Archive for February, 2009
Pixelmator Giveaway
Feb 28th
I have been using the excellent Pixelmator for over 12 months now and it easily became my image editor of choice.
The Pixelmator Team have kindly given me ONE free license to give away to a lucky Fruit Bytes visitor, worth $59.
All you need to do to enter is leave a message in the comments section and all entrants will be placed into a draw which will take place in 7 days time. The lucky winner will be informed by e-mail and it will also be announced here.
Entries for the Pixelmator Giveaway closes on Saturday 7th March 2009 at 6PM GMT.
Good luck!
Pixelmator System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard or later, Core Image supported graphics card, some features require iLife.
Please only post a comment on this entry if you wish to be entered in the draw.
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Put It In Your Pipette
Feb 27th
There are countless times when I’ve wanted to find the hex code for a colour or a photo I’ve seen on the net and my only option has been to take a screenshot of the page, open it in Pixelmator and then use the eyedropper tool to grab the RGB value for it, then have another look around the net for a site to convert RGB to HEX. This of course can be very time consuming but up until this evening I didn’t know of a quicker and easier path.
Then my friend Tom put a shout out on Twitter for a Dropper style app that’ll help you find HTML color codes off websites, pics etc. Because I too was interested in such an app, I had a Google around the net but most of what turned up were for the Windows platform. A few friends of mine suggested the DigitalColor Meter which can be found in the Utilities folder on the Mac. A handy little tool which will grab the colour of anything on your screen, but this too grabs just the RGB value, albeit quicker than the screengrab/Pixelmator/eyedropper tool route I have been taking.
After another little Google search I came across a fine little application called Pipette. This does exactly what Tom (and I) were looking for.
Pipette is a handy utility for digital artists and web designers. It allows you to quickly and easily grab the colour of any pixel on the screen and copy it in hex format, as used in CSS files, or in paint programs, such as Adobe Photoshop.
To use the app, click and drag the eyedropper to the desired location on the screen and then release the mouse button. There and then you can see the HEX code in the little window as you move over the image as you can see in the picture above.
Pipette is available in three flavours: PPC only, Intel only or Universal Binary. Oh and the best part is it’s absolutely free.
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My Quick Pick of the Week: Safari 4
Feb 25th
I have chosen not to do a full write-up of Safari 4 beta which was released to the Mac and PC masses yesterday, as Ars Technica have covered everything beautifully and intensively. However, I will instead give my very brief thoughts on Safari 4 instead of doing a formal review.
I love it.
Okay, so I’m not going to be that brief. But, that pretty much sums it up. On first opening I wasn’t sure about the new tabs placement at all, which are now located at the top of the browser window as opposed to under the bookmarks bar as in Safari 3 and earlier. For a while I kept double clicking on the bookmarks bar to open a new tab out of habit, but in actual fact I adapted very quickly to the new layout. The + icon at the top right of the browser window to open a tab feels more natural and intuitive. I like it.
The buzz on Twitter seems to be that people are missing the blue progress bar. Big time. Would you believe that I didn’t actually note it’s absence until I saw the masses of complaints. But yes, I think that might be something useful to have back as the little spinning indicator graphic isn’t really indicative of how much time we have to wait for a site to load.
Overall I’m very happy with Safari 4 Beta. Apart from the UI changes and some of the 150 new features, the speed increase is quite an improvement over an already speedy browser. I miss Inquisitor heavily as I can’t set GoogleUK as the default for my search results, but I’m sure there will be a new version along for Safari 4 soon.
So, have you tried Safari 4 beta yet? What are you liking and disliking about it?
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Throwboy Icon Pillows
Feb 24th
Today I ordered myself a Throwboy pillow from The Icon Pillow Collection.
I found out about Throwboy a few weeks back, thanks to a comment made here by Oscar. I e-mailed Throwboy to ask if they accepted PayPal but more importantly to enquire whether they shipped to the United Kingdom. I received a friendly reply within minutes confirming what I’d hoped for.
$29.00 is a great price for hand crafted 100% fleece pillows. With the $8 international shipping on top I paid just over £26 GBP.
All of the icons are great, and of course I’d love them all, but I couldn’t resist the happy smiling face of the Finder.
That is going to take comfy pride of place on my chair in the home office. Now I can’t wait for it to arrive. Photos and a review will no doubt follow. Thank you, Throwboy 
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Keep your Apps Fresh
Feb 20th
If you have quite a few Apps on your Mac then you’ll know how tedious it can be to open every one of them manually from time to time to see if there are any new updates. Or, worse still, if you’re anything like me you’ll come to open an app for the first time in a couple of months and be prompted to download the newest version just at the moment you want to use it quickly. You’ll ask it to remind you later – which of course you forget all about until the next time you want to use it in a hurry!
I have had a free application called AppFresh installed on my Mac for around a year or so which takes the pain out of manually checking every app by looking for all updates in your applications, dashboard widgets, preference panes and plugins in one go. It does this by checking osx.iusethis.com for new versions. Now all you need to do is remember to run AppFresh occasionally to see what’s available for download. It will even check for Apple’s system updates so you won’t have to run the Software Update separately.
Once downloaded and opened, AppFresh will run through your apps/pref panes/widgets and will show you the status of everything in it’s sidebar. You can choose to download updates individually or select them all. It will safely download updates to your Downloads folder (or folder of your choice via Preferences) so you can install them. This is generally a case of grabbing hold of the application and dragging it to the Applications folder like you would with any app installation. It will install the updates if considered safe, although this is not selected by default in the application so once again you will need to enter the AppFresh Preferences.
On my last AppFresh update, it showed 41 items as unknown. Many of these were apps that were bundled with my printer and digital camera which don’t have any updater built into them.
So, now all *I* need to do is remember to run AppFresh every once and again to keep my apps all up to date. Now, that won’t be too hard, will it?
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Safari140
Feb 17th
For a while there have been Twitter extensions for other browsers out there but none, to my knowledge, for Safari on the Mac. That was until a few days ago when Safari140 was released. This new extension was created by the developer behind the elegant NewsFire and Inquisitor.
Once downloaded and installed, simply go to File > Post to Twitter where you will first be asked to enter your Twitter credentials. With that complete you can post direct to twitter from Safari and it will auto-fill the current site aswell as auto-shorten long URL’s as you can see in the screengrab below.
This could take the pain out of posting long URL’s on Twitter without having to swing by one of the URL shortening websites first.
Another of David Watanabe’s apps, NewsFire 1.6 Beta 1, now boasts direct posting to Twitter aswell as a very nice updated design.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Desktop Blog Publishing
Feb 13th
After growing tired of the often very slow WordPress 2.7 Admin Interface, I went in search of a desktop blog publishing application. I remember hearing recommendations of MarsEdit by Red Sweater Software so I downloaded the 30-day trial of version 2.
Once downloaded you will be asked to input your Weblog Name and URL, then your admin username and password. It will then fetch your last 10 posts. If you don’t already have a weblog but want to create one then you can also do that through MarsEdit by clicking I want to create a free weblog and this will give you the option to start a weblog at WordPress.com or Blogger.com.
Aside from working beautifully with WordPress, MarsEdit is also fully compatible with Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, Drupal, Vox and more. It will also integrate cleanly with your favourite editor such as BBEdit, SubEthaEdit, TextMate and TextWrangler.
I was impressed by the interface which is very clean and uncluttered – a bit like an e-mail client. The Markup Macros list makes inserting repetitive snippets a breeze and aswell as a list of macros already there by default, you can also add your own in.
The Media Manager for uploading images is a most welcome feature. I have never been able to successfully upload an image within a blog post when doing so through my Safari browser. I’d get some sort of HTTP error come back, whereas it would upload fine using Camino. But, switching between browsers to simply upload media was becoming quite tiresome. The Media Manager also allows me to browse the catalog of images already uploaded to my blog, aswell as my images on Flickr which I can easily insert into my blog post.
Another nice feature in MarsEdit 2 is the Preview window which I can keep open while writing a blog post and it will constantly and instantly update, showing me how the post layout will look. This is particularly useful for when placing in images. No more having to click ‘Save’ then ‘Preview’ as one does in the Wordpress Admin interface. The Preview window can also be hidden.
Once I’ve written my post I can add in my tags and select the categories I want the post to appear under. Once published I can also edit or delete any post directly within the MarsEdit application.
As my evaluation period was drawing to a close, I did a last minute look around to see if there were any other blog publishing applications that I should consider before settling on one and making a purchase. I downloaded Blogo but didn’t get on with that at all. So, with just another day or two on my trial copy I decided to purchase MarsEdit 2 for $29.95. I know some people will ask why pay for a desktop blog client when the WP Admin is free, as I have myself in the past. Well, aside from all the great features I mentioned above, one of the things MarsEdit has done for me is encourage more frequent writing. If proof were needed of that, just look at the amount of posts I’ve written in the past 30 days. Software that changes my daily behaviour is well worth paying for.
Do you use a desktop blog publishing client?
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Chi.mp Limited Offer
Feb 12th
Last month I gave away a few invites for Chi.mp but there was more interest than I had invites. So, last night I spoke to the VP Marketing to ask if he could furnish me with a few more invites to pass on to site visitors. He told me that they are opening up registration for chi.mp today…
To sign up when this registration window opens, go to http://chi.mp/twiistup
If, like me, you aren’t in the United States and are unsure of when 6PM-12 MIDNIGHT PST falls in your part of the world, then check out this site. So, it’s between 2-8AM GMT. Hope you have that coffee pot at the ready!
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Gone Wireless
Feb 11th
Around 24 hours after posing this question (and some great consideration based on feedback here and on Twitter) I purchased the wireless Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse. They are be-aut-iful.
I’m surprised that I didn’t need to make any finger adjustments to using the wireless keyboard given that some keys are in slightly different places – notably the up/down/left/right keys aswell as the lack of delete key. I’ve touched the += key a few times when reaching for the backspace key, but apart from that it’s just been an utter joy to use. How nice to finally be without that spare bit of key-land to the right which I just never touched. It was becoming a great haven for dust.
After inserting the three AA batteries into the keyboard and switching it on, I noticed a little green light appear. Once I’d paired it up with my iMac (which is all so quick and easy as you’d expect from Apple) I tried looking for that green light. Where did it go? I could see no visible means whatsoever. I switched it off and on again, there appeared the light. I kept my eye on it until it went out so I could try and see “the joins” – not a chance. It just totally disappears. How do they do that? It’s so sleek.
The wireless Mighty Mouse feels great aswell. I didn’t really take into consideration the weight difference considering the wireless takes, of course, two batteries thus making it feel heavier and in turn more solid. It’s a lovely feel, glides great. Very very happy indeed. I’ve already sold my wired Apple Keyboard and am hopeful that I have another buyer for the wired Mighty Mouse. The money I receive from both sales should cover the cost of one of the wireless devices.
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Going Wireless
Feb 9th
I’ve always used a wired Apple Keyboard and Mouse since switching to the Mac. The wires, if I’m honest, never bothered me. The wire on the Mighty Mouse is quite short and just plugs into the USB port on the side of my keyboard, so is quite unobtrusive. However, since my workspace is really minimal now the long thin wire from the keyboard to the iMac is bothering me quite a bit. It just looks wrong.
After tweeting my desire to buy a wireless Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse this afternoon, I’ve received a lot of replies recommending that I stay clear of the wireless MM as many have gone through up to 6 replacements before switching or find that it keeps jumping around. Because of my eye for form aswell as function, I wanted everything to match – everything to be Apple.
So, I’m still looking to get the wireless Apple Keyboard (the lack of number pad isn’t an issue for me), but I’ve had enough tweets from others this afternoon to make me re-think the wireless Mighty Mouse as an idea. So, what (Mac compatible) wireless mouse do you use and what would you recommend? If you are a wireless MM user, what are your thoughts? I would like to keep the cost under £50 as I think that’s pretty steep for a mouse, to be honest. My requirements are quite simple: a scroll wheel, left and right click. As far as function goes that’s where I’m at. Form, however, is a different matter. iMac matching would be good.
I’d have loved Apple to release more options in the keyboard and mouse department. Black keys on aluminum for the keyboard, silver and black for the mouse would be great options and perfect for those of us with the iMac and now of course the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. I’d probably have no issue with the wired keyboard if it were backlit, either 
One of the recommendations to come through from my friend Khalid is the Logitech MX Revolution. The charging dock is a nice feature, but is a little more expensive than I was preparing to spend.
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