Jun 12

Review Of Rapidweaver

Reviews No Comments »

Before reading this post or watching this episode, please consider supporting this show. The show is very expensive and time-consuming to produce. Please find it in your heart to make a small donation using the one-click button on the right column, and help new media stay afloat.

Anyways, today I would like to do a review of a great app that I recieved last week, entitled Rapidweaver. I recieved version 3, and since then version 4 has come out, but I will do my best to review version 3.

I am going to give you a very brief review, and then link you to a website of mine made in Rapidweaver, maybe giving you an idea of some of its power.

Anyways, when you first open Rapidweaver, you are presented with a blank project. You’re going to want to begin by clicking the plus button in the bottom left corner. Once you’ve done that, you can let your creativity run free.

Lastly, I would like to show you a website created by me in Rapidweaver, in only 30 minutes. That is my software company, MacTastic. That site is found here.

Jun 09

Live WWDC

Announcements No Comments »

Hey guys,

Just letting you know that there is Live WWDC Coverage available for you from http://mebeam.com/WWDC

Come check it out!

-Ben

Jun 06

Special Announcement

Announcements No Comments »

Please listen to this, as it is incredibly important.

Jun 01

Episode 59

Announcements, Show Notes No Comments »

This was our one-year anniversary show.

May 31

Pixelmator

Announcements No Comments »

Get $10 off of your purchase of Pixelmator with the coupon code MacMania.

May 24

New Blog

Announcements No Comments »

Hey guys,

I just wanted to announce my geek blog, www.thetechdeck.tk…check it out!!!

May 17

Review Of Art Text

Reviews No Comments »

Hey MacMania Blog Viewers,

I wanted to come here on the blog and review an application that I rely on day in and day out for my business of designing logos, websites, and many other things. This application is Art Text, from Belight Software.

Art Text is a very easy to use application that, as the name suggests, allows you to create artsy text, graphics, and shapes that can be used in your blog, website, or other art creation. This is very similar to WordArt in Microsoft Office, and also packs in quite a bit of extra functionality, such as the ability to create buttons and shapes for your site.

When you first open Art Text, you are presented with a window that has the word Art Text in it. You can change the text in the bottom. The main thing that I use Art Text for, however, is the fact that you can create shapes, which I mainly use as buttons. This functionality comes from clicking the small disclosure triangles in second-to-right.

I am not here to give you a play-by-play of what I use Art Text for, but I would like to review it and thank Belight Software for giving me this opportunity.

See you guys soon!

May 10

Review Of ArtRage

Reviews No Comments »

Today I’d like to do a review that is long overdue for a product called ArtRage, from Ambient Design Software. ArtRage is an easy to use painting application designed for use by anybody from the amatuer aspiring artist to the professional comic artist. ArtRage is beautifully engineered to work especially well with a Graphics Tablet, which makes it a lot easier for high-end graphic designers. There is one down side to the application: It is pretty non-Mac-like. You can tell me what you think too, but there’s only one way to find out: Go over to the website and download a trial! If you like it, buy it. There is also a free version.

Apr 26

Review Of djay

Reviews No Comments »

Well, I woke up this morning and felt the burning desire to do a product review for you. Today, I would like to review djay. djay is an easy to use application for virtual scratching and DJ applications. When you first open djay, you are presented with the main screen. In here, you can either drag and drop music or movies (to play the audio) from the Finder. Once you have done this, you can click on the play button for that turntable. It will play, and you can scratch it by moving around the turntable with your mouse, or you can use effects if there doesn’t happen to be DRM. If there is DRM, some of the effects will be grayed out with a lock next to them.

Anyways, there are also many transitions you can do between songs. Just click on the transition icon on the bottom of the screen, and you can choose to go left or right and use a transition.

There is also a full-screen mode, but I find this quite underfeatured, just because you cannot access the bottom toolbar. To remedy this, I use a free plugin called MegaZoom, which installs itself as a system extention. Once this is installed, just press Command+Return to go into a full screen-type mode. You have to see it to believe it.

The coolest feature about djay is the fact that it has a built-in iTunes browser, which will automatically access your iTunes library. You can browse your playlists, and it’s pretty much exactly like iTunes but without the music managing capabilities…it just displays music exactly like it would be in iTunes.

All in all, djay was a great application to get to play around with, and I give it a 5 star rating.

Apr 25

Review Of Screenflow

Reviews No Comments »

Today, I would like to do a review for you of what would definitely be one of my favorite Macintosh applications. This application is called ScreenFlow, from Vara Software.

ScreenFlow is a very powerful and professional screencasting application. The very unique thing about Screenflow is the fact that it has a built-in editor, as well as a screen capture utility.

When you first launch Screenflow, you are presented with a small floating window, which default only has a few checkboxes, a couple dropdowns, and a big red button (record).

It is automatically set to record your default monitor, but you can change that. Next, which another cool feature, is the ability to record your camera. This way, you can be seen in a small window in any part of the screen. You can always take this off in post-production, right in screenflow.

The next two checkboxes are pretty straightforward, allowing you to record your microphone and computer audio. Then, once your settings are satisfactory, just click the big red button to begin recording. Once you are done recording, you are put right into the editor.

In the editor, you will see all the tracks used, such as the webcam, your screen, and others if applicable. From here, you can crop the video from a GUI, and you can do things such as add callouts to the video.

Once you are done making your video sweet, then choose Export from the File menu, and choose a codec. You have now successfully made your first ScreenFlow movie!

Previous Entries