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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Google Picasa For Mac Now Competes With iPhoto

Google has entered the Mac side of free photo manipulation with the Monday release of Picasa for Mac. Although officially a beta version, the application previously limited to PC users is drawing positive comments from Apple iPhoto fans.

“Even though this early build of Picasa is missing some features, I’m going to use it and not iPhoto,” writes CNET’s Rafe Needleman. The reviewer said Picasa’s features makes it the best option for day-to-day use.

Along with the usual ability to remove red-eye and basic photo editing, Picasa for the Mac integrates with Google’s free Web Albums, allowing photos to be easily shared. Apple requires the $99 annual Mobile Me online service, according to CNET.

Some features, such as geotagging and photos from your Webcam aren’t included in this beta version.

Google’s Picasa for Mac requires Mac OS 10.4 and an Intel-based system.

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

3 comments

    Apple requires the $99 per month Mobile Me online service, according to CNET.

    It’s $99 annually

    Rafe Needleman has already announced that he’s not had a smooth transition to the Mac because it didn’t go 100% seamlessly with all the same tools. It’s not surprising he’s sticking with Picassa.

    Having said that, the one thing I’ve always liked about Picassa vs. iPhoto is the fact that it searches your drives, leaves photos where they are and creates a DB.

    Of course, I scan slides so my workflow’s a bit strange: for most users importing from digital cameras, I suspect the difference is entirely arbitrary.

    I have, in any case, decided to make the move to Aperture now that I have a machine that’s fast enough to use it.

    I take everything CNET says about Mac with an entire shaker of salt.

    I’m not saying Picasa won’t work as advertised, just that I’ll wait to hear from a more reputable source than Needleman.

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