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Many people use more than one social networking site. So what if you could have all of them in one spot? That’s what EventBox, from The Cosmic Machine, is for. Recently released as a beta, EventBox lets you view updates from many different sites. All in one clean window.

EventBox has a very simple interface. On the left you can select the site, or just click recent, and on the right you can view the content. In the recent section everything shows up differently. Status updates show up as chat bubbles and images show up as film reels. It looks great. When you click on some items, like RSS feeds and Twitter updates, a new section slides in from the bottom. This will let you view the RSS feed, reply to the tweet, and even comment on Flickr photos!

Currently, EventBox supports the following sites, but more are coming soon:

  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Pownce
  • Reddit
  • RSS
  • Twitter

EventBox is a great all in one application to easily view many social websites in one place. The developers at The Cosmic Machine plan to add many features in upcoming releases. Including del.icio.us, last.fm, and Orkut support, RSS syncing, a HUD window, and much more. This is still just a beta, but this first release is very impressive. EventBox is currently available for $20 and you can download a 14 day trial here.

14/05/2008

Software

Comic Life MagiqRecently, with the Apple Design Award deadline a few days ago, many applications have been updated and released. One of these was Comic Life Magiq, from Plasq. Comic Life Magiq is an entire new application, meant to be like a ‘pro’ version of Comic Life.

Plasq added many cool new features and an entire new look. One of the main features is the Magiq image editor. Using the image editor users can add many effects and change the colors of pictures. The image editor has an amazing tool for cutting out objects. Just draw a line on the inside of the object, and then one on the outside. Comic Life will find the border in between the line and cut the object out.

Check out the introductory video and download the demo at Plasq’s website.

Comic Life Magiq costs $44.95 or $29.95 to upgrade from Comic Life. Currently they are having a discount with the application selling for $39.95 or $19.95 for an upgrade. For more info or to purchase, hit up Plasq.

14/02/2008

Software

Aperture 2.0 Arrives

Lately Apple has released many new things. Mac OSX 10.5.2 and Apple TV Take 2. One other announcement was the long awaited Aperture 2. This version is the third major update to Apple’s photo editing software and introduces many great features.

The most obvious feature is a new interface which makes photos easier to find and edit. There is also a simpler iPhoto library browser and a quick look feature. Apple added some more editing tools and added more RAW support.

This update was mainly focused on speed, with the improved search tools and quick look features, and overall I think this is a great update and I plan on upgrading soon. You can try a 30 day trial and read more about Aperture 2 here. Apple even has a large list of video tutorials available.

Aperture 2 costs $99 for an upgrade, $200 for a new user, or $179 for a non-upgradable student version. If you recently purchased Apeture 1.5, from January 1 to March 14, 2008 you can pay $9.95 shipping for a free upgrade.

16/01/2008

Fun Stuff, iTunes

New Mac Games from Ambrosia - Aquaria Today Ambrosia released some new information on the Mac port of Aquaria, an underwater adventure made by Bit Blot. They announced that a new build is almost ready for beta. Also this build is currently playable at their Macworld booth.

Also EA has announced that Spore, the much anticipated new Will Wright game, will be released simultaneously on Mac and PC.

With all the keynote news it is easy to miss the small Apple updates. While browsing the iTunes store I noticed a slight change. Near the bottom of the main page was a little icon that read, “Pole Position Remix: Game Just added”. Could this be an iPod version of the classic Pole Position arcade game? Maybe. So I clicked this button and headed to the iPod games section, which showed no Pole Position Remix.

Another game added today was Block Breaker Deluxe, by Gameloft. Which is mostly Brick with some special features. But doesn’t look like anything very special.

08/01/2008

Apple News

Updated Mac Pro and Xserve!

This morning the Apple Store was down, but unlike most times the store goes down, this time something changed! Apple just updated the Mac Pros and Xserve. Here are some of the main basic configuration specs.

Mac Pro Configuration

  • Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Harpertown” processors
    • Up to 3.2GHz
  • 2GB memory
    • Up to 32GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics with 256MB memory
  • 320GB hard drive
  • 16x double-layer SuperDrive

The basic Mac Pro configuration will cost you $2799.
More info on the Mac Pro page at the Apple Store

Xserve Configuration

  • 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Harpertown” processor
    • Up to 3GHz
  • 1600MHz frontside bus and 12MB L2 cache
  • 2GB memory
    • Up to 32GB
  • 80GB hard drive
  • Built in graphics with 64MB RAM
  • Mac OSX Server 10.5 Leopard Unlimited Client

The basic Xserve configuration will cost you $2999.
More info on Xserve at the Apple Store

07/01/2008

Software

Transmission 1.0 ReleasedAs many of you know BitTorrent is a way to transfer and share files from “peers”. Transmission, a free BitTorrent client for OSX and Linux, recently hit version 1.0. This release included many good improvements.

  • Option for not using encryption
  • Updated icon
  • Redesigned for Leopard
  • Time Machine ignores incomplete downloads
  • Compatible with Clutch web interface

Along with many more fixes and new features. Transmission is very simple to use and is a great free BitTorrent client for Mac OSX. You can visit the Transmission website here.

19/12/2007

iTunes

Bomberman Now Available for the iPodLooks like Apple is getting ready for Christmas, and people who want some games for their new iPods. Today Bomberman was released for the iPod. The version includes 20 levels and 3 mini games. As usual you can listen to your own music and it is compatible with 3rd generation iPod nanos, 5th generation iPods, and the iPod Classic.

You can get your copy of Bomberman now for $5 from the iTunes Music Store.

19/12/2007

iTunes

Sonic the Hedgehog and Peggle Rock the iPod

Today Apple released Sonic the Hedgehog (The original) and Peggle for iPod. The original Sonic game includes 2 control styles and unlimited continues. You can listen to the retro Sonic music or jam to your own. Peggle is an iPod port of the PC game by Popcap. The main task is to shoot a ball and hit as many pegs as you can, getting points with each hit. The game includes 55 levels and a Pass ‘n’ play mode. You can buy both these games for your Classic, 3rd gen Nano, or 5th gen iPod for $5 from the iTunes store. Enjoy!

16/12/2007

Software

TastyApps - Web SnapperIt appears that the Tasty Apps developers have been very busy lately. Just a few days ago I wrote about the major update to FLVR (now Videobox). But it appears that they recently also updated Red Snapper (now Web Snapper) and added, the fresh from the oven, Tasty Unzip.

Web Snapper shares a very similar interface to Videobox. The purpose of Web Snapper is to grab screenshots of a whole web page. You just drop a website URL in the window and it analyzes the website. If you use Safari you can install a button which just takes whatever site is open. Then, with the familiar screen flash and photo click, the website appears in Web Snapper. All you need to do now is click the download arrow to download a full page screenshot.

Tasty Apps is Cooking - Web Snapper

The only new application is Tasty Unzip. Tasty Unzip is a very simple application that can clear up your download folder. When you unzip a zip file Tasty Unzip automatically replaces the zip file with the contents of the zip. So then you don’t have to deal with throwing out the zip file once the files are extracted.

You can currently try the demo of both Tasty Unzip and Web Snapper at Tastyapps.com. Tasty Unzip is priced at $8 while Web Snapper costs $15, but you can pre-order it now for $8 until the final version is released. Who knows what else Tasty Apps has in the oven!

15/12/2007

Fun Stuff

Battlefield 2142 Mac UpdateWhen I first installed Battlefield 2142 on my new iMac I was quite disappointed. It took me a few tries to get it to open at all and then when I did open it the EA and Dice intro videos didn’t work and it took me a while to figure out that after the intro I had to press “esc” to get anything to show up.

Earlier this week an update was released and I was hoping to see if this fixed my problems, but it only made them worse. The update was PC only, so I couldn’t play against anyone using a PC anymore and the list of servers got smaller and smaller.

Now EA finally released a Mac update. This new update includes some major improvements. The intro videos work, and it includes a new map to play on. The update also fixed many reliability issues so hopefully people who haven’t been able to get the game to work should get it to work now.

But even with the few disappointments I am very happy to be able to play Battlefield once again! Now if only the next update would add widescreen. If you want to download the update you can get it at Apple Downloads here.

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