Reviews » Software

The brains behind your TV tuner

Digital video recorders that connect to a TV rely on a hardware-and-software combination to capture and play shows—Mac DVR solutions are no different. Tuner hardware turns airborne signals or a cable feed into something the computer understands, but it’s the software that drives the user experience. Elgato’s EyeTV 3 app is designed to work with any of the company’s TV tuners, but it also supports hardware from a dozen companies, including some that only offer PC devices. The application presents the video window, allows browsing through a channel guide, lets you make basic edits to recorded shows, and more. While its interface could be improved, most of its functionality is intuitive, wringing every last feature out of your TV tuner hardware.

Sorenson Media Squeeze 5

Posted 07/08/2008 at 7:45pm | by cyoung

Powerful but POKY video compressor

Sorenson Media’s Squeeze compresses video into file sizes aimed for the Internet, digital media devices, or DVD, and in formats such as QuickTime, Flash Video, and Windows Media. Essentially, there’s no flavor of video it can’t create.

Freeverse Periscope

Posted 07/07/2008 at 12:27pm | by cyoung

2

Smile For Big Brother

Need to catch your little sister borrowing your Members Only jacket? Do you suspect your cat of having cocktail parties while you’re at work? If you’ve got an iSight or other Mac-compatible webcam, Periscope can be your eyes and ears while you’re away from your Mac, capturing images like a security camera would and providing multiple options for sending the pictures to yourself. Just be wary of the manual, which is deceptive.

Alien Skin Exposure 2

Posted 07/02/2008 at 1:36pm | by cyoung

While no one would dispute that we live in the era of digital photography, the fact is that there’s an entire history of film that simply refuses to ride off into the sunset. If you grew up in a darkroom—like this reviewer—you’ll remember the smell of the chemicals, the intricacies of the different brands of film, the subtleties of Tri-X film, the tricky process of “pushing” film beyond its ASA rating, and all the art that surrounded those smelly strips of celluloid. Alien Skin, in its quest to cook up unique Photoshop plug-ins, has essentially condensed the history of film into Exposure 2, a wonderfully capable and sublime tool for emulating a vast range of film stocks and looks.

Prosoft Drive Genius 2

Posted 07/02/2008 at 10:56am | by Susie Ochs

Time Machine, Time Capsule, and the proliferation of affordable and large-capacity external drives have finally gotten it through the general population’s heads that backing up your data is important. After all, every Mac has a hard drive, and every hard drive will one day go belly-up, so you might as well be prepared. But besides backing up data, it’s smart to keep your hard drive in tip-top shape with regular maintenance, and that’s where Drive Genius 2 comes in.

Spore Creature Creator

Posted 07/02/2008 at 10:07am | by Zack Stern

Don’t just be a god, play god, sculpting a planet’s-worth of creations. Spore Creature Creator slices the species-designing part of the full Spore game--due September 7, 2008--into its own nursery.

Pixelmator 1.1.4

Posted 06/27/2008 at 12:12pm | by David Biedny

13

Instant Filters: This Zoom effect takes time to render in Photoshop, but happens instantly in Pixelmator, thanks to Core Image. Apple loads iPhoto ’08 as standard issue onto every Mac sold, and while the app makes sharing and organizing photos a super-cinch, iPhoto doesn’t offer much of the power of Apple’s real-time Core Image technology. So is there room for a Core Image–savvy contender in the sub-$100 category of image editors? Pixelmator seems to think so. The Pixelmator app offers a $59 alternative to Photoshop. While we love the real-time filter effects, there’s a quite a bit that does not thrill us with this initial offering.

The Omni Group Omnifocus 1.0.1

Posted 06/26/2008 at 9:21am | by Tom Geller

4

OmniFocus helps you figure out what to do next, when it’s due, and where to do it. Mark Twain wrote, “The well-organized man can be comfortable anywhere, even in hell.” But getting your life in order is easier said than done, and dozens of systems promise salvation. OmniFocus, which implements techniques from David Allen’s popular book Getting Things Done, is the newest weapon in the Omni Group’s arsenal of organizational apps. OmniFocus, which utilizes the project manager OmniPlan and information repository OmniOutliner, builds on the Omni Group’s impressive understanding of how people work, making it a useful tool once you’ve figured out (and bought into) its underlying system.

Apple Aperture 2.1

Posted 06/19/2008 at 8:12am | by Zack Stern

11

Adjustment settings can be saved and quickly applied to new photos. We have thousands of digital photos, but still feel nostalgia for the days of leafing through prints crammed willy-nilly into dented shoeboxes. Wouldn’t it be nice to get your jumble of digital images out of their virtual shoeboxes? Blow up that favorite, or frame that one from last year’s family reunion and send it to your sister in St. Paul. Aperture 2 handles these tasks and more without the nagging clutter—or sneeze-inducing dust clouds—of those old shoeboxes. Meanwhile, it lets you nudge exposure levels and retouch problems. It essentially manages your photo library from import to export, keeping track of your changes and making the daunting task of cataloging hundreds or thousands of photos much easier than you ever thought it could be.

The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures

Posted 06/18/2008 at 11:13am | by Omaha Sternberg

1

Comment

Barbara Tuttle, voiced by Jamie Lee Curtis, jumps through one of the colorful levels. The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures has a lot going for it: big-name character voices, gorgeous graphics, several top awards. Plus, half the retail proceeds are donated to charity. But if you strip all of that away, you’re left with a pretty standard side-scrolling platform game. Then again, why would you strip all of that away?