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How to make incredible UI designs and mockups.

By Luke On Aug 22, 2010 Apple 0 No Comments

Available for OS X and Windows, Mockery is a unique and incredibly useful design tool. It streamlines your user interface development stage by supplying you with a sandbox-like environment that is preloaded with Windows and OS X interface elements. Such as windows,progress bars, buttons, toolbars, input fields, etc.

“Mockery enables you to create great UI mockups, quickly and easily.” -GetMockery.com

Design great interfaces for the web or desktop.

Review your designs with Windows and Mac themes.

Annotate your mockups with detailed information.

Share your mockups with others.

The app is focused around allowing you to quickly develop rough drafts of your final project. Mockery allows you to go from idea in your head to design on your computer faster than anything else. Trying it out is simply the best way to see how intuitive and outright useful it is. Check it out here.

How to use your iPad as a trackpad for your Mac!

By Luke On Aug 17, 2010 Apple 0 No Comments Tags: iPad, Touchpad, Trackpad, vnc

TouchPad by Edovia Inc. is a Keyboard, Multi-touch Trackpad, and Remote all in one beautiful and incredibly functional app.

Edovia Inc. has managed to combine three ingenious functions all into one low priced ($4.99) app. The concept has been around for awhile but Edovia has been the first developer to actually get it right. There is no input lag and the iPad screen is incredibly responsive, this combination allows for a seamless experience when using your iPad as a trackpad.

The included keyboard/remote function completes the wireless interface experience. This one app now allows you to control all the input functions that your keyboard and mouse/trackpad would traditionally offer you! Your $500 -$829 iPad is now totally worth it, so what are you waiting for? Download the app now. Read More

The New “Apple Store” App is Here!

By Luke On Aug 7, 2010 Apple | iPhone/iPod 0 No Comments Tags: app, iPad, iPhone, iPod

Interested in buying Apple products on your Apple product? If so, please read on.

Apple recently released a new app into the wild called “Apple Store“. The “Apple Store” app allows you to purchase products, read reviews, set up Apple appointments, and find nearby Apple Retail Stores.

“The Apple Store app is also the easiest way to buy or reserve your new iPhone — right from your current iPhone. You can do it in just a few taps, without entering your AT&T account information. Order your new iPhone from the Apple Online Store and it’s shipped to you free and ready to use. Or reserve your new iPhone, pick it up at an Apple Retail Store, and we’ll set it up for you in minutes.”

You can download and learn more about the Apple Store app Here.

Apple introduces New “Magic Trackpad”

By Luke On Jul 27, 2010 Apple 0 No Comments Tags: Magic Tablet, Snow Leopard

companion_20100727 Hey! ya know what smooths over an ugly Apple PR month? New Apple products!!! Today Apple announced the release of two new products and an iMac refresh. Not bad for another Tuesday at Apple. But let me present to you the new mini-gadget of the moment.

Apple’s Magic Trackpad!

desktop_20100727 “It uses the same Multi-Touch technology you love on the MacBook Pro. And it supports a full set of gestures, giving you a whole new way to control and interact with what’s on your screen. Swiping through pages online feels just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine” $69 dollars though? I would say it makes sense at $49 but Apple’s neat software doesn’t make that slightly over sized trackpad more expensive to produce. All my bitterness aside, it truly looks like a very fun and intuitive way to interact with computer content. Seems we are one step closer to the future. Be mindful though, this device requires OS X 10.6.4.
Learn more about the Magic Trackpad.

iPad cases: Find the perfect iPad case online!

By Luke On Jul 22, 2010 Apple 2 2 Comments Tags: iPad, iPad Cases

With more then 5,000 different iPad cases and counting, it may be difficult to track down that perfect case you are looking for. Brick and mortar stores offer limited selection and online store just list off all their cases with no rhyme or reason to their selection.

Enter iPad Cases Blog and iPad Case Finder. Both sites bring together a collection of some of the best deals, as well as some of the best designed cases I have ever seen. Both sites are heavy on the images which makes searching for cases a breeze. After visiting both sites you may notice it would take forever to see them all. Thankfully both sites are fully utilizing tags which allow for keyword searching to quickly narrow down the results. Eg. Leather, Hardshell, Black, Sleeve, Zipper, Water resistant, etc.

So if you’re looking for an iPad case, quite wasting your time paging through endless lists from online retailers and lack-luster choices at brick and mortar stores. These two sites can help you track down the perfect case for you in no time flat!

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Firefox Beta 4 for OS X! Really really fast!

By Luke On Jul 9, 2010 Apple | Software/Freeware 0 No Comments Tags: Firefox, HTML5, WebM

At first I was amazed and awed by Mozilla’s Firefox web browser. When it was first introduced back in 2004 it was very fast and pretty powerful. But after five years of using Firefox, it became old. It was getting bogged down and it frankly wasn’t as fast as Safari or Chrome in my experience.

Firefox 4 brings a lot of great new stuff to the table. It’s incredibly quick, due to new accelerated hardware support and the UI has been polished and simplified. It also comes with support for HTML5/WebM video. Allowing you to enjoy open HD quality video natively inside of Firefox. Improved crash protection also protects you from misbehaving plugins that usually crash the whole app, now only the plugin is affected, leaving you other work intact.

Other new features include:

WebGL – web standard that provides a 3D graphics API implemented in a web browser without the use of plug-ins
WebSockets - a technology providing for bi-directional, full-duplex communications channels (Makes page loading faster)
Web Console – web-based application that allows remote users to execute UNIX/Windows shell commands on a server, upload/download files to/from server, edit text files directly on a server, etc

You can find all the new features over at Firefox’s Beta 4 page.

Opera 10.6 out in the wild, faster than ever.

By Luke On Jul 5, 2010 Apple | Software/Freeware 0 No Comments Tags: Opera

Lets face it, competition is healthy and having your pick of the litter when it comes to web browsers is fantastic. Whether you use Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Camino, you must give the new version of Opera a try.

“With the final version of Opera 10.60, the browser scores more than 50 percent faster than its predecessor – which was the fastest browser on Earth – in key benchmark tests. This translates into a faster browsing experience for users on modern JavaScript-heavy sites such as Gmail and Facebook.” -Opera

That is a pretty big statement to through around in my opinion, but after three days of use I can’t help but be wowed. The difference in speed when compared to Safari and Firefox wasn’t day and night but I did find that return visits to sites like Gmail and Digg were noticeably faster.

“Combined with its unique Opera Turbo functionality, Opera puts you one step ahead on the Web. Opera Turbo compresses the data going over your connection up to a factor of two or more, for those congested connections at cafés or a mobile connection at the summerhouse.”

All in all Opera is a very solid and very fast browser that combines the best features from all over the web into one amazing browser.

iPhone 4 insides for your viewing pleasure

By Luke On Jun 23, 2010 Apple | Gadgets | Hardware 1 1 Comment Tags: gadget, iPhone4

Courtesy of iFixit we present you the inside of Apple’s newest iPhone!

The iPhone 4′s design is a dramatic departure from the aluminum and plastic drenched days that have plagued the iPhone in the past. The rugged stainless steel bezels around the iPhone 4′s perimeter double as both structural supports and antennas to boost reception.

The new Unibody Mac Mini is here! But is it worth it?

By Luke On Jun 15, 2010 Apple | Featured | Hardware 0 No Comments Tags: Mac, Mac Mini, Mini

features_hero_20100615 First, lets start by making it clear that the Mac Mini has been one of Apple’s greatest ideas. When the first Mini came out you could buy it for $499.99 and it came with a 1.25GHz G4 CPU W/ 512MB ram, a 40GB hard drive as well as a CD/DVD combo drive.

Ever since it’s inception we have seen the Mini’s price, and feature list get bigger. Today with Apple’s announcement of the new Unibody Mini we also see, yet again, another bump in price. This time all the way up to $699. In my opinion this is a big blow to the target market of the Mac Mini. The idea of “value” is now somewhat lost in this $699 product.

But lets get down to what really matters, is the new Mac Mini really worth $699?

The stock CPU is a 2.4GHz (up from 2.26GHz) Core 2 Duo. This CPU, tied with the integrated NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU actually make for a decently capable machine. (We watched a 1080p video clip with a bitrate of 7.5Mbps and CPU usage stayed below 10%). It’s no HD authoring studio or extreme gaming machine but you will find it has more then enough power to tackle your HD video editing as well as fly through almost any game you can throw at it. The new SD card reader and included HDMI port really go along ways in adding value to the Mini, especially in it’s common role as a home media device.

To continue on it comes with a 320GB (for $699 we really should be seeing 500GB as stock) hard drive, 2GB of DDR3 RAM (up to a total of 8GB) and all the while sucking down less than 85 watts of power.

FF themes that make us happy we’re not stuck with default

By Luke On May 13, 2010 Hacks/Mods 0 No Comments Tags: Firefox, themes

25704 Mozilla’s Firefox has a theme that is easy on the eyes and just as functional, however, everyone’s taste is a little different and default isn’t always beautiful. So today we come to you with out three favorite Firefox themes.

Up first, Tylerc’s Chromifox. Chromifox, as you may have guested from the name, is a coat of Chrome for Firefox. It is a very clean and professional theme that is super intuitive and very nice to look at. If you haven’t given Chrome a try yet, this theme may perk your intrest. (also, give tylerc’s other theme Camifox a try if you dig Camino‘s theme.) 38220

Secondly, we have gigeher’s Purity. It’s simple and straight forward design make for a great clutter-free interface. It’s white design with light accents of blue make it a very stylish choice. This theme is still in beta but it is fully functional.

Rounding up the list is Spewboy’s Strata40. Inspired by Firefox 4, this theme is very reminiscent of the default Firefox theme but improvements have been made and it definitely trumps what is shipping with as the default now.