UGN Shareware Manager UGN Shareware Manager
Images and Audio with Duotones, PhotoStickies, Printing pictures, Media tools for audio, iPod RSS, Cart Machine, astronomy and microscopy and even Electric Rain and more...
Fred Showker
This week looks at OS enhancements, finder aids, information organizers, note taking, RSS feeds, and even a virtual keyboard. Lots of useful and productive items for this week's download fun!
Duotone is a program from PCDcom for making Duotones, Tritones and pseudo (false-) color images. The application works by changing tonal values from black via brown to white and sports a very user-friendly interface. Duotone is available as a free download from PCDcom's Web site.
PhotoStickies 5.2 displays one or more photos on your screen, shows webcam pictures, acts as a fast image viewer, and records and replays slideshows. Version 5.2 is a maintainance update that addresses several smaller bugs and glitches, improves the sizing of images and caches the "New cams" list locally. See Screen Capture
PhotoBooth (v1.1) Print perfectly sized pictures with PhotoBooth -- aaccess your iPhoto library from within the application, then print a cropped section of your picture without altering the actual image. PhotoBooth will size images perfectly for fitting in standard frame sizes or printing onto photo paper. Requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later - OS X 10.3 Recommended; Screen Shot
Media Rage 1.4 is a collection of tools for audio enthusiasts using Mac OS X. Improvements in version 1.4 include: a Find and Replace Data tool, BPM and Year values for the Media List windows, and the ability to specify what files Media Rage will open.
iPodderX 2.2 lets you easily subscribe to RSS newsfeeds with enclosures, also known as podcasts, and any files in those enclosures are automatically downloaded to your Mac. Photos are shuffled off to iPhoto while music and audio is moved into iTunes where it can be synced with your iPod. iPodderX is shareware and features a 30 day free trial.
Sound Byte 2.3.0 turns your Mac into a "cart machine" for playing sound recordings. Sound Byte is ideal for DJs, radio stations and audio productions, to quickly and easily play a variety of recorded sounds, such as jingles, advertisements, songs, sound effects at sporting events, and more. The latest version contains several enhancements to the Carts Rack and the Playlist window. Mac OS X
ASC has announced the release of Astro IIDC, a Mac OS X Astronomy and Microscopy oriented image acquisition software. "Astro IIDC" works with a variety of inexpensive FireWire cameras, has a simple intuitive interface, does real time Flat Frame or Dark Frame subtraction and provides real CCD exposure times of up to 1 second with cameras that normally only provide exposures of 1/30th of a second."
Swift 3D 4.0, Swift 3D Xpress has rolled out to build and export vector and raster-based 3D animations to the Macromedia Flash (SWF) file format, as well as other popular formats. Swift 3D Xpress is a plug-in for Macromedia Flash that instantly converts 2D artwork and text to 3D animations without leaving the Flash interface. Version 4 features the ability to build custom models with powerful polygon modeling toolset and enhanced bitmap texturing controls, precise animation control, drag-and-drop galleries, and workflow enhancements. (Commercial)
See last week's Software Manager...
Check these out and let us know how you like them. Remember, all UGN readers would like to know your opinion on the best shareware and freeware... send in your reviews and have them published here in the User Group Network!
Fred Showker, Editor/Publisher UG Net News
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