AAUG Reviews

by Steve Aufrecht, AAUG Member

I needed some sort of minimalist case for my newish MacBook. And there it was in the review pile. LArobe. It looks cool, it feels cool, my computer just fits nicely inside. It has what feels like soft but firm padding. It’s got the right attitude and style to go with my Mac. The zipper pulls even have indents that my fingers fit right into. What else can I say? Look at the pictures.

But wait. There is one, maybe two things. With my Mac inside, it’s a little too heavy and too thick to grip with my fingers without fear of it slipping our of my grasp. It needs a handle. It’s possible they could put in a small handle on clips that can be attached to the zipper pulls like in the picture. I’m not sure whether what the weight will do to the zipper in the long rum or whether the hooks would hold and I’d drop the whole case. But the manufacturer could make something that would work. Unless I put it into a backpack I have to carry it under my arm which is a little clumsy.

Another problem is my little card reader and it’s cord don’t quite fit inside along with the computer without causing a little bulge. Not quite sure how to fix this. A little pocket on the outside? Maybe a detachable pocket. I live the simple lines and adding these extras takes away from that, but a handle would make it MUCH more convenient.

And then there’s the name. I don’t know quite how I should pronounce it Maybe in French it makes sense. (more…)

by Joan Nunn, AAUG Member

As the title states, this is a reference book on how to “set up your Photoshop workspace” to more efficiently get your work done in an uncluttered and more efficient manner.

The section of the book on getting familiar with palettes, layers, channels, tools and brushes gave a lot of detail about where these are located on the screen pull-down menus, but it left me wondering just what their function would be on an actual photograph or image. There were some wonderful photographs with graphics at the beginning of each chapter and some throughout, such as “Tonya” on Page 74, but no clear or detailed instruction as to how that was created. There seemed to be a bit of a gap between setting up your workflow and how to work with it after it’s set up. However, this may be covered well in other Eddie Tapp books.

The section in the book on “Setting Important Preferences” seemed fairly clear and understandable, as well as the chapter on customizing Keyboard Shortcuts.

I felt that “Working and Navigating in Bridge” was one of the best descriptions in the book and the final chapter on use of tools gave good explanations of each tool and what they do.

This book is definitely for digital photographers who have a prior working knowledge of Photoshop CS2. Even though it would be a good reference book to have, I felt that the correlation between the graphics and the text was not well presented in a lot of cases.

by Guy Okada, AAUG Member

I produce a monthly newsletter for work and I also create publications for non-profits that I am involved with. The selection of appropriate and attractive fonts in a publication takes careful deliberation thus I try to accumulate as many fonts as I can to have them available for different projects. I can never have too many fonts, yep, I confess: I’m a font junkie. Years ago there were many sources of new fonts for Macs but lately it has reduced to a trickle. MacXWare is one of the few companies that still sells collections of fonts. MacXware recently released FontLibrary which is a nice collection of over 600 fonts at a reasonable price.

FontLibrary includes over 100 font families in OpenType font formal as well as TrueType for Macs only. Most “families” include a normal, bold, italic, condensed, extended and wide versions of each font style. The OpenType font format works on both Mac and PC platforms thus allowing document portability between platforms. The printed catalog arranges them in Classic, Creative, Designer and Refined categories. Many of the fonts in FontLibrary were duplicates of what I already had in other collections but it is still a nice collection, especially for someone looking to expand the font library that comes with their Mac.

FontLibrary also includes a nifty application called MacFontManager. It has two windows which display the fonts in FontLibrary and the fonts that you have in your computer’s font library. (more…)

by Randy Brandon, AAUG Member

I can’t believe that it has been well over a year since the previous version of Portfolio (version 8 ) was introduced. So, Extensis finally decided to to bring out this version 8.5 as an interim version of what I am sure will be at version 9 before too long? I cannot decide why they would release this version just prior to the release of the major new Mac OS version 10.5(Leopard), but presumably this current version will also work with the new Mac OS? I just checked, and the upgrade for Apple system 10.5 Leopard was coming soon.

The Portfolio program from Extensis has a lot of history under its belt as the premier digital asset management system. And along with that history, I too have been an avid user myself since way back at version 3. So , I write this latest review with quite a few years of personal hands on experience using the program on a daily basis.

Now it should be said from the onset that there are numerous image cataloging programs currently available .. And the field currently is even more crowded than it was just a few years and versions back.
And although I have used(or at least tried out) several of the current brands available, I still return to Portfolio as my main digital management system.

Obviously, any program is ones program of choice if you learn it well. But I am convinced that if I were to have 10 database programs in front of me, that my final choice would wind up being Portfolio.
(more…)

by Zachary Zaletel, AAUG Member

Flying Meat, makers of the new layer-based image editing program for OSX, bill Acorn as ’simple & easy… built for the 21st century’. Acorn is one of the new breed of graphic manipulation programs to come out for OSX recently, and does its makes use of the Core Image library built into OSX, which should speed up many daily operations. So how is it?

When you open Acorn, you’re presented with the option to ‘create a new image’ or ‘open an existing image’. One nice little detail - if you have an image sitting on your clipboard, Acorn is aware of it and provides the option to ‘create a new image from clipboard’. Handy, that! Another handy little detail I noticed as I was writing this review - you can drag and drop an app icon from the finder into an image window and have it to use in a new layer, just like that.

The main palette in Acorn provides all of the standard tools for moving, selecting, manipulating, erasing, filling, adding text, etc that you would expect. Their effort to keep the interface simple works well, it is clean and uncluttered and makes for quick navigation. Flying Meat have also paid attention to the details and made extensive use of the keyboard to allow for efficient navigation through those tools.

The actual image editing window doesn’t provide a lot to comment on, other than the fact that canvas size and zooming info is provided at the bottom. (more…)

by Ronald Schoedel, AAUG Member

If you are drowning in a sea of to-do lists, folders, and sticky notes attached to every side of your monitor, the phone, and anywhere else they adhere, it is time to make the jump into a real project management solution. Daylite 3 is one of the absolute nicest I have seen yet. Daylite 3 takes a very complicated matter such as managing multiple projects, workflows, proposals, and customer relations, and successfully merges it all into a nice, attractive, interface that won’t scare you off like most project management applications could.

But don’t let the pretty face fool you: Daylite 3 is all business underneath the shiny surface. It has the muscle and flexibility needed to help a small business or workgroup manage their projects. Marketcircle says Daylite is designed for offices of 1 to 50 persons. Using Daylite made me wish even more that my entire office were Mac-based, because I could see this program making such a big difference in the way we track information and projects. Alas, since I am the only enlightened one in an office full of Windows PCs, I had to try out Daylite on my own, not really able to experience the joy of collaboration.

Daylite has several modules, such as Notes, Contacts, Calendars, Projects, Tasks, Opportunities, and Appointments. But it is far more than a basic personal information manager, Daylite shines in its ability to link these pieces of information to create a bird’s eye view of how your work fits together in the big picture. You can store all sorts of information to manage client relationships, such as customer preferences, client likes or dislikes, personal dates such as birthdays and anniversaries, to help you reach out better to your clients, either current or potential. Organizations allow you to easily link all persons associated with an individual firm, which is nice to keep all of the relationships straight in a multi-leveled project. (more…)

by LeLinda Bourgeois, AAUG Member

This product is the best in its class. I have been shopping and shopping for something with a hard screen that did not distort the images on my ipod and would also hold up with my slippery palms when it would eventually take a spill from three feet high.

The Griffin Center Stage Ipod Cover was the answer. Trust me when I say it is the best one on the market. The cover itself is clear, a huge perk for me because I did not want to take away from the black color of my iPod which makes the videos look better, and the construction and safety you feel when holding it in your hand, tells you that it is top notch.

One of the coolest features of this neat thing is the stand that comes built into the unit. By taking the area around the click wheel and folding it down you can make a handy little stand with it and your iPod is now like a little laptop. This came in very handy for me on my recent flight home to anchorage, where I just sat the thing up on my tray table and watched all my favorite podcasts without having to hold the iPod to see them, freeing my hands up to throw peanuts and soda at my face on this long long flight. Trust me when I say this thing is way cool.
I did not get to get the price of it but I would have been willing to pay at least 30$ for it and at this point I do feel as if I got my money’s worth.

OK for the bad…. its not really bad though…. Getting your iPod out of the Griffin Center Stage is a little difficult and DOES work best if you use a quarter to slide it between the ipod and the plastic case and turn it. Your ipod is locked safe and secure in there, so my own down point to this thing is that it is a little tough to get out. (more…)

by Joan Nunn, AAUG Member

This is an excellent book for the beginning or intermediate photographer. The book is at the right technical level and easy to read, with lots of graphics and well-placed screen shots. The book begins by explaining the basic terms of digital photography and then transitions to the purchase of a camera. It is not always obvious to the novice that how one will use the camera and what kind of photographs will be taken should determine what kind of camera to purchase. This book helps with that very basic decision by explaining the features of typical point-and-shoot cameras and then going on to explain the more advanced compositions that one would want to know how to perform with a digital SLR camera.

Basic filters are explained in easy to understand terms and there are simple but good sections on photographing people, landscapes, animals and objects, with suggestions for the composition of each.

Most of the pages have special “Tips” listed which were most interesting as well as being extremely useful. Another good feature was the way the book presented each procedure with a “Quick Steps” box listing the exact steps to take to create certain imaging processes.

The book introduces Photoshop Elements 5.0 and the many useful editing techniques that are available, as well as the steps necessary for the processing of RAW images, and the basics of enhancing and correcting images and working with layers. (more…)

by Peter Porco, AAUG Member

“Writing for Visual Media” is a textbook for beginners who want to learn how to produce professional-quality scripts that will allow production crews to painlessly and clearly bring the writer’s visual ideas to life as film, video, digital video or interactive media. In 361 well-organized pages and a DVD-ROM, the author, Anthony Friedmann, lays out the thinking, the principles, the vocabulary and the formats behind a very particular kind of conversion: from imaginative thinking to the technical-writing product called a script.

Visual writing, says Friedmann, is the imaging the lies behind the script and the script that becomes a tool in the hands of director and camera crew.
Friedmann’s domain is vast, covering just about all contemporary visual media (the book’s 2nd edition beefs up materials related to interactive design and the use of Websites for corporate communications). And the book and accompanying disc offer a rich array of ancillary materials - chapter-based exercises, appendix, glossary, sample scripts, a companion Website, and the like.
But despite the book’s size, throughout his work Friedmann has a simple, well-focused message: The problem of “describing visual media via print media,” as he says, takes a very specific kind of thinking, language and formatting, all of which, however, are readily available. The beginning visual writer enters a field in which so much of the hard work - going back about 100 years - already has been done. The writing conventions quickly adopted by the new scriptwriter (if she’s smart) eliminate anxious questions about how to talk to a director and production crew; they free the writer instead to concentrate on the visual ideas in his head. To many readers, this message will seem obvious, and it does appear at times that Friedmann belabors it almost to the point of nagging, an impression reinforced by his serious tone and slow-moving textbook prose. But the reader also comes away feeling that Friedmann, who has “taught video production, interactive media and scriptwriting at various colleges” (according to the jacket bio), must have encountered too many students in his life who densely resisted the notion that the script - the document containing each day’s marching orders for people working the cameras, dollies, lights and other machinery of film and video production - is not an example of the writer’s creative use of language but a mere blueprint. You can’t blame Friedmann for repeating the essential idea. (more…)

by Gary Miller, AAUG Member

An amazing new product from Rogue Amoeba, the team that develops while we sleep. Quick Tech support response, new features/updates for free, and a helpful attitude. These are the same guys who brought us much heralded Audio Hijack for recording audio, Fission for audio editing, and Airfoil for sending audio to your Airport Express. I love to listen to radio on the internet and radio stations at home, but so far I’ve been limited to much searching on sites, asking international friends or locals for their favorites in music, talk, or comedy.

Now with RadioShift that uses a great technology of RadioGuide that works like Tivo or other high quality scheduling/searchable by genre, title, geographic location, popularity, etc. Here’s what I mean.
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