcement of the third major revision of the iPhone operating system. Users will see it this summer, but developers can get their hands on it now.
There is a lot of buzz over new standard features, like copy and paste, MMS, landscape typing in Mail and a few improved standard apps. But the real news may be in what Apple will let developers do in the new OS. There will be push notification to allow apps to get messages even when not running, in-app purchases, and communication with external devices via bluetooth or the dock.
You can see a full report of what is new and what it might mean to you in episode 217 of the video podcast.
In other news, Apple has finally appeared on Twitter with an account that highlights new feed that tells you what new trailers have been posted in iTunes. @itunestrailers is thought by many to be Apple’s test of using Twitter, so we might see more eventually.
Always finding it hard to locate system preference panes in System Preferences? You can change the window to show you the panes in alphabetical order, instead of by category. Just open the System Preferences and choose View, Organize Alphabetically. You can also use the search box at the top of the window to quickly find things throughout all preference panes.
In the crowded world of online reviews, Yelp is getting some traction. You can often find reviews of places that aren’t reviewed anywhere else. And with the Yelp iPhone app, it is quick and easy to find reviews of places near you, while on the go. A great way to see if that restaurant you are driving by is any good.
One thing missing from Mac OS X is a simple and free paint program, you know like that other OS has. But there are several free programs like this you can download. Seashore leads the pack by being both easy to install and use, but still having powerful features like layers support and good export options.
Apple followed up last week’s Mac announcements with a new iPod model this week. The iPod Shuffle is now smaller and bigger — smaller size, but 4GB of storage. It also works with VoiceOver, technology that will read out song and playlist names. This allows you to select playlists on the screenless Shuffle. But the new model is already receiving criticism since it places the critical controls on the earbud wires, requiring the use of earbuds and ruling out using your own headphones or plugging it into a car. You can check out this episode of MacMost Now for more details.
Apple also released an update to iTunes this week, presumably to support the new Shuffle. But it also adds “iTunes Plus” as an import option so you can have your CD imports at the same quality level as iTunes purchases.
Rumors are getting stronger that a Mac NetBook might be on the way. Latest reports claim that 10 inch touch screens have been ordered by Apple. If this is true, then not only will a new product fill the NetBook niche, but also be the first touch screen Mac.
The system add-on GimmeSomeTune works with iTunes and gets album artwork and song lyrics for you. It will even send out a message over iChat telling your friends what song you are listening to.
There are a lot of voice recording apps out there, but iTalk Recorder comes from a known brand (Griffin) and in two flavors: a free iTalk Recorder with ads at the bottom, and an ad-free version called iTalk Recorder Premium. YOu can record at high quality and then transfer the files to your Mac using a free application. You can add notes and play back your recordings on the iPhone as well.
You can change how standard scrollbars work throughout OS X in the Appearance system preferences. The two options are to have a click on the scroll bar page forward or back, or to have a click instantly jump to that position in the page.
