Love was in the air. As was the smell of flowers and candies and chocolate and that really warm funny smell that comes out the vents of your MacBook when you've been streaming videos for hours. Yes, love.

So instead of finishing off that Whitman's Sampler, give your waistline and your scale a break and sample some of this week's tasty treats from the Mac|Life crew. We promise: no coconut.


Features:

- 20 Years of Image Editing: Photoshop from 1.0 to CS4 - You've come a long way, baby. That's right, little ol' Photoshop's all grown up now. It seems only yesterday that you were just a twinkle in Thomas Knoll's Mac Plus when all people wanted was a way to fiddle with a tiny black and white image. Now, look at you. The 200 pound gorilla of photo editing software and no one's even close.

- How to Use Your Mac and Your iPhone to Completely Automate Your Home - If you're like us, you didn't just watch The Jetsons for the rich plotlines and the complex character development. No, you were geeking out at an early age to a completely automated, computerized, robot-driven home. We're not quite there, but with your Mac, and a bit of software and hardware, we can walk you through every square inch of your castle, turning on lights, turning down thermostats, watering the dog, the works. You can even do it over the internet.


How-Tos:

- Back Up Your Gmail - The only thing comparable to the Twitter buzz that surrounds a celebrity death is when Gmail goes down. It's kind of scary when we think about it. Anywho, maybe just maybe you think it might be a good idea to archive some of those all important emails? Well, rest easy, Googlers, we've got ya covered.

- Back That Disc Up - Speaking of back ups, it's usually a good idea to make yourself a nice copy of something you know you're going to use all the time. Plus, it's often nice to have a disc image to run instead of constantly listening to the whirring of your disc drive. Here's how it's done, noobs.


Reviews:

- The Secrets of Da Vinci - if you're going to make a video game about an artist, it better be beautiful. That's rule number one and game maker Coladia gets that pitch perfect. It's a shame the rest of the game wasn't quite in the same masterwork caliber quality. The puzzles you have to solve are inventive and historical, but the game's architecture and organization is just a mess. It's not genius, but it's pretty good.

- Sonos ZonePlayer - Sonos puts out some high quality audio gear, make no mistake about it, and this little standalone speaker, the S5, is no exception. It's got buttery sweet sound and isn't stand offish. We streamed our iTunes libraries, as well as online offerings, and this bad boy even can be hooked into a complete Sonos stereo system for even more compatibility. You can opt for the pricey remote ($350!) or get the free iPhone app version, but either way, this tiny marvel can be our Valentine any day.


News:

Adobe had a big week of headlines, hitting that big 2-0 for Photoshop (and showing off a nostalgic Photoshop 1.0.7 app for the iPhone)...they also talked up making Flash run a little friendlier on your computer and not cause so many freaking crashes...maybe that will be part of their overhaul of their famous Creative Suite as CS5 gears up for a roll out this year...

Rumors abound that Hulu is working out iPad capabilities, but will it remain a freebie or a subscription? Our bringing home an iPad very soon after release may very well depend on this answer...speaking of priceyness on the iPad, according to the New York Times, theose higher than Amazon iBooks prices might not be typical, just a ceiling. Did Bezos' sphincter just unclench?...some great low price quality e-books can be found on your iPhone right now, like Oceanhouse Media's Dr. Seuss reader apps, and if this is what their iPhone apps look like, they are going to rock the iPad pretty hard...of course it's not all easy going for content on the iPad as it seems that Apple and the periodical print media seem to have run into a few sticking points on pricing, wouldn't you know?...and if you want a sneak peek of what at least one beautiful design for an iPad is going to look like, have a gander at Agile's 1Password.

Of course, the iPad isn't the only mobile device whose apps are worth talking about. There's still plenty of space for BBC News and Sport on the iPhone. Pip pip, gang, and welcome aboard. Now if you can get an app to explain the rules of cricket...we won't need anyone to explain to us the rules of Street Fighter IV's app when it comes out; all we know is it'll be about kicking butt...and if you've gotten in the habit of seeing butts and boobs and whatnot in the App Store, your time is up as Cupertino once again decides to play nanny and chase out those of us not so uptight about a little skin here and there...at least we've got our SlingPlayer Mobile when we need it and now with streaming 3G....Wait a second. Either this 3G network is a delicate flower or it's not, gang. Giving us SlingPlayer and boosting our 3G download size? Someone needs to get their story straight...like maybe the gang who decided to join forces, like a supervillian team, to launch their own app store. With all the different carriers, devices, and platforms, we expect this to work like a charm. NOT....one way Apple can once again pull the rug out from under other mobile devices and manufactures would be to finally bring us our multitasking we've all been begging for. You know you want to listen to Pandora while still playing with that Wobble app you got before the App Store pulled it.

Yes, friends, we all know it. The iPhone casts a mighty shadow, as it did at the Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona. Apple's not an official presence, but it's the name everyone whispers...you know who's not at all impressed with Apple and their iPhone? That's right, the kiddies at Microsoft who just unveiled their updated Windows Mobile which will soon boast video games and music. Now that's some innovative thinking!...Apple's other rivalry, the frenemy Google, threw a little cold water on rumors of a spat in Barcelona this week as Vic Gundotra, head of Google’s mobile engineering, tries to tell us it's Brad and Angelina all over again...of course, what's a Congress without a Dr. Doom? Research in Motion (RIM) co-CEO Mike Lazaridis tells us the iPhone will kill mobile service. Could it be someone's a little self-conscious over his device's crappy online experience?...at any rate, the CEOs are all circling the wagons to wag their fingers and figure out ways to gouge away their mobile customers who love to be online on their phones.