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Google can tell you which Android phone you should buy
The sheer variety of Android devices out there means that it's hard to know which one best serves your needs. That's what we're here for, but if you'd prefer not to take the advice of technology reviewers, then Google is now offering a second opinion. The company has launched Which Phone, a website that asks you a handful of questions to narrow down which device you should purchase.
Tim Cook makes shortlist for Time's Person of the Year
Time Magazine has posted its shortlist for the annual Person of the Year awards, and there's at least one familiar face on there for Apple fans: Apple CEO Tim Cook has made the cut. Along with Barack Obama, Bill and Hilary Clinton and Yahoo CEO (and former Google exec) Marissa Mayer, Cook is under final consideration for this year's award, which will reportedly be announced tomorrow. The internet doesn't quite believe Cook deserves it: Time's annual fan poll (which is always buried under by a mob of votes from social sites like 4Chan) already chose North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as its choice. But the fan poll is basically just a stunt these days. The final decision comes down to Time editors. Given everything that's happened this year, it's hard to believe that Time will eventually choose Cook as its Person, but then again, who knows? Cook has definitely shined in his role of filling the shoes of Steve Jobs, and Apple has never been more influential in the various fields of tech, business and the creative arts as it's been this past year. So maybe we will see Apple's new CEO crowned tomorrow. [via MacRumors]
Friday Favorite: Voila captures your screen with ease, on sale now
Given the issues with my former screen-capture app-of-choice Skitch, I recently went on the hunt for a replacement that can grab screenshots and handle video capture. I've finally landed on Voila. While it isn't perfect, Voila offers plenty of functionality and does almost everything I need. As is pretty standard for a screen-capture app, Voila lets you grab whatever is on your screen however you need it, either in a full-screen grab, from a specific window or from a drag-and-drop selection. You can grab videos in almost any configuration. I mostly use it for snapping rectangular pictures, but you can grab circular or polygonal pics as well. Voila even has an in-app browser and a connection to your webcam, for even more options. Once the picture has been captured, you can add annotations, blur or adjust it as you like and then export the file using an in-depth "Save As...". Unfortunately, this process isn't as simple as I'd like. You must hunt to find some functions, and while hotkeys can be set up, the Re-size function doesn't have a clear one. There's a re-size option on the save screen, so even when Voila doesn't have exactly what I'm looking for, it does have some fairly smart shortcuts. There are a few bugs in the app as well. One bug I'm getting recently has my pictures being saved as just a white screen rather than whatever I captured, but the support team has been more than ready to help with any problems or concerns. As for video capture, I think that's where Voila really shines. It's got a very powerful and steady video-capture functionality. You can select a window or draw a selection on the screen, and you can choose to use an external mic for audio, grab your computer's audio or use your Mac's internal mic as needed. Again, there are some small issues: The included YouTube connection won't accept videos if you've used a strange ratio when drawing a selection on the screen. But that's only a minor issue. I've still been able to just drag the videos out of the app, and then upload separately to YouTube. Voila isn't without its problems, but an app like this is designed for so many different use cases that it's not surprising there are a few hiccups. Plus, Voila is right in the middle of an awesome sale. It's only US$4.99 on the Mac App Store. If, like me, you were looking for a Skitch replacement with a little more functionality, Voila might be just what you need.
Rolling the same toon
When I'm being completely honest with myself, I'm forced to admit that one of the things holding my alts back is that I get dissatisfied with their appearance. Whether it's the limited number of options you get at the character selection screen, or just an overwhelming and completely inexplicable preference for a single character model, I always find myself thinking at some point in an alt's 20's or 30's that I'd take them back to the drawing board if I could. I deleted a level 30 Night Elf Druid in no small part because she bore an uncanny resemblance to Cher, and I am very uncomfortable both with the idea of playing Cher and Cher being able to kill people with Moonfire spam. I'm pretty close to deleting a level 30 Draenei Mage for the same reason. Well, not because she looks like Cher, but something about her appearance just....bugs me.My main is the only character for whom I've never had that impulse, and I don't know why. Female Tauren don't have particularly interesting animations, jokes, or special attacks. They're less plausible (how on earth do they run like that?), less dramatic, and less impressive-looking in endgame armor than their male counterparts. Maybe it's just their distinctively awkward gait -- you can tell it's them from a mile away -- or just that so few people play a Hordeside female who's not a Blood Elf, but I find them hopelessly endearing.So I keep rolling moo-cows. Or, to be accurate, a particular model. Call me boring, but no toon from my growing herd will ever be mistaken for Cher.
Pixelmator releases version 1.1.2
I nabbed Pixelmator last week as part of the Macheist bundle, and I have to say that it's quickly become my photo editor of choice for blogging-- it's quick, beautiful, simple, and perfect for what I need. Of course, what I need is mostly just resizing and cropping (with the occasional color fills or quick brushes), so I'm not a pro photo editor by any means, but as the creators said in our interview, it gets the job done.And with the new patch 1.1.2, just released today, it gets the job done even better. The patch offers quite a few bug fixes, and a short list of interface tweaks and improvements. Selection tools have been beefed up, as have those color fills (they work in real-time, unlike before, you know, when they worked in fake-time). The update is now available for download over on the site, or should show up in the application as well.
First Look: Pixelmator private beta arrives
The day is finally here. After an introductory video back in May and a more in-depth teaser earlier this month, the Pixelmator crew have begun sending out the private beta downloads and I just took it for a spin, creating the image in this post. It is indeed a sexy app - the UI is a gorgeous translucent black, and it really does offer a lot of functionality and innovation aimed squarely at Adobe Photoshop or, perhaps more appropriately, Photoshop Elements. While Pixelmator is still very much a beta and too buggy for shop or casual work, I am able to play with most of the promised features, including snapping pics from an iSight, the iPhoto browser and all the powerful color and manipulation tools. Thankfully, Saulius and the Pixelmator crew gave me permission to write up some initial thoughts with screenshots, so check out a preliminary Pixelmator gallery I've put together of some handy features and clever details, and read on for more of my first impressions of this highly anticipated image editor.%Gallery-6000%
Quicksilver's "Comma Trick"
Today I fall even more deeply in love with Quicksilver, as I have discovered yet another incredibly useful and productive trick from a 43 Folders tutorial. This easy tip, loosely called "the comma trick," allows you first to find more than one item with Quicksilver, then apply an action to all of those items. If you're wondering why or how this could be useful, consider a couple scenarios: You can find multiple bookmarks (as many as you want, as far as I can tell) and open them all in tabs (as long as your browser does the tabs thing). You could find a file, chose Quicksilver's "send immediately" action and then find multiple people from your address book to send that same file to - all without ever touching an actual email compose window. This trick's usefulness boggles my mind, and all you really have to do is hit the comma key in order to chose multiple items. Check out the 43 Folders tutorial for the full deets on how this trick works, then feel free to take a break from being amazed.
