Picturesque 2.0 is now available from Acqualia.

It is now leopard only, but it includes many new features and a stunning interface. 

Totally rewritten for Leopard, using Core Animation to power the graphics engine.

New “all-in-one” interface with popup inspector bubbles.

New “3D perspective” effect, seen in CoverFlow, Apple.com & iChat AV, etc

New presets feature lets you save and manage styles.

Added innovative cropping feature.

New thumbnail view makes it easier to work with multiple images.

Much improved batch resizing options now appear in the save window.

Can now stroke outside, inside or centered.

New icon dynaimcallydisplays your current image in dock.

Edit numbers more precisely now by clicking on them and typing.

Image now displays at maximum size possible.

Vastly improved performance in importing large amounts of images.

Added media browser.

Many other additions and changes.

I have been playing quite a bit with Picturesque 2.0 and it seems like a great application that I’m going to be keeping on my dock.

Here are some examples of images that have been beautified with Picturesque 2.0;

Make sure you check out Picturesque 2.0 over at Acqualia. I will try and get a full review up in the next few days.

How many times have you copied one thing, to accidentally replace it with something else?
Confusing I know - welcome to CopyPaste Pro. Subnamed “Time Machine for the Clipboard” it does exactly what it says on the tin.

A “Apple + C” will place your chosen copies into a clipboard. In this, you can scroll left to right to view all your clippings. You can also edit the text as CPP features a built in word processor.

This software is good for the price. The application fits into Leopard well and the menu arrangements suit brilliantly. Albeit, the softwares’ internal organs aren’t so great. A copy can hold for a second, (unable to copy, paste) which isn’t a lot but noticeable by some people (like, me..) and can get slightly annoying. There is also a floating icon which doesn’t look at all appealing ( it’s to access your clippings ) and is hard to remove.
Other than that, give CopyPaste Pro a go, it does do what it says, even if it takes a while to get there.

This Universal program is compatible with 10.4 (Tiger) and now 10.5 (Leopard).
It costs $20.00 from the ScriptSoftware store but as always a limited demo is provided.

PodNod is now available for pre-sale for the price of $8.95. PodNod is a podcast updater and notifier that works with iTunes to help manage your new podcasts. 20% of your purchase will be donated to the One Laptop Per Child program to help children in developing and poor nations. I believe that this is a great cause, and I am really committed to helping with this cause, I can not wait to see what kind of a difference we can make by donating, and we encourage other to donate to this great cause as well.

PodNod is a Mac OS X application that makes updating podcasts easy. Any true follower of podcasts knows it is a pain to have to open iTunes and refresh their podcasts every time they want to listen to a new one or just see if they actually have any new ones. With PodNod that is a thing of the past. It sits in the background of the user’s computer and checks with iTunes at a set interval. If it finds new podcasts, it alerts the user and allows them to go straight to their podcasts library from the message box. Easy, hey? It gets better. If the user doesn’t want to wait for that update, he or she can do a manual update and get instant feedback from on how there podcast library is. Not only it is effortless, it is unobtrusive and keeps your desktop clutter free!

I have also gotten an exclusive for my readers, some exclusive screenshots of the current beta. Tell us how you like them!

Since a part of your purchase will be donated, we will not be able to provide refunds for any reasons. Please read over the Requirements and Features to make sure that PodNod is right for you. PodNod is currently in private beta testing, you will receive your license right when you purchase, but the final version will not be available for a few more weeks, please continue to check back at the site to see when PodNod 1.0 is available, and the license you purchase will work with the final 1.0 version, and you will receive free upgrade until version 2.0.

PodNod Website: http://podnodapp.com
Purchase Link: http://podnodapp.com/presale/buy.php

I hope everyone enjoys PodNod, and I can not wait to release 1.0.

Please Digg

Rating: 4.5/5

I’ve tried several implementations of virtual desktops on multiple platforms. While Spaces is not the slickest looking, it doesn’t utilize superfluous effects over usability. Spaces also is also vastly better than other virtual desktop solutions because it’s supported and included in more machines.

Spaces has some key features that make it truly great. One, Spaces is tightly integrated with Exposé. Activating All Windows will show only the windows in the current space. Additionally, if all spaces are shown in a bird’s eye view, it will show all windows in all spaces. The second major feature of Spaces is application binding, called “Application Assignments.� The crux of virtual desktops is having certain application windows appearing in specific spaces automatically, and this is what Application Assignments does. These automatic assignments take away most of the work of moving windows to specific spaces. The last major feature of Spaces is the one most virtual desktop implementations lack: a bird’s eye view of all spaces. This view not only allows you to see which window is where, but also move windows effortlessly between spaces.

Spaces has some other convenient ways of moving windows to other spaces. You can drag windows to the edge of the screen nearest the other space. For example, to move a Safari window to the space to the left of it, drag it to the left edge and hold it there for a few seconds. Spaces shows a nice bezel-like window which displays which space you just switched to. Spaces also has numerous ways of switching to other spaces: keyboard shortcuts, a menu bar item, a Dock icon, and more.

Spaces is not without its problems though. Individual spaces can only have a non-descriptive number for a name, rather than a name like Communications or Web Browsing. Spaces also has a minor bug where windows appear in the wrong space. I’ve encountered this only once in about a week of owning Leopard. It happened when I activated iCal’s preference window and it appeared in the space above the current one.

Virtual desktops are great for organizing a large quantity of windows —therefore providing a less distracting interface. Despite some minor deficiencies, Spaces is simply the best implementation of virtual desktops I’ve ever used.

Price: included with Leopard, $129 or £85

Site: http://www.apple.com/

Make sure too digg this article as well! http://digg.com/apple/Review_of_Spaces_on_iAppblog/

As we count down the hours till Apple officially releases Mac OS Leopard 10.5, we would like to let the iAppblog readers know of something special we are planning. With Leopard, users will have over 300 new features, and we plan on sharing them with all of you. Get ready for a non stop blogging spree. As we show you the new features (with screencasts of some). If there are any features in particular you would like to see, post a comment here. Among the over 300+ new features, the most notiable are an improved Finder, colmplete with cover-flow, new mail, ichat, and safari. There is also some brand new features, Time Machine, for looking back on our system files, Spaces, workspaces for different apps, and QuickLook for getting a preview of almost any file in the Finder. You can check out all 300+ new features by visiting http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html

So stay tooned to see what we have in store for you, and keep your eyes open for some great giveaways.

Yes, as you all thought, its going to be the 26th! As soon as iAppblog gets a copy you can be sure we’ll review it.

Apple have also updated the Leopard website to detail all the new features of Leopard, you can see that site here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/

Leopard will see the introduction of Time Machine, an app that backs up your Mac and allows you to retrieve files from a previous backup. It also sees the introduction of improvements on the Desktop and Finder, which includes Cover Flow for finder. Two more of the major changes are the introduction of Spaces, which allows you to use multiple desktops on your Mac at one time, and Quick Look, which allows you to view, play and read files without opening them.

Raiting: 4.5/5

The Pixelmator team, brothers Saulius and Aidas Dailide, have released the 1.0 of their revolutionary image editing software. It is a Delicious Generation image editor that works beautifully, is amazingly easy to use, and is filled with features. It allows you to edit everything from a png to a icns file, plus has support for psd (Photoshop Documents) with layers, with over 100 formats total. It uses the Core Image and ImageMagick foundations, and provides a top quality image editor. There is also a Photo Browser that allows you to access your iPhoto Libray, albums, Picture Folders and more. For those wanting to create and edit images, Pixelmator is a great choice over an application like Adobe Photoshop, at just under 6% of the price, it is a great choice for those needing to do image editing, but either don’t have the money to spend or don’t need to advanced features of Photoshop. I have enjoyed Pixelmator so much, even since the first beta, as I had a chance to participate in the beta, I have made it the app I open to do my image tasks rather than Photoshop.

?¢‚Ǩ?ìAfter two months of bug squashing we are very excited to finally release Pixelmator,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìWith its use of latest Mac OS X technologies, breakthrough ease-of-use, innovation and low $59 price tag we think all Mac users will find Pixelmator very useful and fun.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

I hope everyone enjoys Pixelmator 1.0 as much as I have, and make sure to purchase it if you like it to help support future developments of this amazing product!

Price: $59

Site: http://pixelmator.com

Rating: 4/5

Syndicating RSS feeds is not typically handled like email. Cyndicate’s main difference from other RSS readers is that it handles storing articles and other RSS item almost exactly like an email client. Say you find an interesting, but long, article on some Mac news item, Cyndicate allows you to not just flag it, but label it with a color and move it to a folder for later reading. This method also makes for a very competent way of archiving your favorite articles over time. Cyndicate’s search feature is very reminiscent of Apple Mail. Reading your RSS feeds offline is another very compelling feature that migrated its way from Apple Mail. In my opinion, the most useful feature in Cyndicate is Smart Folders. Smart Folders can automatically categorize articles, instead of the more time consuming use of Folders. Users of the discontinued app PulpFiction will definitely want to try Cyndicate, as Cyndicate’s feature-set is based on PulpFiction. Cyndicate is nicely thought out; it even does some things differently when the option key is held down.

The extent of work to setup the Filters feature and the fact that it’s hidden in the preferences is one aspect that doesn’t seem well thought out. Many people hate email for a reason. Cyndicate carries over some of the pains of email to RSS reading. The intimidation of an inbox filled with 1000+ articles aside, some people don’t care about saving news for later and having large archives. Because of this, Cyndicate is not for everyone. You have to use the trial edition first to truly see if you prefer this approach.

Version Reviewed: 1.0.1

Price: $29.95

Site: http://cynicalpeak.com/cyndicate/

Rating: 2.5/5

NewsLife is one of the most unusual RSS readers I’ve used, and not necessarily in a good way. As a positive example, NewsLife’s icon changes to display the number of unread articles in a very large, readable font. Additionally, the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìbreadcrumb?¢‚Ǩ¬ù navigation along the top is very nice. Adding, removing, importing, and exporting feeds is as easy as any other RSS reader. Common features like searching, podcatching, and sorting options are present.

Unfortunately, NewsLife has a number of small bugs and glitches. Sometimes, the badge displaying the number of unread articles in a feed is partially obscured; renaming folders has a number of misbehaving attributes. Besides all the bugs, NewsLife handles marking feeds as read in very non-intuitive ways. Most salient of all the problems in this app is the lack of a ?¢‚Ǩ?ìmark all as read?¢‚Ǩ¬ù button. Feeds can be marked as read with only keyboard shortcuts or drop-down menus. The sidebar on the right is also a mess of non-standard interface placement. The ?¢‚Ǩ?ìQuick View?¢‚Ǩ¬ù section belongs in somewhere in the left sidebar. Instead of taking the approach Apple chose with iTunes, Mail, and Finder 10.5, NewsLife put the widgets for changing some sources of the articles being viewed on the right (as buttons). Worse yet, the last used source item on the left remains highlighted when using either ?¢‚Ǩ?ìQuick View?¢‚Ǩ¬ù source. The ?¢‚Ǩ?ìNews Bin?¢‚Ǩ¬ù is nicely placed, but the rest of the right sidebar is very non-intuitive. NewsLife is cheaper than NewsFire and NetNewsWire, but that does not mean it’s a bargain.

Version Reviewed: 1.0.1

Price: ?¢‚Äö¬¨12 (~$16.59)

Site: http://thinkmac.co.uk/newslife/index.html

I was looking around Apple?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s New American site, and found something that I had not heard of before, Xray. It looks like it is to visualize application?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s performance. It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s interface is very similar to iTunes and GarageBand.

?¢‚Ǩ?ìWhen you need help debugging, Xcode 3.0 offers an extraordinary new program: Xray. Taking interface cues from timeline editors such as GarageBand, Xray lets you visualize application performance like never before.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†

Tracks that track.?¢‚Ǩ¬® Now you can visually compare many analysis instruments side by side over time. That?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s because Xray creates a time-based record of your entire application run, storing information such as CPU load, network and file activity, and memory allocations as separate ?¢‚Ǩ?ìtracks?¢‚Ǩ¬ù of data. These tracks are displayed synchronized over time, allowing you to quickly identify application events ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù

?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†like what was happening with the disk just before the CPU usage spiked. Xray gives you a complete picture of your application, so you can better understand cause-and-effect relationships and make changes to improve performance.

Record, replay, repeat. ?¢‚Ǩ¬®Xray works with new Universal Access features in Leopard to record a user-interactive run of your application, making it easy to replay the same behavior over and over. That way, you can create ad hoc application tests anytime you like. Record the application?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢

?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†s behavior in Xray, change your code, and rerun the tests to see the effect of your changes. Run your application in a template and Xray visually compares the runs side by side, making it clear where your code changes affect performance or memory consumption.

DTrace instruments.?¢‚Ǩ¬® DTrace, the systemwide analysis tool in Leopard, provides full access to system activity ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù

?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†from high-level application behavior to the operating system kernel. Many Xray instruments are implemented using DTrace, and Xray provides you with the same power: Using Instrument Builder, you can create your own powerful, custom analysis instruments.

Instruments of change.?¢‚Ǩ¬®

?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†Xray includes analysis instruments in six main categories:

User events. Tracks the exact time of user interactions, such as mouse clicks.?¢‚Ǩ¬® CPU and processes. Monitors activity, sampling, load graphs, and threads.?¢‚Ǩ¬®Memory. Tracks garbage collection, object allocations, and leaks.?¢‚Ǩ¬®File activity. Monitors disk activity, reads and writes, and file locks.?¢‚Ǩ¬® Network activity. Measures and records network traffic.?¢‚Ǩ¬®

?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†?Ǭ†Graphics. Interprets the inner workings of the OpenGL driver.

Xray looks like it will be a very good developer tool, and I look forward to its release. All information was found here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/developer/xray.html