On last night's show I showed off an extremely quick tip for making portraits pop using both Photoshop and Elements 6. Pay attention though, because it's literally two steps! Hope you enjoy the tutorial.

Woo hoo! Today my first title for Kelby Training went live. It's a 2-hour little ditty called From Photo to Graphic Art and covers how to take normal photos and turn them into beautiful pieces of art, using Photoshop CS3. Here's a quick run-down of the content:

Partial color effect, faded color effect, colorizing a black & white photo, sepia-tone with burned edges, blurring the background, from photo to pencil sketch, realistic reflections, ornamental vector photo frame, filtered and painted edges, real world picture frame, combining images (4 parts), turning a photo into stone, high contrast effects (2 parts), breaking a photo into pieces, aging a photo, and eyes of the Otherworld.

Each QuickTime movie is approximately 3-6 minutes long and shows each step of the tutorial while I talk you through it. Pricing for KelbyTraining is $19.99 per month or $199 per year and that gives you access to every class (more are being added every day). Scott Kelby has literally gathered up the best instructors in put them all in one place and I'm very honored to be one of three female instructors in the whole program. I do hope you'll take this new service (and my title) for a spin.

Coming soon is Practical Photoshop Elements, and whatever else I can dream up. Enjoy!

I'm sure the full-fledged geeks out there have already seen this but it is cool (and slightly creepy), which makes it a perfect candidate for Website of the Week.

Recent video of BigDog Quadruped Robot is so stunning, it’s spooky

BTW: If you were impressed by this, don't miss the hilarious spoof:

New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot is so stunning, it's stupid

Hope you enjoy!

~Sly

From Macworld

HBO will begin selling some of its most popular television series on Apple’s iTunes Store, the companies announced on Tuesday.

HBO will offer The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Deadwood and Rome, as well as Flight of the Conchords and The Wire. The HBO shows join the more than 800 shows and 20,000 episodes already on iTunes. With the exception of Flight of the Conchords, which is slated for a second season on the cable network, all of HBO’s other iTunes offerings are library titles that have completed their run of original episodes on TV.

Sex and the City, The Wire and Flight of the Conchords cost $1.99 per episode. The Sopranos, Deadwood and Rome sell for $2.99 per episode. Customers can also buy complete seasons of each show, with prices varying from show to show and season to season.

Click here to read more "Apple to sell HBO on iTunes"

From Macworld

MCE Technologies has announced plans to ship a 1 terabyte (TB) internal hard disk drive kit for the MacBook Pro. The kit will begin shipping on May 16, 2008 and is priced at $799.

This kit comprises two separate 500GB internal hard disk drives. One drive replaces the MacBook Pro's regular internal drive. The other is part of a kit that resides in the "SuperDrive" bay, replacing the internal optical drive. The kit also includes a slim, portable enclosure that turns that optical drive into a USB 2.0-based SuperDrive instead.

The two drives offer matched performance—both are 2.5-inch disk drives operating at 5400RPM. Apple's own Disk Utility software is used to manage the drives, so you can initialize and partition them as you want; you can configure them either as a two-disk RAID array or operate them as separate volumes. With Leopard, you could also use one drive as a Time Machine backup of the other.

Click here to read more "MCE offers 1TB for 17" MacBook Pro"

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Boston Apple Store and Photoshop Missing Manual"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
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You can also join one of the two Chat Rooms that run during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.

From MacObserver

Softpress Systems announced the immediate availability of Freeway 5.1 on Thursday. The update for the Web site design application added the ability to publish an RSS feed from a page, and added the ability to import graphics in SVG format.

Version 5.1 also added the ability to set in-flow block items as CSS or table-based items, fixed several bugs, and more.

Freeway Pro 5.1 is priced at US$249 and Freeway Express 5.1 costs $79. The updates for both versions are free for version 5 users.

Click here to read more "Freeway 5.1 improves RSS, SVG Support"

From iLounge

Apple announced that CEO Steve Jobs will kick off this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco with a keynote address beginning at 10:00 a.m. on June 9.

Interestingly, the official press release also refers to the iPhone and iPod touch’s software as “OS X iPhone™,” the first time the software has been referred to in this way. The WWDC event will feature the first ever iPhone track for mobile developers, providing in-depth sessions and hands-on labs to “fully explore the capabilities of the OS X iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and the App Store.”

Apple’s 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference will run June 9 to June 13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Click here to read more "Jobs to Kick Off WWDC with “OS X iPhone,” Leopard Keynote"

From Macworld

Eye-Fi announced the expansion of their product line up to include a new memory cards that add geolocation tags, simplify sharing online and to share files at home. All of the new products are Mac and PC-compatible.

The original Eye-Fi is a 2GB memory card designed to be used in an SD card-compatible digital camera.

Eye-Fi Explore, coming for $129, automatically locates nearby Wi-Fi networks and adds geo location tags through Skyhook’s positioning system.

Eye-Fi Share, priced at $99, is the rebadged version of the original Eye-Fi product and the new Eye-Fi Home, priced at $79, lets you upload files from your digital camera to your Mac or PC using Wi-Fi instead of USB.

Click here to read more "Eye-Fi introduces New Products"

From Macworld
SuperMegaUltraGroovy and Toastycode on Friday announced the release of TapeDeck, a new audio recording application for Mac OS X v10.5 or later.

TapeDeck carries with it some retro charm — it’s designed to look like a cassette tape deck, and even operates like one, complete with a tape deck-style interface. It’s designed to quickly capture recordings, stored as “tapes,” recorded directly to MP4-AAC audio.

Each recording is saved and organized in a searchable “tape box.” You can also write notes and send recordings to iTunes and an iPod/iPhone. You can put titles on your tapes, and make the note content searchable in Spotlight and Quick Look.

Eye candy in TapeDeck includes line level meters, rotating cassette spindles, animation for live search and user interface sound effects. The tape deck emulation even goes to the demo, which sports two weeks of “gradually declining battery life” and low-quality recordings. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.5.2.

Click here to read more "TapeDeck Audio Recorder Debuts"

From the Montreal Gazette
Following two class-action lawsuits, Apple Canada Inc. is offering $45 credits to Canadian residents who own a new first-, second- or third-generation iPod purchased before June 24, 2004.

The proposed settlement, including payment of legal fees, is the result of two iPod owners suing because rechargeable batteries in the second year of use conked out after just three hours, contrary to the advertised claim of eight hours between recharges.

Although Quebec Superior Court denied class-action certification to Ines Lenzi of Montreal, a similar suit launched in Toronto by Bradley Waddell was accepted by the Ontario Superior Court.

Apple agreed to a settlement covering both claims. The deal has to be finalized in court in Montreal on May 26 and in Toronto on June 20.

Click here to read more "Apple offers $45 to Canadian Owners of Older iPods"

From CNET
Google has released basic software called Vidnik that lets Mac OS X users record video with a Webcam or built-in camera, trim its length, add tags and a title, then upload it to YouTube.

The software also can be used to upload other videos to the company's video-sharing site, and other editing software can be used on the videos taken by Vidnik, said David Phillip Oster of Google's Mac team in a blog posting.

Click here to read more "Google offers YouTube Video Software for Macs"

From Computerworld

The iPhone is of-of-stock "company wide," Apple sales representatives said Sunday. The outage has fueled rumors that the next-generation 3G model will be released shortly.

Neither Apple's U.S. or U.K. online stores have iPhones available for sale, according to their Web sites. At both, the message "Currently Unavailable" appears beside "Ships," which last week was noting a delay of five to seven business days. The company's German and French e-stores, however, still show 8GB and 16GB iPhones available.

"It's out-of-stock, Apple-wide," said a saleswoman from the Apple store in downtown Portland, Ore. "No, I don't know why," she said when asked why the iPhone was unavailable online and at retail. "All we've been told is that it's Apple-wide." The iPhone's vanishing act has boosted talk that the 3G-enabled iPhone -- many analysts have predicted it would be announced and released next month -- is right around the corner. Apple officials were unavailable for comment.

Most analysts and pundits have pegged June 9, the opening day of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) as the likely introduction of the 3G iPhone. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to open the conference with his usual keynote address and could unveil a new iPhone then.

Click here to read more "iPhone Out of Stock "Company Wide""

From Boston Globe

Click here to read more "Opening Day"

From The New York Times
The thieves were voracious, filching flat-screen televisions and computer games, purloining iPods and DVDs, even making off with a box of liquor and a set of car rims in a burglary two weeks ago at an apartment three young people shared here. Luckily, they also took two laptop computers.

One of the laptops was a Macintosh belonging to Kait Duplaga, who works at the Apple store in the Westchester mall and thus knows how to use all its bells and whistles. While the police were coming up dry, Ms. Duplaga exploited the latest software applications installed on her laptop to track down the culprits and even get their photographs.

Click here to read more "Stolen Laptop Helps Turn Tables on Suspects"

From Macworld

In this article, we’ll focus on techniques that will strengthen your workflow skills and simultaneously reveal some of the new features in Lightroom 1.1. To get the most out of Lightroom 1.1, our approach will diverge from the traditional list of new features. Instead, we’ll provide a few highlights of how new features can be integrated into an effective photographic workflow.

Click here to read more "Enhanced Workflow in Lightroom 1.1"

From Dallas Morning News
Actually, I think this Popular Science writer is being a bit too harsh with some of his predictions on how the upcoming 3G version of the iPhone will fall short.

(Shawn's Comment: He *doesn't* think the next iPhone will suck but uses the headline to get people to come to his site. Fail)

Click here to read more "Why the iPhone 2 will Suck (or "Why Victor Godinez is a Link-Baiting A-Hole")"

From Venture Beat
To say that Apple’s iPhone is rapidly spreading around the world is now an understatement. Today comes word that Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and mobile partners are the latest to strike a deal with Apple to sell the device, according to Reuters. This will put the device in four new countries: Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines.

This follows recent word of the device coming to Canada, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. Other countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay may be on board as well thanks to Apple inking a deal with America Movil.

While this deal still won’t bring the iPhone to the world’s most populous country, China, nabbing the number two, India, with its over 1.1 billion people isn’t too shabby.

Click here to read more "Apple nabs India, Australia, Singapore and the Philippines as its Game of Risk Continues"

From Mercury News
Apple has agreed to pay refunds of $25 to $79 to as many as 2.3 million customers to resolve claims that some of its power adapters were prone to spark.

Customers who bought certain replacement adapters for PowerBook and iBook computers are eligible for the settlement, according to documents filed Jan. 25 in federal court in San Jose. District Court Judge James Ware granted preliminary approval of the agreement March 24. The class action, or group, lawsuit, filed in 2006, alleged Apple misrepresented problems with the power adapters.

In 2001, Apple recalled about 570,000 power adapters sold worldwide with Macintosh PowerBook G3 personal PCs after reports of overheating. Apple will give cash payments to customers who bought an adapter made by Apple or another company to replace a failed one, according to court documents.

Click here to read more "Apple to refund Customers to resolve Adapter Lawsuits"

Streamed Audio Only Archive - http://yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/YML080507s.mov (Open QuickTime, type Command-U and type in the address)

Our guests on Wednesday's show were:

- Chris Breen, Macworld.com

- Lesa King, Graphic Reporter

You can subscribe to Your Mac Life on the iTunes Music Store - just click here!

From Macworld

May 6, 1998 was a Wednesday. I used to work at home most Wednesdays. That day I got a call from my boss’s assistant instructing me to hurry in to the office. Which means I was probably not wearing pants when I first heard about the existence of the iMac.

Ten years later, the iMac is still with us, though it has transmogrified from a 233MHz CRT-based all-in-one system into today’s 3.06GHz flat-panel-based system. In the years following the announcement, the iMac helped Apple stagger to its feet, and in 2001 the iPod helped get the company back to the top of its game.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that without the iMac, Apple would either be out of business or a vastly different company than the one we see today. And certainly the iMac was the first Apple product to truly bear the stamp of Steve Jobs, as well as designer Jonathan Ive, both of whom have spent the last decade driving Apple on to even more impressive creations.

Click here to read more "The iMac turns 10"

I know we've all seen similar images before but they never cease to amaze me and why I picked this site as this week's Website of the Week:

Cool Art That Messes With Your Head

BTW, since there was no show last week, I thought I'd remind you of last week's WotW as well:

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

Double your pleasure, double your fun! ;-) Hope you enjoy!

~ Sly

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Anniversaries, GPS Review and Riding Segways!"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
http://yml.macosg.com/

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov

You can also join one of the two Chat Rooms that run during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.

Well, not exactly but, thanks to Alamo Segway Tours, they got to "see San Antonio at 6 miles per hour!"

There has been much tequila drunk, much Mexican food had and much shopping done. Check out the Flickr Feed for more pics!

From Macworld
Independent music download service eMusic has announced its launch in Canada.

eMusic doesn’t encrypt its music files with any sort of digital rights management (DRM) technology — they’re all available in MP3 format, and work equally well on the Mac and the iPod.

The company has differentiated itself from catalogs on the iTunes Store and Amazon.com’s MP3 store by focusing specifically on independent music, which eMusic says appeals more to an older audience. To that end, they also incorporate editorial content, columns, genre-specific newsletters, and the ability to view playlists and “neighbors” and “fans” to get ideas of new music to listen to.

eMusic has been selling tracks online since 1998; the company claims to be second to the iTunes Store in terms of number of downloads sold. eMusic reports having sold more than 200 million music downloads since November, 2003.

Canadian service to eMusic is priced at CDN$11.99 per month for the Basic rate (30 downloads), $17.99 for the Plus package (50 downloads) and $23.99 for Premium ($23.99). Audio books are priced at CDN$11.99 for one or $22.99 for two.

Click here to read more "eMusic comes to Canada"

From Macworld
Jumsoft announced the release of Keynote Jam, a collection of pre-rendered images for use in Apple Keynote presentations. The software is available for download from the Web site now.

System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.4.3 or later and Apple Keynote 4.0 or later.

The software is being offered free of charge, and Jumsoft licenses users to utilize the images on Web sites, in printed materials, PDF documents or any other purpose except for resale.

Click here to read more "Free Keynote Jam Package Released"

From Macworld UK
Apple has moved to dismiss rumours that it plans to abandon its video products. These rumours first emerged when the company confirmed it had no plans to exhibit at NAB. But the rumours are false, said Richard Townhill, Apple’s director of marketing for professional video applications.

"I can categorically state, on the record, that is not the case," he told TVB Europe, adding that the company recently sold its millionth Final Cut Pro license.

The report continues to explain that Apple took 49 per cent of the US professional editing marketing (Avid took just 22 per cent) last year.

Click here to read more "Apple committed to Final Cut"

From Business Week

Soon after Michele Goins became chief information officer at Juniper Networks in February, she decided to respond to the growing chorus of Mac lovers among the networking company's 6,100 employees. For years, many had used Apple's computers at home and clamored for them in the office as well. So she launched a test, letting 600 Juniper staffers use Macs instead of the standard-issue PCs that run Microsoft's Windows operating system. As long as the extra support costs aren't too high, she plans to open the floodgates. "If we opened it up today, I think 25% of our employees would choose Macs," she says.

Funny thing is, she has never received a single sales call from Apple. While thousands of other companies scratch and claw for the tiniest sliver of the corporate computing market, Apple treats this vast market with utter indifference.

Click here to read more "The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit"

From Mercury News
Apple, which hopes to do for show business what it has done for digital music, is now selling new movie releases from major studios and independent film companies on the same day as their DVD releases, the company announced Thursday.

New releases available for purchase this week through Apple's online iTunes store include "American Gangster" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." Other catalog titles offered include "Juno," "Cloverfield," "I Am Legend" and "There Will Be Blood."

"What this shows is that digital media is gaining momentum on traditional media," observed Phil Leigh, president of research firm Inside Digital Media. "Ultimately, our televisions will be hooked to the Internet. We are going to pull up the iTunes page and get what we want on demand. Some of it will be free, some of it we will pay for."
New releases will sell for $14.99, while most catalog offerings are priced at $9.99. The movies can be viewed on video iPods, iPhones and computers, as well as a widescreen TV connected to an Apple TV. People who purchase a movie through iTunes can play it as many times as they like, just like a DVD.

Titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.

Click here to read more "Apple to Sell Movies on Release Date"

From the New York Times
There was good news for Apple and Comcast, but bad news for Blockbuster woven into Time Warner’s conference call with investors today. Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner’s chief executive, said that the company’s Warner Brothers studio will now release movies for video-on-demand systems on the same day they are released as DVDs.

Until now, people who wanted to watch movies on cable pay-per-view systems or rental download systems like Apple TV had to wait a few weeks after the same movie was released as a DVD. (And the DVD comes out, of course, four or five months after a film hits the theaters.) Warner Brothers has been experimenting with the new approach for the last few months. It has found that DVD rentals only fell by 3 percent to 5 percent and sales of DVDs actually increased, perhaps because of the increased promotion and fewer used rental discs available for sale.

Mr. Bewkes boasted to investors that the shift from DVDs to digital distribution, on the “day and date” of DVD release, will be better for Warner Brothers because it will eliminate some of the costs of manufacturing and distributing discs.

Click here to read more "Warner Brothers to Rent Movies Online Sooner"