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Totally visceral presentation of Mortal Kombat fatalities
What's more brutal than seeing gruesome fatalities performed before your eyes, while blood and bone spill all around and the hopeless fake cries of voice actors echo in your head? A list of moves in the PDF format. Those with weak stomachs should look away from the rawness. While this isn't as MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAT as, say, screenshots or video would be, we admit that we were pretty curious about how the moves in Mortal Kombat Armageddon were going to be pulled off (not curious enough to buy it, but certainly curious enough to read a thing on the Internet.) We knew waggling would be involved, but it's cool to learn what the specific waggles will be.This totally reminds us of downloading Mortal Kombat FAQs from Compuserve and leaving them to print from our dot-matrix printer overnight. Sometimes we'd wake up in the morning only to find that our pet dinosaur had shredded all the pages, forcing us to start over.[Via Joystiq]
TUAW Tip: Screen Capture to PDF
TUAW reader Jakob writes that he often uses OS X's "Print as PDF" feature. He asks if there's a way to print only part of a website by dragging out a selection rectangle? Yes, Jakob, there's a very simple way. Yesterday, I posted a Terminal Tip about using OS X's built in command-line screencapture utility. What I didn't mention in that post was that screencapture allows you to grab your shots in PDF format. To use the mouse to capture a rectangle from the screen and then save it to PDF, just issue a command along the following lines: % screencapture -i -s -tpdf ~/Desktop/foo.pdf And if you're not big on using Terminal and the Command line, here's another way to approach the problem with Grab. Launch Grab from Applications/Utilities and choose Capture -> Selection. Use the cross hairs to select part of the screen and then print the results to PDF (File -> Print, then PDF -> Save as PDF). If you need to capture more data than a single screen will allow, consider Paparazzi. It's a donate-ware utility that allows you to enter a URL and a screen size. It loads the web page from the URL you provide and produces an image from that data--regardless of whether you'd have to scroll the screen to see the entire page in a normal web browser. No, it won't save to PDF, but it's pretty easy to convert the images if you have to. Update: The latest version of Paparazzi will save to PDF including searchable text. In a follow-up message, Jakob mentioned that he's really interested in producing a searchable result. Sure you can save to a web archive but both web archives (use File -> Save as or File -> Save Page as or the equivalent in your favorite browser) and his current method of printing to PDF create pretty big files, even if they are searchable. So here's my final recommendation: invest in Acrobat, not just in Acrobat Reader. In Acrobat, use Document->Extract Pages to save only those portions of the web page you want to keep and delete the rest.
HGZine mag scores exclusive Wipeout Pulse preview
And everyone benefits. HGZine's latest issue is filled with some incredible features, but the one that tops it all is their cover feature: Wipeout Pulse. Reading through the media-heavy PDF can cause some older machines to chug, but we have to admit that we were impressed with this month's offerings. Learning more about the subtle control changes to Pulse is certainly worthwhile, and their feature on "the 10 best games you've never played" is certainly appreciated. Best of all? It's free.Download the newest issue here.
Ask Engadget: Best gadget to read e-books?
It's a late night edition of our week of Ask Engadget, complete with that fancy new logo and more of your questions. Like always, send your queries to ask at engadget dawt com, and we'll air the best of 'em here for discussion by your fellow readers. We got some great responses to Dan's question yesterday about HDTV shopping, and now Anna (from Switzerland) wants to know about e-books:"What would be the best PDA or other gadget to buy to read e-books on the go? Is there anything that could be used to read them in PDF format?"Of course, a couple things pop quickly to mind, but there are several drawbacks to the current crop of e-ink devices, especially with viewing PDF documents -- namely, 8.5 x 11 PDFs become unreadable when sized to most e-ink screens. So what say you guys?
Skim PDF reader
In a comment to our recent PDF review, Gary let us know about about Skim, a new open source project to produce a tool for reading and marking up PDFs. Skim already has a number of interesting tools, allowing you to: embed notes (both shorter notes that appear over the PDF, and anchored notes which are marked by a speech bubble icon that leads to a separate window) add circles and boxes if the text in the PDF is selectable, highlight, strike-through, and underline. Skim even has a full screen mode, as is popular with the kids these days. For a version 0.2 release there's already a lot of functionality here, which bodes well for the future (though I have to say the keyboard shortcuts for notes and markup are insane). Unlike Papers, which we mentioned before, Skim doesn't seem to be intended as a PDF library manager, but rather an individual PDF markup tool. It is available now as a free download from SourceForge.
Feature Review: PDFClerk vs. PDFpen
In my professional life I deal with a lot of PDFs. In my research I'm constantly reading PDF versions of journal articles, and often I'm submitting articles of my own in PDF (though a distressing number of journals require Microsoft Word DOC submissions). I also often convert my students' papers to PDF for commenting, etc. All of this is to say, I'm always on the lookout for good tools to help me deal with PDFs. Of course the 900 pound gorilla of PDF tools is Adobe Acrobat ; unfortunately, it's priced accordingly (Acrobat Professional is $379.99 at Amazon). So I thought I would look at two much less expensive PDF tools on the Mac, to see how they stack up, and to decide which one I want to spend my own hard earned cash on. Our two candidates are PDFClerk (€30 or $40.50) from SintraWorks and PDFpen ($49.95 or $94.95 for Pro edition, educational pricing available) from SmileOnMyMac. Let's see how they compare.
Papers: Scientific Papers PDF Manager
Papers appears to be an interesting application for those in the scientific community who need to read and manage a large number of papers as PDFs. It integrates with the online NIH database PubMed for searching and downloading. It allows you to organize articles not only by title but by author and journal. It even includes a full screen reading mode. There is nice review over at Infinite Loop by Jonathan Gitlin discussing how Papers has improved his own researching workflow.The idea behind Papers, basically an iTunes or iPhoto for PDF journal articles, is a really good one, but I really wish it could be expanded in several areas. First of all, it clearly needs to support more online bibliographic databases and journal archives. As a humanist, for instance, I'd love a front end for JSTOR and the Philosophers Index (though perhaps I should not hold my breath since the developer calls Papers: "your personal library of science"). Secondly, and more importantly, I'd like to see Papers or a similar application offer a robust system for highlighting, comments, annotations, cross-linking etc. That's what I really need: a good tool to help me read articles (including and especially saving my notes), not just allow me to organize them.In any case, if you need to manage professional journal articles Papers looks like a good start, though I did run into some bugs. It is presently available as a "Public Preview" and can be downloaded from mekentosj.com. It will eventually sell for €19 (~$25).Thanks Tim!
Build your very own Puma, from Gitaroo-Man
If it isn't obvious, I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession over Gitaroo-Man, the first music game from iNiS. The lovable music game featured the titular hero and a biting sidekick, Puma. Thanks to the efforts of one Nick Hayes, you'll be able to build your own papercraft version of Puma in incredible, high-definition, 3D life. You won't need to learn any black magicks: all you need is this printout, a pair of scissors, some glue and (optionally) a dime. Download the PDF cutout here.[Via Siliconera]
Organize your PDFs with iTunes
There's a great tip on Lifehacker today about using iTunes as an organizational tool. We've all got lots of PDFs sitting around; some important, some not. Instead of burying them in a series of nested folders within your Documents folder, use iTunes.Make playlists for your different categories (like "Taxes" or "Parenting Committee"), add your files and you're done! Drop the lot into a "PDFs" folder and you've got organized, search-able files in an application you've probably got running anyway.If you want to take this a step further, follow the full tutorial at Lifehacker and create a PDF-only iTunes library.
DocumentWallet & ReceiptWallet: PDF Managers
DocumentWallet seems to be the latest in a new category of Mac applications, the PDF manager. Much like Yep (which we covered when it was called kip), DocumentWallet is an iPhoto-like application for keeping track of PDFs. In addition to its library functions, DocumentWallet allows you to scan document into its library with any TWAIN compliant scanner. One nice thing about DocumentWallet is that the PDFs are not stored in some sort of proprietary database, but in the file system (though the same is true of Yep). The maker of DocumentWallet also offers a very similar program called ReceiptWallet that does much the same thing, but focuses on saving receipts rather longer documents, and even includes some rudimentary math functions for keeping track of expenses. Like Yep, Yojimbo, and others, DocumentWallet also adds a convenient Save PDF to DocumentWallet option to the PDF pane of the OS X Print Dialog. DocumentWallet and Yep are very similar, but there are some differences, perhaps most importantly Yep's focus on tags and DocumentWallet's focus on categories. Which one works better for you will probably depend on how you work, though both are worth a look.DocumentWallet and ReceiptWallet are $29.95 each (or $44.93 for both) and a 21-day demo of each is available.[Via MacNN]
PagePacker puts microbooks in easy reach
Back in June, we told you about a downloadable "My Mac Won't Start!" quickguide in the PocketMod format, a teensy little 8-page book you can create, print and fold yourself. Even though nothing's cooler than info-origami, the Flash-based PocketMod creation tool was a little too clunky for Aaron Hillegass of Big Nerd Ranch.Aaron infused the PocketMod process with some Cocoa mojo and the result is PagePacker, a slick little app that lets you quickly put together your own PocketMods from PDFs, images or pages from the DIYplanner.com template set. Throw a picture of your dog and a handy city map onto the back of your busy schedule and you're all set.Thanks Victor![via digg]
Automator Action: PDF Confidential - compress, encrypt and email your documents
It's been a while since I've paid attention to Automator actions, and I'm beginning to realize that I never quite worked them into my daily habits. Since I'm making more of a conscious effort to fit some handy actions into my workflow, I stumbled across PDF Confidential at Apple's Automator Actions Downloads page, and it looks to be mighty handy indeed. PDF Confidential performs four actions for any document on your Mac (since Mac OS X has built-in support for PDF): Convert your document to a PDF (if it already isn't) Encrypt (you enter desired password) Compress E-Mail (you enter details in provided dialog box) If you open this action in Automator it might be best saved as a plug-in either for the Finder or for Print Workflows, depending on how you roll. The action's author, rickyprograms, also claims that PDF Confidential is 100% PDF compatible, though I would assume Windows users would need Adobe's Reader installed in order to enter passwords and open any docs created by this simple action. If you're one of the increasing many who live inside PDFs and could use some added security, this free Automator action might be right up your alley.
Adobe Reader 8.0 out for Mac
Santa came early, bringing a little gift from Adobe. Adobe Reader (née Acrobat Reader) Version 8.0 is out and guess what... It's Universal Binary and it's kinda fast. Not like lightening fast, but practically zippy. Thanks, Adobe!Then again, since I have to complain about something (because you all say I do, so I must), I'll tell you how annoyed I am that I have to download an application that I don't want from Adobe in order to download an application that I do want from Adobe. When you go through the download area and click the download link, you get the familiar "Thank you for downloading Adobe Reader. Your Adobe Reader software download will start automatically." But that's a lie. The Reader software isn't downloaded. The Reader Download Manager is downloaded. So you have to download that, install it (grrrrr...), and then it launches and starts downloading the actual program you wanted to begin with, which takes much longer on an 8 Mbps cable connection than it should, and then you finally get the actual Adobe Reader installer. But wait, you're not in the clear yet. After it finally installs, it automatically launches, bugs you a few times about updating the Safari plugin and the immediately starts downloading an update for the Adobe Updater app. I nodded off at that point so I have no idea what happened next, but eventually I opened a PDF with it and noticed how much faster it launched than Adobe Reader 7.0.8. Three dock bounces to launch instead of 6. That must mean it's twice as good, right?Ok, I've gotten that out of my system now. Did I mention the pretty new red splash screen? That's kinda nice.Reader 8 requires Mac OS X v. 10.4.3 or later, weighs in at just over 20MB, and it awaits your call.
Mac Hints & Tips seeking donations to continue
Mac Hints & Tips is a killer site that catalogs (of all things) over 6,000 hints, tips, workarounds and other handy pieces of Mac OS X trickery. Compiled from Mac user groups, Apple websites and various other published and unpublished sources around the globe, this highly bookmarkable (and subscribeable) resource is run by one mere mortal by the name of Paul Taylor, who is seeking donations and subscriptions to keep the site and monthly PDF truckin'. Paul currently allows users to sign up for a yearly membership to gain access to the entire database of tips, searchable by keyword or application name, and he also accepts good ol' fashioned donations (though we've all seen how well those go), but he's trying to get the word out to see if the community can toss a few more dollars into the bucket o' hosting bills. To see whether Mac Hints & Tips could be worth your time and a donation or a membership, Paul keeps archives of the past three months available on the main page (in both HTML and PDF), in addition to the current issue.Check out Mac Hints & Tips, as I know I've found it to be an invaluable resource over the year or so I've been a reader, and it would be great to see such a killer resource get credit where it is most certainly due.
kip - iPhoto for your documents (digital or otherwise)
kip is one of the few applications to take a real stab at helping you organize all your documents, both digital and 'real world'. It combines the look and feel of iPhoto with the real world aggregate paradigm of Delicious Library, then tosses in some really slick tagging and .Mac syncing features for that finishing shine. On the left is a dynamically scaling tag cloud that keeps track of all the tags you've used on all documents. Mouse over it and smaller tags will scale up in size to help you read them better. Mouse over a document (as you see in the screenshot) and a live preview of that section of the document is displayed next to your mouse. Documents can be viewed from within kip or opened externally via Preview.The 'real world' aspect enters the scene when kip's scan function is used, as this app wants to help you organize all your documents, including those receipts and old tax returns that are just decomposing in a box somewhere.One of the drawbacks I've found after poking around with kip is that it seems very focused in the kinds of files it will accept. It takes picture files and PDFs, but not text files or (not surprisingly) Word docs. Overall though, this is a clever app with a nice implementation. It offers a lot of handy methods for storing all sorts of metadata, including author and URL, and seems to be one of the first i-app-like applications to do tagging well (hint hint, Apple!).This initial version of kip is free, but as its product site plainly states: the next version will require the purchase of a license, with the price TBD. Grab a copy while it's hot, and free![via digg]
Free Mac OS history PDF
Amit Singh (the same guy who hacked the 'book motion sensor), author of the newly released "Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach," has made an expanded version of first chapter of the epic 1700 page tome available online as a free PDF download. Entitled "A Technical History of Apple's Operating Systems," the piece covers the entire gamut of operating systems that Apple has ever shown the least bit of interest in since its birth 30 years ago. Weighing in at 140 pages and 3MB, the chapter delves pretty deeply into the technical aspects of Operating Systems, and might be a bit dense for some less tech savvy readers. I haven't yet read much more than the first few pages yet (other than skimming), but I can tell this will be an interesting and invaluable read that will give me a better grasp on OS X by showing me where it has been.Via MacUser
A collection of all available QuickPicks for Backup 3
Wishingline, a web design studio, has done .Mac members a favor and collected most of the QuickPicks that are available on the web for Apple's Backup 3. There are quite a few QuickPicks out there for everything from ecto to PDF documents, Photo Booth pictures to Shiira bookmarks, OmniOutliner documents and much, much more. Wishingline went so far as to list a number of the QuickPicks individually, or simply offer an encompassing package of everything they could find (scroll down about midway on the page for these goodies).The QuickPicks package is offered free from Wishingline, but remember: they didn't have anything to do with creating these (as far as I know); they just tracked them down and zipped them. If you want a QuickPick for one app or another, you should probably consult the app's author or check out these resources for creating your own.[UPDATE: Scott from Wishingline dropped us a comment to let us know that the QuickPicks linked from Wishingline are, in fact, home grown. Thanks for some rockin' QuickPicks Scott!]
DS Opera browser lacks Flash, video, sound & PDF support
According to the Q&A section of (Japanese) Nintendo DS browser page, via IGN, Opera's add-on will not support Flash, video, sound, or PDF. And, while users will be able to bookmark pages, images and other elements from those pages cannot be saved.On the positive side, as previously noted, the DS browser will support full stylus control, including handwriting recognition for easy navigating. The software will also store previously entered data. And, proud owners of the DS redesign should be pleased to learn that Nintendo will release a browser cartridge tailored to fit flush inside DS Lite's GBA slot. Good lookin' out.
'The Fader' magazine issue available free on iTunes
Who says the iTMS is just for music and videos? The Fader is a magazine that is "the definitive voice of emerging music and the lifestyle that surrounds it," and embodying that lifestyle they are: available now, for free, from the iTMS is their July/August 39 page summer spectacular in PDF format covering emerging music and artists. They even provide a non-iTunes RSS feed as well as a direct link to the PDF itself for all y'all who haven't hopped on the iTunes/RSS train yet.How cool is it to see traditional media diving head-first into new distribution outlets like this? I know it isn't quite the first magazine to ever get PDF'd, but it's certainly the first to make it onto the iTMS shelves - and a fitting first, if we may say so.[via MacMinute]
T-Mobile's BlackBerry 8700g reviewed
Despite Cingular's claim of being "the network with the least dropped calls," PC Mag's Sascha Segan finds that T-Mobile's version of the BlackBerry 8700 smartphone, the 8700g, actually outperforms its 8700c cousin in terms of call quality. Other improvements upon the Cingular model are T-Mobile's addition of two key software features: the OZ semi-universal IM client (no Gtalk, and AIM users are restricted to their small mobile buddy group) as well as the first implementation of the Yahoo!/RIM partnership we heard about last month, in the form of a handy Y! Mail icon pre-loaded in the launcher. Besides these small differences, however, Sascha finds the 8700g to perform almost exactly the same as the 8700c -- that is, very well. Email and texting are a pleasure, attachment support is good for all but PDF files, and the crisp screen delivers web pages cleanly (albeit at EDGE speeds), making this seem like the new go-to device for the Mob's business clientele.
