Linux vs Windows vs Mac

Evernote, a free application that allows users to capture information in any environment making it accessible at any time, has been updated to version 1.1.5. The software is still in beta, but now adds AppleScript support, as well as support for exporting and importing notes to and from XML.

Evernote lets you capture stuff like webpages, whiteboards, scribbles, to-dos, even photos and music. As soon as you add a file to your account, you can assign it a name, or a tag, or more names and tags, and you’ll be able to find it later on without any trouble, even if you can only remember a few characters. It brings up everything you might have once stored for safe keeping using tags and even text recognition. All you have to do is just search for an inside Evernote just like you remember it. The text recognition technology allows you to search for text within images, even handwritten text. If there’s but one thing you can remember about a certain item, you’ll most likely get to it as Evernote is an expert at narrowing down a search. Best of all, the service is available for all your devices, Mac, PC and mobile phone, as long as you can connect to the Internet with them.

Evernote 1.1.5 Beta brings the following new enhancements:- Support for exporting and importing notes to and from a well-defined XML format.
- AppleScript support.
- Fix a bug where note parsing errors could overwrite note content with the error message.
- When plain-text is pasted into a note it is no longer surrounded with a tag.
- List, Mixed and Thumbnail view should all remember their layouts between application launches now.
- Fix a bug where creating a tag with just a double-quote (”) for the name would cause a crash.
- Some spiffy new toolbar and sidebar icons.

A native iPhone client for Evernote has also been released via the iTunes App Store. Evernote for iPhone is location-aware, it lets you send e-mails from within the app, it securely decrypts notes and it provides to-dos and clickable URLs and e-mail addresses. Evernote for iPhone is currently at version 1.3 and can be acquired here.

To upgrade your desktop client, use the link below.

Evernote 1.1.5 Beta for Mac (Free Download).

While Apple’s older iMacs (Late-2006) boast an impressive pair of stereo speakers (considering the all-in-one design and their small size), the same thing cannot be said about the company’s 20-inch and 24-inch aluminum iMac (Mid-2007).

However, both Apple’s Late-2006 and Mid-2007 computers have their speakers placed at the bottom of the system, facing down. This leads to a considerable loss in sound quality, as the sound hits your desk and bounces off in all directions. Given this, some high pitched sounds (but not only) barely make it to your ears. There is a way to capture all the sound coming from your Mac’s speakers, and direct it all towards your ears.

Buy a pair of headphones! Just kidding. No headphones. You do, however, need two extra items on your desk to make this happen. A couple of ashtrays, for instance. Just place them underneath each of your iMac’s speakers. What happens is this:Channeling the sound (click to enlarge)

The sound waves hit the two hollow-shaped objects, becoming trapped inside the round walls for a short period of time. In a fraction of a second, the now-channeled sound bounces back out, upwards, since there’s no other place to go. Simple, isn’t it?

Go ahead, give it a tray… er, try! You don’t necessarily have to use ashtrays. For once, they’re not that aesthetic; second, we don’t encourage smoking, and third, you can use some nicely designed pottery or something like that. You’ll have to see what suits your room best, so the objects don’t attract too much attention. After all, you don’t want folks thinking that your all-in one computer actually needs additional hardware to work well, now, do you?

Notes
· You will see (hear) a significant difference in sound quality only when the volume level is above medium. The effect still applies even on a low volume level, only it’s not so observable;
· For this to work, the sound first has to hit one of the inner-sides of the object, not the bottom directly. Check out more pictures below, to see exactly how you want to place your objects of choice.

Good luck and let us know how this trick worked for you.

The latest version of Apple’s iTunes free media player for Mac and Windows seems to be a genius player, according to the description on apple.com.

Using the Genius Playlist, you can create a playlist starting from one song. The Genius Playlist will automatically scan your music collection and find songs that are somehow related to what you are listening. Then, you can use the Genius Sidebar from iTunes 8 to add similar songs from the iTunes Store to your library. This sounds like the Moodbar for Amarok, only smarter.

iTunes 8 brings some improvements to the Albums viewer and in the accessibility area. Also you can show off in front of your friends with the new Visualizer.

Overall these new features in iTunes 8 are great and user will be very satisfied by this new version.

Heileen is a dating sim for Mac, which revolves around a young woman onboard a ship, as she is traveling to the New World. Set in the 17th century, the game has players finding Heileen’s true love.

“I’ve finished the first 2 chapters of the game,” accordin to the game’s developer.  “Writing in my own native language is much faster even if it means I’ll have to get all texts translated…! Hopefully they’ll do a good job at it. I’m really proud of the aspect of the game. The art is even better than Summer Session one” he added.

The developer confirms Heileen is indeed a dating sim. Best of all, the scenarios are allegedly thought out from a woman’s perspective.

“The fun thing is that I’m attempting a sort of new genre: dating sim (or romance adventure) from a woman’s perspective,” the Winter Wolves post reads on. “It means that the game will have his [sic] own variety of characters and some will be more polite than others,” the developer explains. “There will be also some very cute characters (two cats) and in general a more relaxing atmosphere. For now I’m not going to put any sort of scheduling mechanism, also because the game takes place for almost all its length onboard of the Cat’s Dream (the ship name).”

Talking about the gameplay features Heileen will boast on Mac, Winter Wolves reveals that a feature called “Quests” has been added. “In practice during the game you’ll be able to find quests to solve, that will award points,” the developer explains. “Discovering a new quest will grant you 2 points, and solving it another 3 points.”

Heileen’s creator concludes by noting that development on this dating sim is “very relaxing compared to coding huge games like Supernova 2.” Be sure to check out Heileen’s development blog for more screenshots and info on the upcoming Mac game.

Flux 1.4 for Mac brings, some code corrections, tweaks to the User Interface and, most important, support for the Komodo Editor.

About Flux:

Aimed at those looking to design XHTML/CSS websites, Flux lets you create the whole site within the WYSIWYG editor, type in XHTML, or both. The supplied templates will help you get started. If you’re in the business, you’re ready to start from scratch, without having to touch or even see XHTML/CSS, as Flux offers all the web design necessary tools you need. “You can do Web 2.0, AJAX, and most other buzzword-compliant things,” the developers note. You can access your iPhoto albums from within the application, or use Spotlight to find an image to drag it right onto your website.

Flux is a Universal Binary, designed entirely for the Mac and OS X operating system. Requirements call for a G5, or Intel Core Duo at least, and 768MB or more. More is always better.

A beta version of Google Gears is available for Safari browser.

You can install Google Greas for Safari and test it, but since this is a beta version, don’t  be surprised if your browser crashes.

Minimum system requirements: Safari 3.1.1 on Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard 10.5.3
 

About Google Gears:
 

Gears is a plug-in that extends your browser to create a richer platform for web applications. To install Gears, visit http://gears.google.com

Gears was designed to be used on both Google and non-Google sites. A number of web applications currently make use of Gears, including two Google products: Google Reader and Google Docs. Additionally, Zoho and Remember the Milk have been using Gears since its original launch. If you’re running Windows Mobile on your cellphone, Picasa Web Albums also makes use of Gears.

If you’re a developer interested in making your site available offline, we recommend visiting the Gears developer site for more information.
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A Mac version of FlatOut 2, the carnage-laden driving game originally developed by Bugbear Entertainment is expected out in September, for just $39.95.

If you’ve wanted a game that’s the spiritual successor to the legendary “Carmageddon” series, FlatOut 2 could be for you. You get behind the wheels of cars as you take to the streets in a series of progressively more difficult races against computer-controlled foes (there’s also online multiplayer support for up to eight players). You can try to take your biggest computer-controlled rivals out of the race — slamming them headfirst into a bridge, stealing the race by using a shortcut or using a nitro pack to get ahead.

You can smash into objects around the track — fences, walls, debris, other vehicles and much more — as you try to come in first in each race. You’ll also get rewarded for being the most destructive, performing stunts and more. there are also a series of “Stunt” minigames which will keep you entertained for hours.

As you win races, you can turn your race winnings over into new vehicles and customizations. The game features “ragdoll” physics that will throw your driver out of the car if slammed into a wall at high speeds; some of the minigames also emphasize this ragdoll physics capabilities, with objectives like using your driver to score a field goal through a series of upright pylons.

The game also features a soundtrack with offerings from Megadeth, Papa Roach, Audioslave, Rob Zombie, Wolfmother and others.

If you try to install Microsoft Photosynth on a Mac or Linux based system you will be notified that Photosynth is not cool enough for your operating system.

"Unfortunately, we’re not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really wish we had a version of Photosynth that worked cross platform, but for now it only runs on Windows." is the message from photosynth.net.

Although, accordind to their site, Photosynth can’t run in VM software, it seems that you can run it on a Mac PC using VMWare Fusion. Linux users will just have to wait.

About Microsoft Photosynth:

Photosynth takes a collection of regular photographs and reconstructs the scene or object in a 3-D environment.

The update is recommended for all MacBook Air computers, and addresses issues with video playback and processor core idling.

Third-party software that modifies processor operating characteristics such as frequency and voltage is not supported and should be removed before installing this update.

Installation requires Mac OS X 10.5.4 or later.

About MacBook Air

Ultrathin, ultraportable, and ultra unlike anything else, but you don’t lose inches and pounds overnight. It’s the result of rethinking conventions. Of multiple wireless innovations. And of breakthrough design. With MacBook Air, mobile computing suddenly has a new standard.

Mac gamers will be pleased to find out that Runesoft’s Dream Pinball 3D is now available for Mac.

Description:

A great pinball game should not only be amazing from the start, but should continue to be entertaining every time you play it. This was the thinking behind the development of the newest pinball sensation - Dream Pinball 3D - with its’ 6 cutting edge tables that are beckoning you to try your luck.
We did not skimp on the technology with this game as there are six different style balls, made of different materials, that not only look different, but whose ballistic characteristics will affect the very rolling behaviour of each one of them. Add to that incredible acoustics, state of the art particle technology, HDRI and multiplayer 3D sound, realistic tilt function and motion blur effects, and you have the best pinball experience.

Features:

• 6 tables with various themes
• Balls made out of 6 materials (steel, two kinds of wood, marble, ivory, gold) with various ballistic characteristics
• Multi-ball with up to 3 balls at once
• Supports state of the art particle effects
• Motion-blur-effects
• Brilliant lightning because of HDRI-textures
• Individual sounds and music for each table
• Multiplayer mode for up to 4 gamers
• 6 dynamic and one fixed camera position
• Individual graphic settings for less powerful systems

System requirements:

• Mac: OS: MacOS 10.4.11 or higher
• CPU: MacIntel with 1.66 GHz or faster
• Memory: 512 MB RAM
• Graphic: 3D graphic card like ATI X1600 or better or GeForce7300 or better with 64 MB or better
• DVD drive
• Internet access

More info and screenshots with Dream Pinball 3D on game’s page.