E-Commerce News: Creative Tools

Aperture's Makeover Delights Photogs
March 08, 2010

The new features in Apple's makeover of its image editing and archiving program Aperture appear to be a hit among photographers, even though the initial release of the application was so flawed an upgrade had to be released within two weeks of its launch. Aperture 3.0 ($199) has more than two hundred new features.

Gorillacam Swings In With Bunches of Tasty Photo Features
February 18, 2010

Without Apple headlining, Macworld 2010 was proclaimed a snoozefest before it even started. Now it's over and we're all left to sift through the various blog posts and news articles coming from reporters on the scene -- which are decidedly fewer in number and weaker in excitement than in previous years. One item that did catch my eye was about Joby's new accessories.

iVCD Turns Up Heat on Disc-Burning Features
January 25, 2010

When Mireth Technology began business, the price of optical drives that could burn DVDs hovered around $1,000. That's changed over the years, and so has the company's flagship product, iVCD. Originally designed to create video CDs on a Mac, the application has evolved into an all-purpose DVD, VCD and SVCD authoring and burning program.

Samson's Q2U: A Combo Kit for the Intrepid Podcaster
January 18, 2010

Would-be podcasters sitting on the fence about what kind of microphone to buy when embarking on their audio adventures may find a procrastination cracker in a new product from Samson Audio. Its new Q2U kit offering includes a mic that will do double duty as both a USB and XLR stick.

Adobe Elements Buffs Up for Mac
October 26, 2009

Mac jocks miffed at Adobe for releasing Windows versions of its Photoshop Elements photo editing and organizing application before getting around to its OS X editions of the software should be pleased with the simultaneous release of the product's new version for both operating systems this month.

Air: Breezy Autopilot, Light on Interaction
September 24, 2009

The iPhone has an odd sort of potential as a musical instrument. From the moment the App Store opened, there have been applications that attempt to approximate real instruments, even giving you the ability to make multitrack recordings. I've yet to hear a real magnum opus composed on one, though I'm sure someone somewhere has tried.

Adobe-Omniture May Be a Surprisingly Smart Match
September 16, 2009

Adobe's planned acquisition of Web analytics firm Omniture took nearly everyone off guard when it was announced Tuesday. Now that the idea has had a chance to sink in, though, it seems to be growing in popularity. "I think it really does make sense," said Steve Ashley, an analyst for investment research firm R.W. Baird.

Logic Express 9 Gives Pro Chops to Amateur Music Makers
September 14, 2009

It used to be a rule of thumb in software that the power of a program was directly proportional to its complexity. The rule was the silicon version of "no pain, no gain." Then Apple came along and turned that rule on its head with applications that were as easy to use as they were powerful. What's more, they made the process of creation as much fun as the finished creation.

Gorilla Tames the Movie Production Beast
September 08, 2009

Apple computers' reputation as a favorite of "creatives" in filmmaking is well known, but they've also captured the hearts of those dealing with the more prosaic tasks of making a movie, thanks to programs like Gorilla from

Impression Arms iPhoto With a Watermark Weapon
August 31, 2009

Digital photography has made sharing photos easy -- sometimes too easy. Work posted to the Web by lens-slingers can be misappropriated with abandon by the naive as well as the nefarious. One way shutterbugs try to protect their images is by watermarking them. A watermark is a logo, legend or other sign superimposed on a photo to identify its origin.

New Eye-Fi Photo Storage Card Zooms In on Mac Crowd
August 10, 2009

Freeing digital cameras from the fetters of cables and card readers has been a lucrative business for the makers of Eye-Fi. Eye-Fi is a WiFi-enabled storage card that permits photos and videos to be transferred wirelessly to a computer or directly to image sharing sites on the Web. The most recent flavor of the product, the 2GB Eye-Fi Geo, is being exclusively aimed at the Apple market.

Retronyms: Specializing in Smartphone-Sized Sound Studios
July 27, 2009

Until recently, editing media like audio and video required significant computing muscle, but the iPhone has changed that. Apple has included video editing in its latest version of its snazzy smartphone. Meanwhile, a scrappy company named Retronyms is bringing audio recording and mixing to the gadget.

Calf Trail Geotags the Road Not Taken
July 20, 2009

In 1895, during the era of Horatio Alger, an obscure poet named Sam Walter Foss published "Calf-Path." It's about men following the road of least resistance and what we call today "thinking outside the box." "For men are prone to go it blind/Along the calf-paths of the mind," Foss wrote. "And work away from sun to sun/To do what other men have done."

Scrivener Takes Wordsmiths Beyond Mere Processing
July 13, 2009

When writers initially discovered word processing, they beamed with delight. Once the blush wore off the technology, though, that delight morphed into distress. While office workers were perfectly content "processing" words, scribblers writing words needed more from their software. Moreover, they found their needs increasingly ignored by big software houses who catered to the cubicle crowd.

Photo Mechanic Cuts Photogs' Greasy Grunt Work
July 07, 2009

While programs like Picasa and iPhoto can meet the image organizing needs of many digital photographers, professional and prosumer shooters demand more muscle from their wares. Over the years, they've sought that muscle from applications like Photo Mechanic. The robust image organizer, published by Camera Bits, recently celebrated two milestones.

Will Artists Still Love Macs Tomorrow?
March 26, 2009

Michael Gibbs, an illustrator based in Northern Virginia, describes working on a Mac Pro in terms that suggest a Zen-like trance: "I can't explain it well, but you are not even really aware you are using a computer program -- the design applications are that intuitive."