AAUG Reviews

By Steve Nigl, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

Did you just buy a new Powerbook? Is it your first? If so, buy this book.

At first glance, Powerbook Fan Book looks like a coffee table ‘interest’ book of diminutive size. The cover design and photo call to the Powerbook owner who enjoys reading about how great it is to be a Powerbook owner. But upon opening this book, It soon becomes apparent that it is a powerhouse primer for the Mac novice who just opened the box to their first Powerbook. The books dimensions are just larger than a CD jewel box. Obviously designed to be toted with the Powerbook itself.

Derrick explains his philosophy early on. Many Mac guide books on the market seem to lose focus of the fact that one of the major appeals of the Mac OS is it’s ease of use. He feels that many of these user-guide tomes only serve to squelch the new Mac owner’s enthusiasm; driving the owner farther from their new Mac in stead of uniting them. His solution is to gently introduce the machine and the OS; covering only the key information that a new user must know to become productive with their new Powerbook. He touches on the fact that being a Powerbook user is unlike being the owner of any Windows-based laptop. Much the same as being a Mac owner differs from being a ‘PC user’. Consider: Combine the Mac OS with the portability of the Powerbook, and it becomes, for many, an extension of their own memory; of themselves. Insights such as this pepper the book and keep the more dry nuts-and-bolts how-to topics in balance for the reader. (more…)

By Tim Thomas, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

Vertus Fluid Mask kicks butt. Well actually it creates very good masks, but it kicks other masking utilities right out of the game as far as I’m concerned.

Fluid Mask is a new plug-in for Photoshop that finally makes the process of removing backgrounds from complicated images if not a joy, at least much less painful.

Fluid Mask has a bunch of tricks up its sleeve to help define edges that defy definition, like hair, fur, and tree leaves or needles.

Launching from the filter menu in Photoshop takes you into Fluid Mask’s Photoshop-like interface. It looks a little different but least it’s not a jarring departure. I felt at home right away.

Fluid Mask analyzes the image then presents it in a window with three tabs at the top. Clicking on the first tab displays the Source image, the second tab is the Workspace where the masks are created, and the third tab is for viewing the results, or Output.

The Fluid Mask toolbar includes pencils and brushes for defining the areas to keep and the areas to delete, tools for drawing or forcing the transition area, a sponge for cleanup, region creation tools, an eraser, and an excellent preview selector. Dragging this selector instantly creates a test render of any portion of the image without exiting the workspace. This is perhaps my single favorite feature of Fluid Mask. Very nice touch. (more…)

By Randy Brandon, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

Portfolio has been around for a long, long time, and for a very good reason…It works!

In these days of digital cameras, and voluminous photo files, everyone needs to find a way to get all of their images organized, and keep them organized so that they can find them in the future.

And obviously, since we are all on a Mac platform, we are familiar with the iPhoto program. iPhoto is so popular because it helps us manage our ever growing image libraries.And it is a great little program for the amateur hobbyist. But if you are serious about really getting organized, you will find out that Portfolio is the one that will do the job. I have been using Portfolio since way back in Version 3. and here we are at the brand spanking new version 8.

Portfolio 8 is basically developed for use by three distinct groups of users. The first group consists of the single, and individual user. These are people like professional photographers, graphic designers, and illustrators who need a simple solution to keeping their images organized. The second group are creative workgroups. An example of these groups would be like advertising agencies, marketing organizations, etc. The third group would be called Corporate Asset Management, and these would be large corporations who have enormous files for hundreds of sources, and branches. (more…)

By Mike Welch, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

The new edition of the Mac X Pocket Guide book is designed as a quick reference to the Mac OS X Tiger operating system with special attention to new features. It is a well organized, pocket book style with easy to read table of contents and quick reference guide. It comes complete with overview of the Mac OS X Tiger System and it’s new features. It discusses an array of systems and features such as user account, keyboard shortcuts, security issues, menu bar, window controls, the dock, trash, the finder, creating new folders, dashboard, spotlight, system preferences, applications and utilities, unix basics and configuring your Mac.

The book was easy to read and provided screen graphics as illustration and shortcuts. One of the best features was it’s easy to use reference style so you could look up and read only the specific topic you have interest in at the time. As one example of its efficiency, I was interested in finding out more about dashboard. I quickly looked up dashboard in the table of contents, turned to the appropriate listed page, was provided an overview of dashboard and all it’s specifics and how to use them. I found this to be a great guide and have kept it close to my G5 for quick reference.

By Bob Thomas, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

This is a very graphically depicted book on the latest Mac Operating System, Tiger. The illustrations are very good and easily understood. The book is broken down into twelve chapters beginning with the most elementary items which if you are a “newbie” and do not know anything about a computer will allow anyone to learn the basics of the Mac.

The books illustrations are both straightforward and very colorful with a little “computer chip” character throughout the book. I especially liked the keyboard short cuts which I prefer using versus the mouse.

I would recommend this book for anyone with little experience with the Mac computer operating system software as it will guide you through the operating system facets easily with its layouts. Even though I have had the Tiger operating system for some time now I am always constantly amazed at how much there is to know and learn.

The print is very legible and easy on the eyes since there are not paragraphs upon paragraphs of writing, which for me personally I found enjoyable perusing the pages.

I would highly recommend this book for a beginning Mac computer user as he or she will not be intimidated by some of the ‘tomes’ containing a greater detail and explanation of the various aspects of the operating.

By Christopher Narvaez, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

So Here I am once again everyone. Hello, this is Christopher Narvaez, and I first started my review project with my video camera, a JVC GDR-270 purchased at Best buy for $299 and “iMovie HD, The Missing Manual”, and started to record everything I saw. Using the camera was not difficult but iMovie HD was at first. When opening the application, seemed almost intuitive. But any assisted guidance sure helps in the production process. Having said this, I used the book as I did my work following the guided pictures. I imported my video and began my personal version of a Hollywood production studio (Watch it Warner or Paramount, I think I found my niche,) and edited my movie for final output.

During the process, there are tools in iMovie HD that will help make your movie look a bit more professional. What is not there is someone to help in which the book did well. Using the iMovie HD help file can be tedious, and can be very time consuming going back and forth, but with this book in one hand and a mouse in the other, I simply glided through the pages very easily. From start to finish, it was easily explained. I had no problems finding out how to utilize the video from my DV cam. “iMovie HD & IDVD 5: The Missing Manual is a well organized, color photo book with easy to use guides and tips. I am glad I had the opportunity to review it because without it, I would still be importing my video 30 days later. Following the book was easy. But it is lengthy, over 400 detailed pages to follow. But with enough patience, not only will you be able to use iMovie hd on the fly, you will be on your way to utilizing more professional applications like Final Cut express an Final Cut Pro.

By Chris Tofteberg, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

If you’re like me, you’ve been looking for an earbud solution to replace the mediocre earbuds that came with your iPod. Griffin may be on to something with their EarThumps.

Rarely do I say anything negative about an Apple product, but I haven’t been impressed with the stock earbuds that come with iPods. They tend to fall out of my ears and they don’t isolate the music from environmental noise very well. I have to crank my iPod clear up, resulting in a loud tinny musical experience.

I’ve been using a set of Koss in-ear phones for a while now, which have worked reasonably well. The only problem is that the insert is made of foam and requires compressing the foam and quickly inserting them in the ear before the foam decompresses. Griffin’s EarThumps use a silicone insert and come with three different sizes to accommodate different ear canal sizes.

I found that the medium sized inserts work well with my ears and they seat quite well. I was a bit leery when I first saw the EarThumps; they don’t look like they would sit well in an ear. In fact, they look quite a bit like Apple’s in-ear phones. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they actually sit in the ear very well. Some light duty exercising didn’t even shake them out. The silicone insert seals well to the ear canal and holds the phones in place.

Although they hold well in the ear, the EarThumps don’t block out as much extraneous noise as I would have liked. Griffin doesn’t supply any information regarding frequency response at their website (the human ear can hear from about 20-20k Hz) (more…)

By Chris Tofteberg, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

Every once in a while a piece of software comes along that is so fun and innovative you wonder why someone didn’t think of it before. Comic Life is one of those applications.

Sure, there are a ton of applications out there that do various things with digital photos. Comic Life does one thing, and it does it extremely well: It turns your digital photos into a comic book. System requirements for Comic Life are fairly modest, requiring Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 for Photo Filtering. More on Photo Filtering later.

Comic Life works seamlessly with your iPhoto gallery, with your iPhoto digital pictures thumb nailed in the lower right pane. You can access photos or images from other locations as well. In the upper right pane are the page templates for your comic. There are almost a hundred different templates to choose from. You can manipulate the preset panels or even create your own. You can add features to your template such as shadows (which can be moved and blurred to add depth), color schemes, page numbers and more.

Once you’ve chosen your template and photos, it’s time to lay out your comic. Like any good Mac program, pretty much everything is drag-and-drop or otherwise simple to use. Drag your template to the work area. Next, drag the photos you want to use into your template. (more…)

By Gary Miller, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

BeLight Software is a company on the move! They understand mac users well, as evidenced with their successful other products, like Business Card Composer & Mail Factory, both enthusiastically reviewed earlier by Alaskan Apple Users Group.

So I was excited to try out their first venture in simplifying self publishing in their product known as Swift Publisher, just the name said to me, no long drawn out instructions, settings, or work. I chose the download version, and you can even get a trial version, then purchase the serial key. Their support is top notch via email since it’s in the Ukraine, but they respond like they’re next door, and will work to make sure you’re a satisfied user.

Ok, Swift Publisher is a page layout program that uses supplied templates to assist you in making high quality letterheads, newsletters, brochures, flyers, all easily assembled. Here’s an example of how easy it is. I wanted to create a menu for a dinner, so I began by choosing one of the many supplied templates ( they are professionally designed, so really made it easy to just find what you’re looking for ) or they have a blank one if you want to go it yourself. Since it gave me a good way of laying it out, I then chose from the many graphics it supplies, by topic, I used Food, some in black & white, line drawings, color, all high quality, and BeLight continues to offer additional downloadable graphics to add to your library. (more…)

By Dave Enders, AAUG Member
Reviewed 1/06

Super Get Info is a very useful utility brought to us by Bare Bones Software. Their marketing brochure describes SGI as , “a powerful,flexible,user friendly alternative to the Get Info command provided by the Mac OSX Finder”

I downloaded the software from the website and set off to install the utility on my dual G5. The installation is very simple and prompts the user for two options during Installation, install a Contextual menu plug-in and/or install a command line option. I installed both of these options and set out to discover what makes this utility better than the Get Info application provided by Apple. At first glimpse, it appeared very similar to Get Info (included free with OS X). I added the program to my dock and began experimenting with the many different ways to use get info on my files (by dropping them on the icon in the dock, right clicking on the selected file or using the contextual menu from the Finder->Services menu. All of the methods worked in displaying the file information. I did experience an issue where the info window would open but I would also get a end of file error message. Bare Bones technical support was very responsive in working through the issues I experienced. Some of these issues with Super Get Info appear to be bugs in OS X which they are aware of and are planning for workarounds in future versions. (more…)