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Mac OS X Services in Snow Leopard

Mac OS X Services let one application supply its powers to another; for example, a Grab service helps TextEdit paste a screenshot into a document. Most users either don't know that Services exist, because they're in an obscure hierarchical menu (ApplicationName > Services), or they mostly don't use them because there are so many of them.

Snow Leopard makes it easier for the uninitiated to utilize this feature; only services appropriate to the current context appear. And in addition to the hierarchical menu, services are discoverable as custom contextual menu items - Control-click in a TextEdit document to access the Grab service, for instance.

In addition, the revamped Keyboard preference pane lets you manage services for the first time ever. You can enable and disable them, and even change their keyboard shortcuts.


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Doug McLean

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Published in TidBITS 826.
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17 Apr 2006 | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article

Aperture 1.1 Gains Intel Support, Improvements

by Jeff Carlson Send Email to Author

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Aperture 1.1 Gains Intel Support, Improvements -- Apple has released Aperture 1.1, an update that enables the photo editing and workflow tool to run on Intel-based Macs, fixes bugs, and boosts performance. The new version improves its controls for handling RAW-formatted images, and adds a Color Meter tool and the capability to specify pixel resolution when exporting or sending images to Photoshop. With this update, Apple also dropped the price of Aperture from $500 to $300 in its continued vigorous effort to attract professional photographers who are now tempted by Adobe's Lightroom beta and the long-standing features found in Photoshop. People who bought Aperture 1.0 before 13-Apr-06 can download a coupon worth $200; licensed users of Aperture 1.0 Academic can receive a $100 coupon. The Aperture 1.1 Update is a 32 MB update via Software Update or as a stand-alone download. [JLC]

<http://www.apple.com/aperture/>
<http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/ lightroom/>
<http://www.apple.com/promo/aperture/>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ aperture11update.html>

 

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