Doug McLean
Doug McLean holds the position of Staff Writer at TidBITS, before which he did testing for the New York Times Web site and oversaw Mac support at the Montserrat College of Art. Doug has an art degree from Cornell University and remains a working artist.
Amazon.com's Video on Demand service, which offers a catalog of over 40,000 movies and TV shows for rental or purchase, is now accessible via the $99 Roku Digital Video Player. The partnership, announced in January 2009 and officially cemented on Tuesday, extends the Roku Digital Video Player's capabilities beyond Netflix's Watch Instantly feature.
Apple has updated the consumer iMac line with new 20- and 24-inch models sporting processor speed bumps, greater memory capacity, and updated graphics processors.
Notable software releases this week include 1Password 2.9.9, Photoshop 11.0.1, MacSpeech Dictate 1.3, Corel Painter 11, and Cocktail 4.3.1.
The Omni Group has announced that OmniWeb, OmniDazzle, OmniDiskSweeper, and OmniObjectMeter are all now available as free downloads, having previously been commercial products.
Apple's debut of a public beta of Safari 4 includes a slew of new features, interface changes, and low-level performance enhancements.
Want something to enliven your Mac's screen when you're away from the mouse for 15 or 20 minutes? Doug McLean went hunting for the most interesting screensavers he could find. Here are his top 10.
Despite the belief that Apple wouldn't allow turn-by-turn directions in an iPhone app, the recently released version 1.2 of XRoad's G-Map U.S. West and G-Map U.S. East adds that feature. Unfortunately, still absent are voice prompts, which XRoad attributes to Apple's prohibitive policies. The two apps, covering the eastern and western halves of the United States, are $19.99 each.
Drop your iPod in the bathtub or spill coffee on your MacBook? Hoping to convince Apple otherwise and cash in on your warranty? Think again - Apple's liquid submersion indicators are stool pigeons for the 21st century!
Notable software releases this week include ScreenFlow 1.5, MercuryMover 2.0.3, TextExpander 2.5.2, MacBook SMC Update 1.3, WireTap Studio 1.0.8, Things 1.0.4, and the ConceptDraw WebWave plug-in for ConceptDraw Pro.
Notable software releases this week include Simon 2.5, PasswordWallet 4.4.4, VMware Fusion 2.0.2, Chax 2.2, and Nisus Writer Express 3.2.
Notable software releases this week include Things 1.0.3, Firefox 3.0.6, GarageBand 5.0.1, PageSender 4.4, BBEdit 9.1.1, and Twitterrific 3.2.
Still running iWork '08? Apple has released maintenance updates for the now-obsolete productivity suite, though, as usual, it's not clear what has changed.
Gmail Labs's Task List feature, released this past December,
has come to the iPhone. The new mobile version available at gmail.com/tasks is very similar to the
original, enabling users to add and delete tasks, and manage several
lists. Unfortunately, also like the original, there's still no syncing
with Google Calendar (and thus with iCal).
If you haven't yet had the chance to check out Google Earth, version 5.0 offers some great reasons to do so, including 3D ocean floor terrains, historical imagery, and even the surface of Mars.
Spain's Prado Museum is home to a world-class collection of art, and now Google Earth's Prado Museum is offering 14 of its masterpieces on loan, to you!