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Ah... Sunscreen and Slurpees, Allergens and Agua.
Another summer reaches its halfway point, and it's
my first summer as a Dad, which has its own adventures
attached to it (I believe an advanced degree should
be given honorarily to all stay-at-home mothers and
fathers that can fit a Jumparoo into a packed trunk).
At any rate, summer also brings my list of things that
have delighted my fancy in recent months. They all
come reviewed with high marks- nothing I'll list here
is something I wouldn't use myself or suggest you take
for a spin. And with no further ado...
Synergy
My top Summer Software recommendation is easily one
of, if not the, coolest iTunes software add-ons you
can get, Synergy
popped onto my radar earlier this summer. The way I
even heard about Synergy was cool: it was recommended
to the room of iLife seminar attendees at the MacDesign
Conference 2004 by Apple's product manager for iPhoto-
he was using it on his Powerbook and immediately suggested
we take a look at it and sung its praises. And what
praises I have!
Synergy is best described as an iTunes helper for
when iTunes is "away" as in, "away and minimized in
the dock or hidden altogether." The main interface
for iTunes tends to be bulky and often finding a place
for the smaller form of the iTunes widget is still
difficult when windows start overlapping. Synergy sweeps
in and can place iTunes buttons in the menubar above,
saving you from having to travel to the dock or scrounge
to find your iTunes window just to go to the next song,
rewind, or pause. You can change the look and feel
of these buttons and in fact you have a remarkable
amount of flexibility with all of Synergy's features
through its preference pane interface.
By far the most useful feature of Synergy for me is
the MTV-like, transparent information floater that
subtly reveals itself when a song begins- giving you
the track information (customizable) and also displaying
the album artwork for the track. This all happens on
its own, independently of any interaction from you
and the effect is not distracting at all when you're
intensely working on something. But what, you might
ask, appears if you don't have the album artwork for
a track you ripped? Here's where Synergy arguably becomes
the most valuable and interesting- it downloads the
album artwork it can find and displays it, again without
you needing to do a thing!
Synergy works well on a couple of levels and it has
essentially as many options as you choose to fool with.
Personally, with the number of seconds I have to play
with the computer before something either breaks, drools,
falls over or gets eaten, it's nice to have an add-on
that increases my enjoyment so effortlessly.
Toon Boom
I do have some documented love for the Toon
Boom product, starting with version 1.1 which I
reviewed for Applelust here.
See that review for a decent rundown of the product
as well. For the uninitiated, Toon Boom 2.5 is a high-grade
animation package that allows for slick translation
of an animator's ideas to several mediums, including
the web (which it arguably does the best). You can
import your work or draw straight into the app. For
current Toon Boom users, the version upgrade makes
some jumps that are worth the price of the upgrade
alone (the kind of essentials you can start using ASAP).
From TWAIN scanning in-application to better Quicktime
exporting to improvements in sound synching, there
are loads of new, tweaked, or outright overhauled features.
Want to make sure your cartoon doesn't have that obvious
character-background color difference? (You know what
I'm talking about- at worst it's like Scooby Doo and
at best you can still tell what object a character
is about to pick up because its from the same color
palette.) 2.5 lets you do a heckuva lot more in Sceneplanning,
including drawing straight in.
Flat out, this upgrade is worth the money for Mac
users. It gives a full-featured product its due on
our platform of choice and really excites me to work
with it in the same way it initially did when I first
saw it at MacWorld New York in 2001.
4th Generation iPod, 40Gig
Mine just came in... thankfully, no weird blemishes
or even sound problems like I've heard about. It's
a beauty! I admit I had my worries about the gray wheel,
but in person it makes sense. The iPod
now looks like the proper balance between economy of
function and style (in some ways, it looks like it
should have from the start as much as it does as an
improvement on an older model). The new extras are
nice, but I just wanted a 40GB anyway and would have
gotten a 3G eventually if they hadn't come out. Not
that the lower price is anything to ignore! I'll be
exploring this iPod and the entire phenomenon of iPod
use in future articles, including my iParent series
(Baby Einstein in-car via iPod = screamsaver).
Gaming Recommendations!
Confession time... Sort of. I only use my Mac to play
a few games anymore- usually Risk or Civ III style
games or RPG's. With games so expensive on any platform
I've decided to go with GPlay
- a mail rental service for game consoles (PS2, Gamecube,
XBOX, GBA) that I think is just fantastic. The selection,
speed and quality is great, the price right and I'm
still amazed how quickly I get a game from California.
So here's my pitch: purchase games for the Mac and
then GPlay games for your console...
Music Recommendations!
The Cure/AOL Sessions (iTunes Exclusive): So you have
some of the best from the new album and a handful of
great older ones, all played in a live style fans love.
Plus Curiousa looks to be a great tour that I will
check out in Maryland (might as well see it with Lolla
out of the picture)!
The Stills/Acoustic Radio Show (iTunes/Napster Exclusives):
The Stills are my new favorite band. Check out "Lola..."
for one of the best, most sincere and vulnerable songs
about Sept. 11 you're likely to hear.
Modest Mouse/Good News for People Who Love Bad News:
Sure I'll jump on the Modest Mouse train and say this
album is fantastic. Very cool.
Queens of the Stone Age/Complications: This EP of
leftovers and covers is better than most LP's of new
music by other bands. It spans tracks from their career,
is cheap (I paid $6 for it at an indie store) and comes
from a band that probably won't exist after this.
Lucky Pierre/ThinKing: Remember Prick? Toured with
NIN? Had a C-list hit with "Animal" on Mtv? Yes? No?
Well that's okay since some of the venom is gone anyway-
what is left is Kevin McMahon's excellent ear for songwriting
and a razor's edge pop experience.
Buffalo Tom/Sleepy Eyed: No summer is complete without
this classic album by Boston's own. Every summer it's
mandated by music law that you turn up "Summer Song"
as loud as you can.
Movie (Theater/DVD) Recommendations!
In Theaters: Granted, I haven't made it to many movies
thanks to new baby (Addison Jade) and puppy (Kona)
but I did manage to catch Spider-Man 2, which for the
record I felt was far better than the first if for
no other reason than its pacing-- some people have
said it's "talky" but here's my take; Spider-Man 2
is viewed in the same way a comic book is read. The
pacing and editing is actually quite brilliant and
it takes on one of the finest forms a Marvel comic
could on the screen. Best comic book movie ever? I
wouldn't go that far- but I don't need to, since this
movie is the best comic book-style movie yet.
On DVD: Please tell me you've seen Bubba-Hotep. No?
Really? Do you like Bruce Campbell? (If that name doesn't
ring a bell, at least know he's the Sam Rami favorite
who plays the snotty usher in Spider-Man 2.) Rent Bubba-Hotep.
Really. Even Elvis fans. Especially bad/camp horror
fans.
- Dean
Browell
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