Add A Page Turn Effect in iPhoto

If you haven’t checked out iPhoto ’09’s bounty of slideshow options, it’s about time you tried. Here’s how to add a page-turn effect

No longer does the term ‘slideshow’ invoke involuntarily yawns and vividly spun excuses, as using iPhoto ’09 to create an exciting showcase of your favourite pictures is one way to guarantee excitement! Slideshows are a fantastic way of showcasing your prized pictures; whether they are from baby’s first birthday or your collection of rare roses, slideshows can take the hassle out of flicking through your frames and they allow you time to enjoy them with the audience. What is more, you can add music and captions for greater creativity. But another way to liven things up is to add a transition. There are a whole host of exciting effects to choose between, and you can affect the speed and direction of your slideshows too. In this easy peasy four-step tutorial we’ll show you exactly how to add our favourite transition – the Page Flip!

1: Open up

With a collection of images selected travel down to the plus icon at the bottom of the interface. Select this and plump for Slideshow from the drop-down menu. Pick Classic from the choice of templates.

2: Settings

From the row of icons underneath your slideshow select Settings. Opt for the tab labelled All Slides, check the box listed as Transitions, now open the drop-down menu and source Page Flip.

3: Preview and play

When ready hit the Preview icon to watch the slideshow within the Edit Suite interface. Note that when Preview is in action the icon turns blue. To watch your show in full-screen glory, hit the Play icon.

4: Export

If you are happy with your slideshow, why not export and share it? Head to the File menu and find Export, or use shortcut Cmd+E. Find Slideshow on the tabs and choose a viewing format and method.

Source: iCreate Magazine

15 Awesome Google Services You Never Knew Existed

Whether you're sending an email in Gmail, finding directions to that fancy restaurant using Google Maps, or pretending to be a part of the latest microblogging craze with Google Buzz, the G-word is everywhere. Well, it turns out that there is also a whole library of Google web applications and services stacked up behind the everyday services you may have come to take for granted.

Most of the mega company's services are either full blown web applications readily available to the public, or secretly tucked away behind a door in the Google Labs. However, even those wearing their Public Beta scrubs are readily available to play with. We've gone and picked through fifteen Google services you may not have heard of before, but can definitely benefit from. Try them out, and if you have any suggestions of ones we may have missed, leave a note in the comments.

Never miss another important headline

News Timeline

If you're tired of missing out on the week’s most important headlines, set Google News Timeline as your browser’s home page and you’ll never be out of the loop again. This distinct search engine scours various news outlets, Wikipedia, and even Twitter. Just enter in search term and News Timeline will retrieve the most recent headlines from the web containing the word. You can even specify what publications you’d like News Timeline to search, including your local paper. Sadly, Mac|Life wasn’t among the choices.

Patent your invention

Patents

Got a crazy robot that does all sorts of cool, crazy robot things? Well, before you start working on the actual mechanical implementation of that idea, mosey on over to Google Patents to make sure your product hasn’t already been invented. This specified search engine sifts through indexed patents registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The search engine uses optical character recognition (OCR) to sift through patents based on words and terms embedded in the image scans.

We took a few minutes to glance at some of the random patents that popped up on the front page. For instance, this apple case for use in preserving apples and this kid-friendly inhaler that looks like a panda. See if you can find any of Apple’s patents.

Let's get political, political

In Quotes



Yeah, the presidential election meme is totally passé, but voting is an American right and should be utilized to the fullest extent. That’s why Google’s still got the reigns on a nifty service dubbed In Quotes, which displays side-by-side comparisons of noteworthy quotes from major politicians on a variety of hot topics. 

Type in a search topic or choose a political issue from the drop-down box, then choose your politicians and a year; the generator offers speeches and opinions from a wide selection of politicians, beginning from 2003 to present. There’s also a U.K., India, and Canada edition for international expats.


Quotes are generated automatically, depending on the topic. In Quotes is a great tool for students preparing a paper on a recent politician or political matter, but if you’re looking for anything George Washington-era, get ready to crack open a book.

You’ve got questions? They’ve got the answers

Google Moderator


Google Moderator offers an open forum for users to post their questions, offer suggestions, concoct ideas, and receive answers in return. You can scour topics and vote on other people’s opinions, or contribute your own.

Each question has its own list of topics, while a list of Google's featured services offer up alternative sites that are a bit more specific, like Take a Tip, Share a Tip--an open forum for users to share their experiences on how to be frugal in all areas of your life. 



Google Moderator is a great way to get an objective opinion from the many anonymous internet users trolling the web, or waste a little bit of time without having to get yourself extensively involved in a social network. If you like this web service, check out the most recent addition to the Google family: Aardvark. 



Explore the world on foot

City Tours

Traveling is already an extravagant endeavor. It’s a better idea to pocket the money you’d spend on travel books that will inevitably become outdated by the time you return from vacation, and simply invest some time in Google’s City Tours. City Tours generates a list of important traveling hot spots based on your destination of choice. For example, if you’re on your way to visit Berlin, Germany, type in a starting location (like the address of where you're staying) and City Tours will map out a route for a walking tour around the area you’re stationed.



Each landmark contains important information, like hours of operation and the address of the location--in case you decide to take a taxi or public transportation. You can also add other areas to your walking tour either manually or from a predetermined list provided by Google Maps. 



City Tours still has a few kinks to work out, though it’s gotten better since we used it for last summer’s trip to Lund, Sweden. For instance, walking tours no longer take 53 minutes between each stopping point, and have been significantly cut down to less than 20 minutes. Regardless, we have to keep in mind that most Google Labs applications are a work in progress. And even so, this is one feature we plan on using for all of our future traveling destinations.

Source: Mac Life

Membuka Folder Tersembunyi dengan Finder

Sebagai sebauah sistem operasi UNIX, Mac OS X mempunyai folder-folder yang sama dengan Linux. Anda tidak bisa melihatnya karena oleh Mac OS X folder tersebut disembunyikan oleh Finder. Sebenarnya Anda bisa membuka folder tersebut, dengan cepat. Begini caranya.

Tekan ⌘ ⇧ G, atau melalu menu Go > Go To Folder….

Gambar di atas saya akan membuka folder /bin/ yang isinya aplikasi-aplikasi UNIX. Walaupun folder tersebut tidak ditampilkan, tapi kita masih bisa mengaksesnya, walaupun kita memakai akun Adiministrator. Saya kurang tahu alasannya kenapa Apple menyembunyikannya, tapi kalau menoleh kembali ke sistem desain Apple “Sembunyikan apa yang tidak perlu, yang dilihat hanya yang penting” merupakan suatu alasan yang tepat kalau folder-folder UNIX ini disembunyikan saja. Biarkan pengguna yang tech savvy saja yang berani merubah-rubahnya.

Source: Make Mac

10 Essential Apps To Install On A New Mac

So, as you may have seen from my Tweets and will doubtless hear on the podcast this month, I bought myself a new 27-inch Core i5 iMac which arrived yesterday. As the day went on and my excitement grew, I began building a list of the apps I was planning to install first and, as I promised the Twitter faithful, I am now publishing them here.

This is by no means a definitive list of apps to install on a new Mac (some aren’t in fact apps at all), just those that I felt were essential enough to be picked first and some that just suited my new 16:9 screen.

If you’re interested, beyond these utilities I also installed Aperture 3, Logic Studio, iWork, Civilization, Microsoft Office and Reason as well as transfered an obscenely large iTunes library of movies and TV Shows (that I’ll now need to buy again in HD) and music.

In no particular order (other than maybe AppleJack) here they are, the first 10 apps on my new iMac:

AppleJack A product you hope you’ll never need but could be a lifesaver. AppleJack is a text-based trouble shooting tool that can be invoked any time your Mac wont launch into its GUI (Graphical User Interface). The best part about AppleJack is that you don’t even need a system disc to boot from in order to repair permissions and cache files which could be causing your boot problems. An essential tool to install and forget until you need it. http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

Adium This all-in-one chat tool brings the instant messaging tools you use most often into one app. The interface is customisable in numerous ways and you can group your contacts by friends, family, co-workers etc. Supports all the favourites including; iChat, AIM, MSN and Yahoo. http://adium.im/

Tweetdeck I’m normally a fan of Atebits’ Tweetie as a Twitter client but, with so much screen real estate at my disposal, I decided to give this wide Adobe Air app a try. I’m excited to see Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace integration is included and the organisation of direct messages, tweets and replies into different columns makes the whole Twitter process a great deal easier. www.tweetdeck.com/

Skype You know what it does, it’s clean simple and easy. Perfect for saving money on international calls and even better for video and audio podcasts when you can’t be in the same place as your co-hosts or guests. www.skype.com

VLC A free and very obliging media player that will play just about any media file you throw at it. It’s open source which means it’s updated regularly. I had a quick blast of The Hangover in HD using VLC and it worked flawlessly. www.videolan.org/vlc/

Perian If you can’t handle using a video player outside of Apple’s default QuickTime, you should investigate Perian. I downloaded this in seconds and within a couple of clicks I was playing an AVI inside the beautiful new QuickTime X interface. Mac purists rejoice. http://perian.org/

Cooliris With such a massive screen, browsing Google Images just got a whole lot more entertaining. Cooliris is a plugin for Safari and Firefox that displays your searches as a wall of images that you can scroll through smoothly until you find what you’re looking for. It’s a bit flashy but then who cares if it looks great, huh? http://www.cooliris.com/

Flip4Mac Back to the video department, this is another set and forget tool that simply allows QuickTime (and Quick Look) to play those annoying WMV (Windows Media Video) files that you see from time to time. www.flip4mac.com

Fusion 3 Following Flip4Mac, there’s a slightly more expensive alternative for using Windows file formats and that’s by running Windows itself. With a copy of Windows (XP upward) and Fusion 3 you can run Mac OS X and Windows side by side, even seamlessly using Windows apps and native Mac software alongside one another. It was a little unnerving seeing Windows 7 up so large but it can be handy to dip into Microsoft’s OS now and again, if only to realise that the grass is definitely not greener. www.vmware.com

UnRarX If you download a folder of files with the .RAR extension you can use this tool to piece them back into the original file. Rar files are favourites for torrent users (keep it legal guys) who split large files into smaller pieces for easier sharing. These files are sometimes password protected which UnRarX also caters for. www.unrarx.com

Source: iCreate Magazine

Cara Mengambil Screenshot di iPhone

Ketika iPhone masih versi 1.x mengabil screenshot harus memakai aplikasi tambahan, dan iPhone-pun harus di jailbreak terlebih dahulu. Tapi semenjak versi 2.x Apple memberikan fitur screenshot bawaan yang caranya sangat mudah.

Cara mengambil screenshot di iPhone sangat mudah, tekan dan tahan tombolHome kemudian tekan tombol Lock. iPhone akan melakukan screenshot sesegera mungkin layar akan bekerdip dana ada suara ceklek. Lihat gambar di bawah ini untuk lebih jelasnya.

2 langkah mudah

Gambar hasil screenshot akan masuk ke dalam Camera Roll di aplikasi Photos. Untuk mengirimkannya ke Mac, tinggal import memakai iPhoto.

Source: Make Mac

Review Magic Mouse

Mighty Mouse yang kini dikenal dengan Apple Mouse memang memiliki kelemahan utama yaitu pada trackball yang setelah penggunaan setelah sekian waktu akan menjadi macet karena kotor. Keindahan Mighty Mouse hilang tatkala kita harus membongkar untuk membersihkan trackball, sedangkan bagian bawah yang sudah kita bongkar tidak dapat kembali seperti semula.

Ketika Magic Mouse hadir di Amerika, saya sendiri langsung mencari-cari referensi dan review pengguna Magic Mouse disana. Banyak yang mengaku puas, namun banyak pula yang mengeluh karena performa Magic Mouse tidak seperti harapan mereka. Setelah sekian lama mempertimbangkan, akhirnya saya membeli juga Magic Mouse melalui Apple Store.

Minggu lalu, Magic Mouse tiba dan langsung saya coba. Seperti sahabat lama, begitu mencoba saya langsung akrab dan tidak merasa canggung untuk mempergunakannya. “Mouse yang keren” gumam istri saya ketika ia melihat Magic Mouse. Setelah seminggu mencoba, saatnya untuk memberikan review.

Material

Bagian atas Magic Mouse terdiri dari kaca fiber bening dengan dasar warna putih dan logo apple pada bagian pangkalnya. Sedangkan pada bagian dasar, berupa alumunium, dengan tombol on off dan tombol untuk membuka batere.

Bentuk

Di review yang saya baca, banyak orang mengeluhkan bentuk Magic Mouse yang terlalu kecil dan datar (kemungkinan tangan orang Amerika lebih besar daripada tangan orang Asia).

Namun, semua itu bukan tanpa pemikiran dari sang pembuatnya. Secara dimensi, panjang dan lebar Magic Mouse dari Mighty Mouse sepintas sama, namun dari ketinggian berbeda, Magic Mouse terlihat lebih pipih dan datar daripada Magic Mouse yang bulat.

Bentuk pipih ini, setelah saya pergunakan selama 1 minggu, ternyata memiliki kegunaan, bentuk pipih memberikan ruang lebih luas bagi jari untuk melakukan gerakan-gerakan dengan 1 jari, 2 jari, bahkan 3 jari sekaligus untuk memberikan perintah.

Konektifitas

Pada Mighty Mouse yang lalu, saya sering sekali mengalami konektifitas yang terputus setelah beberapa jam, yang harus di hubungkan kembali secara manual. Memang tidak sering, tapi cukup mengganggu.

Menggunakan Magic Mouse sepertinya masalah itu tidak terjadi lagi, saya tidak pernah mengalami koneksi terputus antara MacBook Pro saya dan Magic Mouse.

Tracking dan Scrolling

Tracking kursor pada Magic Mouse sepertinya mengalami peningkatan daripada Mighty Mouse, pada Magic Mouse kursor dapat digerakan lebih halus dan lebih cepat. input-input perintah tidak mengalami lag.

Pada System preferences mouse, pada opsi “Scroll” terdapat opsi “With Momentum” momentum ini memberikan efek smooth scroll, efeknya seperti anda menggeserkan benda di dataran yang licin, makan benda itu akan berhenti secara perlahan. Efek Momentum ini sangat bermanfaat bila anda menemui halaman web yang panjang dan memerlukan scrolling yang cepat. Namun ada kelemahannya, terkadang Momentum ini mengenali gerakan-gerakan halus pada mouse sebagai perintah, sehingga terkadang, halaman web menjadi seperti bergerak sendiri. Bila ini mengganggu Anda, non aktifkan fitur Momentum ini.

Software

Banyak yang mengeluhkan hilangnya fungsi Squeeze pada Magic Mouse, namun dengan bantuan BetterTouchTool perintah-perintah untuk membuat shortcut menjadi lebih banyak dan variatif. Tidak hanya 1 jari, 2 jari, bahkan 3 jari dapat memberikan perintah sesuai dengan keinginan anda. Mungkin ada baiknya bila pada update Mac OSX selanjutnya, setingan Magic Mouse diperkaya perintah-perintah seperti pada perintah BetterTouchTool.

Bagi Anda yang kidal, dapat dengan mudah mengatur Magic Mouse supaya lebih bersahabat dengan tangan kiri melalui System Preferences.

Batere

Magic Mouse sudah terdapat sepasang Batere didalamnya, ketika saya pergunakan seminggu yang lalu, batere masih ada di level 100%, ketika artikel ini ditulis (kurang lebih 6 hari kemudian) Level Batere berada di 88%. Saya menggunakan hampir 10 jam sehari Magic Mouse ini. Bila pemakaian konstan, diperkirakan batere akan habis pada umur 2-3 bulan.

Menurut Apple, Magic Mouse dapat berjalan dengan baik pada 10.5.8 dan 10.6.2, dan bahkan tidak dapat dipergunakan di OSX Tiger.

Source: Make Mac